Date: 20th-24th March 2023
Format: In-Person
Venue: Park Plaza Amsterdam Airport
David Peters
CTO, Stedin
David Peters, Chief Transition Officer and member of the Executive Board of Stedin Group, is responsible for Stedin’s positioning and role in the energy transition. His main focus areas are digitalization; the investment portfolio; and the development of internal skills to cope with energy transition challenges. David studied Applied Physics at Eindhoven University of Technology and Applied Ethics at KU Leuven, after which he had several international roles within Boston Consulting Group, focused on strategy and organizational issues within the energy industry.
Michael Von Roeder
Chief Digital and IT Officer (CDIO), Elia Group
Michael von Roeder is Chief Digital and IT Officer at 50Hertz and member of the steering committee of the Belgian-German Elia Group since late 2019 and responsible for the digital transformation of the Group. Prior to his position at 50Hertz, he was CEO of Sensorberg. Until mid of 2016 he was in charge of IT operations at Vattenfall. As COO he led the iconmobile group from 2009 to 2010. Michael von Roeder was manager at Vodafone and Accenture in London, Tokio und Düsseldorf. He studied Technology Management, Organization und International Business in Stuttgart and Lausanne.
Janne Hagen
Special Advisor Contingency Planning, NVE
Janne Hagen holds a PhD in information security and master’s degrees in industrial economy and management. She has a long carrier as researcher and advisor on societal security, critical infrastructure protection and cyber-security, now working as special advisor on cyber security at the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate (NVE) and associate professor at the University of Oslo. She has been member of several expert groups, among that member of the Norwegian Committee of Digital Vulnerabilities in Society (2014-2015). Her speech focuses on how to achieve a holistic approach to cybersecurity across the grid to maintain safety standards and safeguard power supply.
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Roberto Zangrandi
Secretary General, E.DSO
Roberto Zangrandi is Secretary General of E.DSO. Previously he was Head of European Public Affairs between 2007 and 2015. At Enel, he also served as Head of Corporate Social Responsibility, Identity and Image, Corporate Communication Plans. In his background, 12 years with Fiat (Director of External Relations in Frankfurt and Head of International Media Relations) and 15 years an economic and financial journalist. In addition, he worked as an organisational communication expert for a first-tier consulting company for some years. He studied Political Science and Sociology and held a Master in International Associations Management from the Solvay Brussels School.
Jan Kostevc
Team Leader Energy Infrastructure, ACER
Jan Kostevc is working as the Energy Infrastructure Team Leader, dealing with European network development issues, from PCIs, TYNDP and network development scenarios, cost-benefit assessments, to the national development plans and their consistency with the European one. Besides network development, the team is also working on tariffs, gas security of supply and R&I activities of ENTSO-E. Before joining ACER, Mr Kostevc was employed at the Slovenian electricity transmission system operator, ELES, where he worked as the Team Leader of the Operational Support Service, focusing, amongst other, on smart grid technologies.
Bas Kruimer
Business Director, Digital Grid Operations, DNV
Bas Kruimer is Business Director Digital Grid Operations & Cyber Security at DNV Energy Systems in The Netherlands focusing on digital systems, automation strategy & deployment plus with special attention to utility cyber security. Having a background in SCADA, SA/IEC61850, Smart Metering and OT Cyber Security Bas works with a team of experts/consultants supporting utilities in their diverse Next Generation Grid Operations, network control, grid automation and digital transition challenges.
Graduated as power engineer from Delft University of Technology end 80’s Bas started his international career in electrical power transmission and distribution over 30 years ago at ABB Network Control & Protection, followed by KEMA/KEMA Quality, Eneco/Joulz, Quanta Technology and Accenture/Accenture Security.
Bas is working closely together with Delft University of Technology on Control Center of the Future and grid cyber resilience and a regular speaker/trainer on Next Generation Grid Operations & Cyber Security.
Stefan Huppertz
CTO and Managing Director, E.ON One
Stefan Huppertz is CTO and Managing Director at E.ON One, a new subsidiary of the E.ON group, developing and scaling digital products for the decentral energy world, with a particular emphasis on grid smartification. Part of the E.ON One ecosystem are also the scale-ups envelio, gridX and Lemonbeat. Stefan is a computer scientist and working in the energy sector for over 12 years. He has a background in consulting and hold various digital leadership roles in RWE, Innogy and later E.ON. His main areas are on smartification of grids, smart metering, retail IT and cloudification. As CTO he is responsible for the product and technology development at E.ON One.
Ricardo Jorge Santos
Associate Director of Innovation Department, E-REDES
Ricardo has more than fifteen years of experience in the energy sector in Portugal, having gone through several functions and organizations. He started working as a protections and control specialist in 2006, working in physical asset management in EDP and from 2016 worked as a project manager in innovation projects. Since the beginning of 2018, he became deputy director for innovation management in E-REDES, the main Portuguese DSO. The knowledge he has from these positions has been complemented by continuous academic training, mostly in project and general management, having gained an MBA degree from the Lisbon MBA in 2016.
