Board of Advisors
The Center for Renewables Integration Board of Advisors help guide the Center's areas of focus, and help ensure CRI's research and policy recommendations are based on sound, factual data.
ALISON SILVERSTEIN: BULK MARKETS RELIABILITY EXPERT, FORMER FERC AND TEXAS COMMISSION LEADER
Alison Silverstein is a consultant, strategist and writer on electric transmission and reliability, energy efficiency, smart grid, renewable energy and technology adoption issues. Silverstein also advises a variety of private and governmental clients on advanced technology, regulatory and other issues. Notable past work includes facilitating the multi-stakeholder Reliability Standards Working Group in Hawaii, work on all of the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Transmission Congestion Studies, and providing technical reviews for several federal and public energy technology R&D programs.
Silverstein served as Senior Energy Policy Advisor to Chairman Pat Wood, III, at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission from July 2001 through July 2004, co-chairing the Electric Systems Investigation for the US-Canada Joint Power System Outage Task Force and writing the reports on the 2003 Northeast blackout. She has also worked at the Public Utility Commission of Texas, Pacific Gas & Electric Co., ICF Inc., the Environmental Law Institute, and the U.S. Department of Interior.
She has a BA in Economics from the Johns Hopkins University, an MSE in Systems Analysis from Johns Hopkins, and an MBA from Stanford University.
Jon Wellinghoff: Former FERC Chairman, Energy Policy and Law, Cleantech Expert
Jon Wellinghoff is known for his international expertise and thought leadership in energy policy, electric markets and the interface of disruptive energy systems with traditional utility structures. His firm GridPolicy, Inc. is dedicated to furthering the deployment of and investment in clean sustainable distributed energy resources (DERs). Jon works to remove regulatory, policy and institutional barriers to the widespread adoption of cost effective DER technologies and systems, assisting companies, governments, and consumers who market and/or operate such resources. In 2006, Jon received his first of two Presidential appointments to serve as a Commissioner on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), and was FERC’s longest serving Chairman (2009-2013). During his FERC tenure, he led efforts to make the U.S. power system cleaner and more efficient by promoting and integrating renewable energy, demand response, energy efficiency and storage. As Chairman, he championed the adoption of FERC Order 1000 and oversaw its implementation until his departure in 2013.
Tim Hennessy: Energy Storage, Power Distribution and Smart Grid Expert
Tim Hennessy has been a technology business innovator in the energy and power sectors across four continents. His experience extends from product development, to managing specialized engineering research groups and large scale project management. His business management skills have been focused on company leadership, project and business development, process improvements, sales, and customer acquisitions. He has deep power distribution, energy storage and smart grid expertise supported by 65+ patents. His understanding of strategic market directions lead him to pioneer and introduce such fundamental incentive programs as the energy storage SGIP, which has been the cornerstone for much of California’s energy storage success.
He has been the senior executive of several energy storage companies. He has held positions including Managing Director European operations for LECTRIX (Bechtel: AEP: Siemens JV, which developed integrated power and cooling solutions for data centers and C&I customers), Vice President of PacifiCorp Energy Services, and Quality of Supply Manager for ESKOM, where he was a founder and principal of Power Quality Technology Inc.. In addition to leadership and management roles, he has expertise in micro-grids, renewable energy systems including PV and wind, utilities and power electronic systems. He has served on the boards of several public companies and is a registered professional engineer.
Dionysios Aliprantis: Renewable Energy Grid Integration Technology Expert
Dionysios Aliprantis is an Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Purdue University. He joined the department in August 2013, as a member of the Power and Energy Devices and Systems group.
His research interests are related to electromechanical energy conversion, with emphasis on electric machinery (their modeling, simulation, and design), power electronics (particularly machine drives), applications of automatic control of power electronics-based systems, and the analysis of power systems. More recently his work has focused on technologies that enable the integration of renewable energy sources in the electric power system, and the electrification of transportation. He is currently serving as an Associate Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion.
His publications can be found here.