Announcing Top Innovators 2024

After reviewing the eighty-eight qualifying nominations of teams of innovators at utilities that PUF received earlier this summer, we’re honored to announce your Fortnightly Top Innovators 2024.

October’s Public Utilities Fortnightly will highlight and celebrate these great teams and their inspiring stories and accomplishments on behalf of the customers they serve. In the meantime, here’s the teams that plowed new ground in reliability, technology, operations, environmental protection, safety, analytics, cybersecurity, and more:

Edith Clarke Top Innovator in Reliability of Utility Service: a team at Exelon/BGE (Chad Devine, Augustus Mahar, Clay Tutaj, Neha Dave, Nishit Vyas, Siddhi Patil, Kyle Harrer) and a team at PG&E (Andrew Mulherkar, Ben Bovarnick, Abigail Tinker).

Lewis Latimer Top Innovator in Technology or Process Design: a team at PNM Resources (Kathleen Larese, Omni Warner, Andrea Sanchez, Ryan Saiz-Buchanan, Mike Moyer, Jerrold Ortega, Mitch McClellan, Victoria Rodriguez, Aaron Cabral, Jordan Ludi, Rosie Reyes-Lopez) and a team at PSEG (Ashwini Paranjape, Brian Heath).

George Westinghouse Top Innovator in Leadership in Innovation: a team at Ameren (Gwen Mizell, Connie Taylor, Evan Fowler, Bryan Daniels, Shelby McNeil, Eric Herr, Ben Lynch) and a team at Xcel Energy (Al Choi, Matt Tillman).

Bertha Lamme Top Innovator in Generation: a team at Ontario Power Generation (Kelly Reid, Aditya Walke) and a team at Portland General Electric (Andrew Eads, Brent Lee, Chris Bier, Nels Plough, Ivan Auer, Tony Ciapanno, Ty Webberley, Jordan Gooch, Dan Gallaher, Austin Curtis).

Charles Steinmetz Top Innovator in Network or Grid Operations: a team at Southern Company (Bill Tinsley, Cole Cremeen) and a team at Puget Sound Energy (Jennifer Boyer, Matthew Torgenrud, Lauren Benz).

Nancy Fitzroy Top Innovator in Environment and Safety: a team at Con Edison (Thomas Campbell, Maggie Chow, William Fairechio, Steven Go, Brenda Hill, William Kelleher, Patrick McHugh).

Maria Telkes Top Innovator in Distributed Energy: a team at Exelon/Pepco Holdings (Andrew Bayne, Jequita Fowler, Timothy Kutchen, Mofopefoluwa Onafowokan, Nicolas McDermott, Karl Hill IV).

Francis Upton Top Innovator in Analytics in Utility Service: a team at AES (Norvin Clontz, Jeff Mast, Scott White, Rob Whitworth), and a team at Eversource (Jing Yang, Junhui Zhao, Richard Flynn, and Trevor Tessin).

William Hammer Top Innovator in Electrification: a team at Ameren (Patrick Brown, Sacoyya Davis, Pat Justis, Gwen Mizell, Ken Patrick, Marco Tipton) and a team at the New York Power Authority (Nick Peretta, John Markowitz).

John Beggs Top Innovator in Energy Transition: a team at CMS Energy (Neal Dreisig, Alycia Tolman, Andy Stoops) and a team at PPL Corp. (Aron Patrick, Samuel Kelty, Chad Alkire, David Beyerle).

Mabel MacFerran Top Innovator in Energy Storage: a team at PG&E (Sarah Swickard, Rudi Halbright, Lydia Krefta).

Florence Fogler Top Innovator in Energy Transmission Technologies: a team at PG&E (Neelofar Anjum, Jason Cook, James Tuccillo, Mike McCarty)

Alan Turing Top Innovator in Cybersecurity: a team at Ameren (Jeremy Weber, Grant Codak, Scott Link, Andrew Shehata, Joseph Halpin).

Nikola Tesla Top Innovator in Artificial Intelligence: a team at Southern California Edison (Hamed Valizadeh, Kyle Chang, Vik Trehan).

“Edison Pioneers” Collaborative Innovation of the Year Award: a team at Entergy (Hannah Kaplan, Frank Magee, Chris Gilliland, Adam Jones, Ross Thistlewaite) with Enchanted Rock.