Mikko Holmgren
Secondary Systems, Fingrid
Mikko Holmgren (M.Sc. El. Eng. from Technical University of Helsinki) has been working at Fingrid since 2014 with protection and automation systems. Currently, he is working as an expert in the PACS unit in Fingrid. He has been the team leader of the protection team for the past five years. He is interested what the future brings to the protection systems as the energy transition proceeds. He is currently the Finnish national member in Cigre B5. Prior to Fingrid, he worked in the power generation sector as an engineer and consultant for generator and transformer systems for six years.
Rasmus Armas
Head of Asset Management, Elektrilevi
Rasmus Armas is the Management Board Member of Elektrilevi OÜ since 2021 and he is responsible for Asset Management department. He has worked in Elektrilevi already since 2011 on various positions. Rasmus graduated from Tallinn University of Technology with master’s degree cum laude in electrical engineering.
Sjors van der Heijden
Strategist, Grid Innovation, Stedin
Sjors is grid strategist with a focus on automation in the distribution grid at the Asset Management department of the Dutch DSO Stedin. His responsibilities are policy regarding network services, operational technology/IoT, analytics and grid control. He has over 10 years' experience on infrastructure automation. Mainly in the energy sector but also in water systems (canal locks, bridges and flood barriers). Resulting in extensive insight and experience in system engineering, architecture, sourcing, standardization, asset management and technology roadmaps.
Elisabeth Hufnagl
Expert – Grid Operations, Wiener Netze
Elisabeth Hufnagl was born in 1989 in Gmunden, Austria. After taking her master’s degree in electrical engineering (2014), Elisabeth joined the Institute of Electrical Power Systems of Graz University of Technology. For the following four years, her field of expertise evolved around grid calculation, reliability assessment and her research focus: earth fault detection and neutral point treatment in medium voltage grids. After completing her doctorate, she joined distribution system operator Wiener Netze, where she has been working on strategic projects (grid monitoring, EV integration, battery storage integration, SO GL, grid operation concepts, etc.) since 2019.
Silvio Alessandroni
Technology Innovation, Areti S.p.A
Silvio Alessandroni was born in 1973 in Rome, Italy. He is an Innovation Manager in the Operational Technologies area. After an experience in the engineering sector (FCA & Agusta Westland), since 2004 he has been working in the Utility Sector at areti spa (DSO operating in the Rome area). Over the years he has coordinated the development of innovative technological solutions and the digitization of operational processes in the Smart Grid & Automation / Remote Control areas. Education: Electronic Engineer, Master's Degree and PhD in Mechanical Engineering, with MBA and SIX Sigma certification.
Maren Istad
Research Scientist, SINTEF
Maren Istad received her MSc degree in Electrical Engineering from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in 2006. She has been with SINTEF Energy Research, Department of Energy Systems since 2006, working mainly with asset management in hydro-electric power stations and electrical distribution and transmission systems.
Mika Loukkalahti
Leading Expert, Helen Electricity Network Ltd.
Mika studied Electrical Engineering at Tampere University of Technology. He received his M.Sc. degree in 1996 and joined Helsinki Energy in 1997 as a Protection Engineer, responsible for substation and network automation and power supply reliability development. He now Presently, he leads the life-cycle management and technological development of the DSO company Helen Electricity Network Ltd. He also does secondary secondary system (protection and automation) development. He has been Finnish Study Committee Member of CIGRE B5 Committee and working group member of several B5 working groups. He has given several presentations in various domestic and international courses and seminars. He is married and has two children. His hobby is orienteering in the summertime and in the wintertime, he likes cross-country skiing.
Sander Jansen
Product Owner, Virtual Substations, Alliander
Sander has more than 10 years’ experience in the DSO sector on the edge of business/IT/OT and has knowledge of applying IEC 61850 and IEC CIM. Sander is now product owner of the virtual substations team for medium and high voltage stations within the system operations department at the Dutch DSO Alliander. He is partly responsible for innovation in the 61850 and substation domain to facilitate the energy transition. Sander is a strong advocate of the open source concept and is applying it in the LF energy CoMPAS project and LF energy ecosystem.
Santiago Gallego
Partner & Associate Director, Asset Management 4.0 & Digital Operations, Boston Consulting Group
Santiago is a BCG Partner & Associate Director which topic expertise is Asset Management 4.0, he has +20 years experience performing process evaluations, defining roadmaps and implementing them, from a process and technology / digital point of view in the field of Engineering, Operations and Maintenance. In these years Santiago has worked with different processes and digital technologies for the integrated management of the entire asset life cycle, from the engineering part through the definition of AI models and digital technologies for the management of maintenance, operations and other asset related activities, including the development and the implementation of different asset maintenance strategies.
Christoph Brunner
President of it4power & Convenor of TC57 WG10
Christoph Brunner graduated as an electrical engineer at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in 1983. He is a Utility Industry professional with over 25 years of industry experience with both knowledge across several areas within the Utility Industry and of technologies from the Automation Industry. He is president of it4power in Switzerland, a consulting company to the power industry. He has worked as a project manager at ABB Switzerland Ltd in the business area Power Technology Products in Zurich / Switzerland where he was responsible for the process close communication architecture of the substation automation system. He is convenor of the working group (WG) 10 of the IEC TC57 and member of WG 17, 18 and 19 of IEC TC57. He is IEEE Fellow, member of IEEE-PES and IEEE-SA. He is active in several working groups of the IEEE-PSRC (Power Engineering Society – Relay Committee) and member of the PSRC main committee and the subcommittee H. He is international advisor to the board of the UCA international users group.
Benjamin Petters
Project Leader Innovation and Research Projects, Avacon
Project Manager Innovation and Research Projects at Avacon, Leader of the German Demonstrator of H2020 Platone, Expert for Energy Management System, Energy Communities and Battery Storages in Distribution Networks. Junior Project Manager at Avacon Netz in H2020 InterFlex and Technical Project Engineer SINTEG enera, Expert for SmatMeter and Flexibility Markets in Distribution Grids. Master of Science Industrial Engineering with focus on Energy Supply at Brandenburgische Technische Universität Cottbus-Senftenberg (BTU-Cottbus)
Jorge Solar Mulas
Protection and Control Engineer, Scottish Power
Jorge Solar has worked within Protection & Control for SP Energy Networks for 7 years and another 10 year as P&C engineer in Spain. He is currently a Lead Design Engineer, working on the development and delivery of major transmission network projects. As part of this, He is a member of the company’s Digital Substation Working Group, looking at the roll out of IEC 61850 station and process bus as a business-as-usual solution. He is the P&C engineer directly working in Windyhill 275kV, the first station and process bus project in SPEN
Hossain Shaikh
CRO & SVP, ETAP
Mr. Shaikh Sahid Hossain with 20+ years of industry experience in product development, innovation, automation, and digitization. A Digital Twin enthusiast who earned his B.Tech in Electronics and Instrumentation Engineering and MBA in Marketing. Mr. Hossain currently works as a CRO & SVP – Products for ETAP based in the Dubai office. He has 5 patents in his name and author of 10+ research journals over the years.
Navreet Dult
Project Manager R&D Projects, Avacon
Navreet Dult is a project manager, working in the Asset Strategy & Innovation Department of Avacon and Co-Leader of the German Demonstrator of the H2020 Platone project. She is a member of the Flex Community and experienced with energy management systems and flexibility potentials in the low voltage grid. Navreet holds a Master of Engineering degree in Mechanical Engineering focused on product and process development at Jade Hochschule WHV, Germany.
Alex Apostolov
Editor-In-Chief, PacWorld
Alexander Apostolov received MS degree in Electrical Engineering, MS in Applied Mathematics and Ph.D. from the Technical University in Sofia, Bulgaria. He has more than 35 years experience in power systems protection, automation, control and communications. He is presently Principal Engineer for OMICRON electronics in Los Angeles, CA. He is IEEE Fellow and Member of the Power Systems Relaying Committee and Substations C0 Subcommittee. He is the past Chairman of the Relay Communications Subcommittee, serves on many IEEE PES and CIGRE B5 Working Groups. He is member of IEC TC57 and Convener of CIGRE WG B5.27 ”Implications and Benefits of Standardised Protection Schemes”. He holds four patents and has authored and presented more than 400 technical papers. He is IEEE Distinguished Lecturer. He is Editor-in-Chief of PAC World.
Thierry Coste
Research Engineer, EDF
Thierry Coste is a research engineer, project manager and technical coordinator in automation systems at EDF R&D. Over 27 years’experience at EDF, he is expert in distribution field, in particularly the substation automation system, telecommunication and Control center application. He is an active member of IEC TC57 working group IEC 61850 and task leader of the IEC 61850 Technical Specification of the System Management. He has a degree in electrical engineering and industrial computing.
Jurgen Resch
Industry Manager, Energy, COPA-DATA
Jürgen is an electrical engineer and loves to see electrical processes visualized on computer screens. Therefore he works for COPA-DATA as Industry Manager Energy & Infrastructure. He leads a team responsible for product development, marketing and international sales in the energy sector. With his team he can help you to get a lot more out of your energy automation tasks than just data. Jürgen is a member of the Expert Group MR 57 of the Austrian Electrotechnical Association (OVE), is a member of WG 10 of TC 57 of the IEC and a lecturer at the Salzburg University of Applied Sciences.
Fred Steinhauser
Digital Substation Evangelist, OMICRON
Fred Steinhauser works for OMICRON, and is dedicated to Power Utility Communication and IEC 61850, serving as a Digital Substation Evangelist. He is a member of IEC TC57 WG10, contributing to IEC 61850 and one of the main authors of the UCA Implementation Guideline for Sampled Values (9-2LE). He is also active within CIGRE and IEEE.
Damiano Bracci
Marketing Product Management, Gridspertise
Damiano works in Gridspertise’s Marketing Team and is currently managing the Network Solution offer portfolio including the QEd ecosystem. Damiano is an Electrical Engineer with a Master’s degree at University “La Sapienza” of Rome. After graduating he joined Schneider Electric as Marketing Offer Manager for their augmented reality platform for MV/LV substations. In Schneider Electric he then became Marketing Offer Manager for Protection relays and RTUs in the Power System division gaining technical skills and marketing strategies proficiencies to address national and international markets for Grid digitalization.
Joel Greene
Director, Business Development, SISCO
Joel is the business development director for SISCO – the leader in integrating systems using open protocols. He is responsible for alignment of SISCO activities with customer needs based on extensive industry experience. Joel has a BSEE from the University of Maine and has worked in communication protocols for more than 20 years. Over the past ten years, his focus has been mainly on IEC 61850 for power system protection, automation, and control. He is an editor of several core parts of the standard ( -7-1, -7-2 and -8-1). Other responsibilities with IEC and UCAiug include the TISSUE process for maintaining the standard and chair of the UCA 61850 Test procedures working group.
Martin Beerens
Data manager and Digitizer in Central Control Technology, Westnetz GmbH
Martin Beerens is a Program Manager at E.ON SE in the Energy networks part of the group, responsible for Program Grid Smartification which clusters all digitalization and automation related projects and activities within E.ON Energy Networks and the development of our grids to smart grids. His main focus currently is on the digitalization of E.ON’s gird assets, especially MV/LV substations, and combining them with smart software solutions to automate and support the operational processes within E.ON DSOs. He was an electrical engineer and before joining E.ON spent 2 years in a consultancy company and worked 3.5 years in the system control environment at the German DSO Westnetz. During his professional career he worked on topics related to Smart Grids, digitalization and data management in the energy world.
Ralf Heisig
Product Manager MCCS NextGen, 50 Hertz GmbH
Ralf Heisig is Product Lifecycle Manager and Project Lead for MCCS (Modular Control Center System) and Team Lead for „Digital Transformation in System Operation“ at 50Hertz (German TSO). He has over 30 years’ experience in different Business Areas as IT-Manager, Program Manager and R&D Engineer for Sustainable Energy Solutions Distribution (at Vattenfall) and as Product and Project Manager in Power System Applications in the area of Energy Management Systems, Station Automation, Power Quality and Communication Technologies (at Siemens). He holds a Diploma in Communication Technologies & Electrical Engineering from Berlin International University of Applied Sciences (Germany, 2004).
Ellen Diskin
Head of the National Network, Local Connections Programme, ESB Networks
Dr. Ellen Diskin is responsible for leading ESB Networks’ National Network, Local Connections Programme, to transform ESB Networks’ role as DSO and drive Ireland’s national target of 20-30% of demand flexibility by 2030. This programme will introduce new products and services to increase system security, renewables’ penetration, community, and market participation in Ireland. In 2022, the team Ellen leads was tasked by the Commission of Regulation of Utilities to deliver a suite of initiatives to support Ireland’s security of supply. These initiatives - ESB Networks’ Beat The Peak – will collectively deliver demand side response across domestic and commercial customers and will also deliver capacity by piloting voltage reduction on the network.
Gudjon Karason
Project Manager, Landsnet
Gudjon Karason works in the operation of the EMS/SCADA system at Landsnet. The company is the TSO for Iceland. He has a MSc degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Michigan. He has worked all of his professional life as an engineer in the power sector. He enjoys working in this sector and especialy managing OT projects. He would like to continue managing upgrade projects of SCADA systems and substation automation equipment. Learning about new technology in the OT field, utility communication and cybersecurity is of great interest. In his spare time he enjoys hiking in the mountains and participating in summer and winter sports.
Luigi Cornario
Head of Technology Development, Areti S.p.A
Luigi joined Areti S.p.A in September 2020 as an operation and application development manager. He has collaborated with grid specialists to support Areti’s business interests and lead the digitalization of electricity grids as well as the advanced management of smart metres. In his first 18 months at Areti, he was responsible for an operations team’s remote terminal unit, SCADA, DMS and GIS management. Currently he is responsible for operation technology systems development to support the continuity of the electricity distribution service and the smart meter management system. He has previous experience in a multinational TLC company as a lead solution architect, coordinating technical resources and developing processes for time and cost optimization.
Florian Ainhirn
Technical Expert, High Voltage Power Cable Technology, Wiener Netze
Florian Ainhirn studied electrical engineering with an emphasis on high voltage engineering. In 2021, he completed his doctorate in the field of the application of artificial intelligence respectively machine learning in thermal rating calculations of extra high voltage cables. In 2021, he joined Wiener Netze as a technical expert for high voltage cable technology where he is responsible, among other things, for the calculation, condition assessment and monitoring of high voltage and extra high voltage cables. He is a member of multiple CIGRE Working Groups and active member of IEC TC 20 WG 19.
Antonello Monti
Professor, Institute Director, RWTH Aachen University
Antonello Monti received his Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the Politecnico di Milano, Italy, in 1994. He started his career with Ansaldo Industria and then moved in 1995 to the Politecnico di Milano as an Assistant Professor. In 2000, he joined the Department of Electrical Engineering, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA, as an Associate Professor and then Full Professor. Since 2008, he has been the Director of the Institute for Automation of Complex Power System, E.ON Energy Research Center, RWTH Aachen University, Germany. Since 2019 he has a joined appointment at Fraunhofer FIT, Center for Digital Energy Aachen.
Alex Stefanov
Assistant Professor, TU Delft
Alexandru Stefanov is Assistant Professor of Intelligent Electrical Power Grids at TU Delft, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science, The Netherlands. He is Director of the Control Room of the Future (CRoF) technology centre in the Department of Electrical Sustainable Energy. His research interests are cyber security for power grids, resilience of cyber-physical systems, and next generation grid operation. He holds the professional title of Chartered Engineer from Engineers Ireland.
Iony de Pariota de Siqueira
Technical Director & Vice President & Managing Director, CIGRE Brasil & Tecnix E.A.R
Iony Patriota de Siqueira holds a PhD and a degree in Electrical Engineering, a MsC degree in Operational Research, and an MBA in Information Systems. He is a CIGRE Fellow, Honorary Member, Distinguished Member, and past-Chairman of Study Committee B5 of CIGRE. Author of four books and co-editor and co-author of CIGRE Green Book on Electricity Supply Systems of the Future. Convenor of working groups B5.32, B5.64 and TF B5.01 of CIGRE. Permanent Member of the Brazilian National Academy of Engineering, President of Tecnix Engineering and Architecture, and Technical Director and VP of CIGRE-Brazil
Stephan Beirer
Team Manager ICS/OT Security, GAI NetConsult
Dr Stephan Beirer worked for several years as a freelance network administrator and security consultant during his studies and doctorate in physics. In 2006 he joined GAI NetConsult GmbH as a Principal Consultant and Team Leader for ICS/OT Security. He advises industrial and energy supply companies, trade associations and manufacturers on the creation of organisational and technical security guidelines and on the design and implementation of security measures. Further focal points are the implementation of information security management according to ISO/IEC 27001 and IEC 62443. He is active in several international standardisation on IT security topics in the process technology sector, most recently as project editor at DIN and ISO/IEC SC27 for the International Standard ISO/IEC 27019. He is certified as "Lead Auditor ISO/IEC 27001" and is a member of the BDEW working group "IT Security in the Energy and Water Industry" as well as the standardisation committees DIN NA 043-01-27 AA "IT Security Procedures", DKE/AK 952. 0.15 "Information security in network and station control technology" and ISO/IEC JTC 1 SC27 WG 1 "Information security management systems".
Fei Teng
Senior Lecturer, Imperial College London
Dr Fei Teng received BEng from Beihang University (BUAA), China in 2009 and PhD from Imperial College London in 2015. He is currently the Director of Education in the Energy Futures Lab, a pan-university hub promoting inter-disciplinary research in energy, and an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Imperial College London. He holds visiting positions at MINES ParisTech, France and PolyU, Hong Kong. His research focuses on the power system operation with high penetration of Inverter-Based Resources (IBRs) and the cyber-resiliency of digitalised power grids. He is the editor of IEEE Transactions of Power Systems and IEEE Open Access Journal of Power and Energy. He serves as a Member-at-Large at IEEE Technical Committee on Cyber-Physical Systems and IEEE Technical Committee on Carbon Neutrality. He is the holder of the Kan Tong Po International Fellowship from the Royal Society. He has authored more than 80 scientific publications in leading power system journals and conferences. His research has been funded by EPSRC, ESRC, Innovate UK, Research England, the Royal Society, Siemens, EDF Energy, Hitachi Energy, and National Grid ESO.
Walter Schaffer
Head of Competence Centre Electricity, Salzburg Netz
Walter Schaffer is head of the Competence Center Electricity and responsible for the electrical distribution grid in the province of Salzburg. At Salzburg Netz GmbH he started as an asset manager and network planning engineer for the electrical grid and was head of the network operating center. He holds a Dipl.-Ing. in Electrical Power Engineering from Graz University of Technology and a Master of Business Engineering (MBE) from Steinbeis University Berlin. One recent project engagement was the coordination of a group of Austrian DSO working on a “guideline” on DSO network control requirements in the changing environment.
Mark Ossel
Board Member, OSGP Alliance
Mark B.M. Ossel (1955), is member of the board of OSGP Alliance, the global non-profit association dedicated to promoting the adoption of the Open Smart Grid Protocol (OSGP) and infrastructure for smart grid applications towards a future proof modern smart grid. With a key focus on security, smart metering, smart grid, grid analytics, distribution network management and smart cities the OSGP Alliance members, including utilities, hardware manufacturers, service providers and system integrators, all share a common goal and vision: promoting open standards for energy demand side management, smart grid and smart metering systems. Mark is involved in AMR since 2001, when Echelon started with Enel (It) the world largest AMR project, and has been involved in most large scale deployments in Europe. Mark has a background of more than 20 years in various management functions in the ICT market (Burroughs/Unisys), before he became involved in energy management, smart metering and Smart Grids in 2001 at Echelon as VP EMEA. In 2015 Mark was selected as one of top 40 most influential people on the subject matter Smart Grid in Europe by Metering International.
Dan Lysaker
Director, ADMS Products and Solutions, OSI
Dan Lysaker is Senior Director of ADMS Products and Solutions at Open Systems International. In this role, Dan is on the senior team responsible for product strategy for applications within the distribution space, including advanced applications FLISR and VVC, outage management (OMS) and mobile solutions, switch order management (SOM) and distributed energy resource management (DERMS.) He spent 10 years a major utility in the United States before joining OSI in 2018. Dan is an Electrical Engineering graduate of North Dakota State University, he has a Masters of Business Administration from Cardinal Stritch University and is a registered PE in Minnesota.
Svein Olsen
Enterprise Information Architect, Statnett, IEC TC 57 WGs 13 & 14
Svein Harald Olsen works as Enterprise Information Architect at Statnett SF, the Norwegian TSO. He has a Master of Computer System Engineering from University of Bristol, United Kingdom. He has over 20 years' experience in developing IT solution for the power electricity value chain from power generation and trading to end-user customers. This involves application like Customer Information Systems (CIS) through Power System Transient Stability Software. Svein Olsen is Norwegian member of IEC TC57 WG13 and WG14. He is member of ENTSO-E CGMES expert group and been active participant in developing the CGMES for you in the Common Grid Model (CGM) program that is implementing the EU Network Code.
Marissa Hummon
Chief Technology Officer, Utilidata
As Chief Technology Officer, Marissa is responsible for the company’s technology research, product development, deployment, and engineering teams. She is an expert in developing products that change the way the consumers and utility executives think about procuring, dispatching, and pricing distributed energy resources. Marissa joined Utilidata in 2018, bringing more than 15 years of expertise in energy systems and grid optimization, having previously overseen product development for Tendril and managed grid modernization research at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). Marissa is a graduate of Colorado College with a PhD in Applied Physics from Harvard University and serves on the board of Grid Forward. She lives with her family in Golden, Colorado where she is a Colorado Governor's Fellow.
Bhargav Swaminathan
Research Engineer and R&D Project Manager, EDF
Bhargav currently leads an R&D project on novel power system operation methods and solutions for France’s island grids at EDF, with a focus on the development of a normalised DER gateway for faster and better integration of DER and storage. He has a PhD in operational planning of smart power distribution networks and close to a decade of academic and industrial experience in power distribution systems, DER and EV integration, and flexibility. He continues to work with academic researchers in France on cutting edge operations research (OR) problems in the domain. His other interests include transmission networks, electricity markets, and energy sobriety.
Ilija Atlagic
Manager, Ernst & Young
Ilija is a Manager for Intelligent Grid Operations as part of EY’s Digital Grid practice. He holds a MSc degree in Electrical and Software Engineering with specialisation in applied software solutions for power systems. He advises utilities with their OT strategy and roadmaps, designing business and technical architectures, setting up system, data and process requirements and helping navigate the organisational change management. He has designed and delivered utility ADMS solutions with a focus on SCADA, OMS, DMS and DERMS implementations in Europe, the USA and Canada. He has helped utilities prepare their data for the ADMS network model that enables the application of advanced distribution management functions.
Jan Vorrink
Head of Control Centres Netherlands, System Operation, TenneT
Jan Vorrink has over 20 years of experience in the Electricity business at the Dutch Transmission System Operator. Mr. Vorrink has graduated as a Master in Business Administration and is an Engineer. He is working for TenneT since 2002 as a Manager in several departments. The activities of his department in-clude the operational Planning processes, Realtime processes and the balancing and settlement processes. He is also involved in the Association of the TSO’s in Europe (ENTSO-E) in the Coordinated System Operation group.
Nikolai Demydov
Product Portfolio Manager Next Generation Grid Management, Siemens
Nikolai Demydov holds the master’s degree in electrical power systems and has been working in the field of energy management for 15 years: he mainly focuses on project management and product management of control center software. He joined Siemens in 2014 and in his current role is responsible for the portfolio strategy for the next generation of grid management software, which includes the latest advances in grid analytics (enabled by Deep Learning) for near real-time situational awareness and advanced prescriptive dispatcher assistance systems for energy management.
Ameen Hamdon
President and CEO, SUBNET
Ameen H. Hamdon, P.Eng., is President of SUBNET Solutions Inc. (SUBNET) founded in 1992, specializing in substation data communications and device management. Ameen began his career in the electrical utility industry working for Alberta Power Limited (now ATCO Electric), working in various generation and transmission departments and spending the bulk of his time as a SCADA Telecontrol Engineer. Mr. Hamdon was also the President of the DNP User Group for 6 years. Mr. Hamdon received his Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering in 1988 from the University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB.
Anne van der Molen
Senior Advisor, Stedin
Anne van der Molen is senior advisor at the Dutch DSO Stedin and research associate at Eindhoven University of Technology. He has almost 30 years of experience in Telecoms and Power Systems and has been involved in OT technology strategy as well as innovation and product development has had various positions in that area. He joined Stedin in 2011 and is currently engaged with digitalization of the grid, DER integration, flexibility and system operations. Anne is vice-chair of the technology committee of the European association of electricity DSO’s, E.DSO. and was from 2018 to 2022 chairman of the Netbeheer Nederland working group on Flexibility and Storage. He holds an MSc degree in Electrical Engineering.
Vincent Audebert
5G IoT & Telecom Expert, EDF
Vincent Audebert received his Engineer degree from Telecom ParisTech, France, in 1991. For more than 29 years he is working in the EDF Group were he hold different positions inside R&D, Electricity Distribution Division, Telecommunication using BPL subsidiary and Energy services subsidiary. Since 2011, he is back in the R&D where his main concern is to apply 5G and Internet of Things technologies to Utility business, with a focus on Smart Grids.He is EDF representative at the LoRa Alliance, 3GPP, EUTC and EUWENA. He is co-author of 3 patents and received the EPRI technology transfer award in 2015 for his work on OpenADR.
Christian Freudenmann
Manager M2M Products, 450 Connect
Christian Freudenmann has two main fields of interest in helping to fast-track the energy transition: The energy sector and modern communication technologies. Currently, he is responsible for the M2M ecosystem of smart grid and smart metering devices in the German LTE 450 network. Before that, he was responsible for metering, grid control and fibre infrastructure of a local German DSO. In former roles he established and managed the product portfolio and software development of all wireless M2M product variants of German Smart Meter Gateway manufacturer Power Plus Communications AG and worked in different departments across the Energy sector of EnBW.
Alberto Dognini
Research Associate, RWTH Aachen University
Alberto Dognini received the B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in electrical engineering from the Polytechnic University of Milan, Italy, respectively in 2012 and 2014. From 2015 until 2017 he worked as Engineering Project Manager at ABB - Electrification Products Division in Dalmine, Italy, managing the revamping of medium voltage electrical apparatus and switchgears. He is currently working as Research Associate with the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Information Technology FIT, Germany, and the Institute for Automation of Complex Power Systems, E.ON Energy Research Center at RWTH Aachen University, Germany. He has been working in several German and European H2020 research projects, focusing on the development of energy services and automation systems to improve digitalization and resiliency of power system grids.
Frank Borchardt
Senior Project Manager, VDE
Frank Borchardt is Senior Project Manager Digitalization and Metering at VDE FNN, the technical regulation body for the German electricity industry. With his team he stands in the middle of bringing flexibility to the low voltage networks. Technical regulation by VDE FNN is setting the standards on smart metering from basic components up to a secure communication infrastructure. Frank is active in the energy industry for more than 25 years, working on various projects about smart metering and smart grids. Before joining VDE FNN, he was working for European players in the Smart Home/Smart Grid sector and one German meter manufacturer. At least he got on a “first name basis” with smart meters.
Adrian Grilli
Spectrum Group Manager, EUTC
Adrian Grilli is Managing Partner of a consultancy offering support for utility telecommunications with a focus on radio networks. Having spent 30 years in telecommunications, his major engagement at present is Technical Management at the European Utilities Telecoms Council. He was principal author of the UTC White Paper “Cutting through the hype: 5G and its potential impacts on Electric Utilities” and an author of “Utilities and Telecommunications in a Nutshell”. Previously he was Managing Director of the Joint Radio Company, a joint venture between National Grid and the Energy Networks Association. Adrian Grilli is a Member of the Institution of Engineering & Technology, Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and a former Director and Chairman of the UK Federation of Communications Services.
Juergen Tusch
Senior Telecommunications Executive, Dr. Tusch Consulting
Dr. Jürgen Tusch founded Dr. Tusch Consulting in 2021 for consulting in utility telecommunications. He can draw on 20 years of experience in the utility industry and over 40 years in telecommunications. Until the begin of 2022 he has been head of telecommunication of Westenergie AG at E.ON for almost a decade. In this function he was responsible for the development and implementation of telecommunication services to control and manage Germany’s largest power distribution grid. This included the initiation of the first LTE 450 MHz proof of concept in Germany to gain real world experience for the utility environment. Jürgen joined RWE in 2002 and since then he held various management positions in the field of IT infrastructure and telecommunications for energy trading and power distribution. Jürgen holds a Ph.D degree in Electrical Engineering from RWTH Aachen University.
Christian Glocker
Channel Partner Manager for Automation Communication Products, Hitachi Energy
Christian Glocker is Channel Partner Manager for Automation and Communication Products at Hitachi Energy in Germany focusing on countries in and around Europe. He has over 25 years’ experience in different roles in SCADA, RTU, Communication, Substation Automation and OT Cyber Security.
Tim Joosten
Project Manager Energy Consulting, Qirion
Tim Joosten is an experienced project manager in the field of energy distribution systems. Driven by the idea of delivering sustainable energy to everyone, he takes pride in providing solutions and methods for effectively transitioning towards decentralized sustainable energy networks. His goals include the reduction of network shortage and increasing the availability of the network for new customers by optimizing network utilization while maintaining reliability. His recent efforts in applying dynamic power reduction for large solar projects for a Dutch DSO has helped many solar projects to be connected on-time. His current work in automatic substation control will greatly increase network utilization while minimizing DER curtailment.
Wolfgang Zeitler
Senior Network Architect, E.ON, ITU-T Q3/15
Wolfgang Zeitler is working in the Utility Industry since 1993. His current role is Senior Architect for telecommunication networks in Bayernwerk Netz GmbH, subsidiary of E.ON in Germany. The main focus here, is providing telecommunication services for Smart Grid purposes and Smart Metering. As part of his activities, he is active in different standardization bodies like DKE and ITU-T and industrial working groups like FNN and EUTC. In ITU-T he is part of the Working Group 15 / Q3.
Tim Godfrey
Technical Executive - Information and Communications Technology, EPRI
Tim Godfrey is a Technical Executive with the Electric Power Research Institute. He manages the Telecommunications research in the Information and Communication Technology program, addressing the key challenges utilities face as they enhance their telecommunications infrastructure to enable grid modernization. He holds a BSEE from the University of Kansas and has worked in the area of wireless networking and communications for 30 years. He is the Chair of the IEEE 802.24 Smart Grid Technical Advisory Group and the IEEE 802.15.16t Task Group.
Nicolas Tikhomiroff
Sales Engineer IP Routing Europe, Enterprises and Industries, Nokia
Nicolas Tikhomiroff is part of the Enterprises and Industries business development team for Nokia’s IP Routing Division in Europe. In this position he is helping customers to evolve their critical telecom infrastructure to IP based multiservice, reliable, flexible and future proof networks relying on the IP/MPLS technology. He has more than 25 years of experience in the telecommunications networking industry, holding network engineering, product management and presales positions at Global One, Nortel Networks, Alcatel-Lucent and Nokia.
Gerald Hörack
Asset Expert, Salzburg Netz GmbH
Gerald Hörack is working at the Competence Center Electricity in the field of measurement and control technology as well as digitalization. He received Master degrees in Space Sciences and Electrical Engineering from the University of Technology Graz and a Master degree in Legal and Business Aspects in Technics from the JKU Linz. Before working as an asset manager and technical expert for the electrical grid he was part of the Smart Meter program of the Salzburg Netz GmbH in various functions.
Alexis Malchair
Sales Director, Industrial Internet of Things, EMEA, Cisco Systems
Industrial IOT solutions at Cisco help enterprises connect and monitor IoT devices, secure and automate OT operations, and compute and manage data. As part of the Global Sales Specialists organization, Alexis is leading the sales operations for (industrial) IOT across Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA). Alexis joined Cisco in 2004, and has since then held several customer facing positions. He has had 10+ years of experience in the industrial internet of things domain, focusing across a large number of vertical solutions including energy, manufacturing and transportation. In this time, he has built in-depth experience on delivering solutions to utilities in transmission, distribution and power generation, and has developed in-depth expertise on utility application, technologies and standards. Prior to joining Cisco he has worked with the national service provider in Belgium. He holds a master in electrical engineering from the University of Ghent, Belgium and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zürich, Switzerland, and has completed an MBA from the Solvay Business School in Brussels.
Daniele Porcu
European Project Coordinator, ENEL Grids
Mr. Porcu has long track in Enel Group where he started in 1996 as HV power plans remote-control specialist. From 2000 to 2006, he was the program coordinator and technical supervisor for MV power grid’s remote control and automation for northern Sardinia area, gaining experience in both field components and SCADA systems. As of 2007, he worked as Senior IT Project Manager responsible for prosumer’s connection back-office platforms. Recently, he was a key member of the digitalization team (Industry 4.0). He is currently a senior member of the Subsidized Programs Unit in Enel Grids, being the coordinator of Smart5Grid project.
Kristel Goijens
Benlux Sales for Power Grid Automation and Communication Products, Hitachi Energy
Kristel Goijens graduated as commercial engineer at the K.U.Leuven in Belgium and is since 1998 active in technology sales. Throughout her career at Intel Corporation, she gained 22 years of experience in the retail, broadband access, IoT, telecom and smart home industry across Europe; and after 2 years of business development at AI software incubators (Intelli-Select and Telloport), she joined Hitachi Energy in July 2022 as sales manager in the Power Grid-Grid Automation division, focusing (amongst others) on critical wireless communication solutions in the Benelux. She is passionate about contributing to a sustainable energy future for all.
Sergio Ramos Pinto
Deputy Director of Digital Platform Division, E-REDES
Sérgio Pinto holds a degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of Porto and an Executive-MBA from INDEG-ISCTE, with more than 30 years of experience on telecommunications, he began his professional activity in EDP, planning and deploying Radio and PLC networks for SCADA connectivity, latter joining the founding team of ONITELECOM where he led the implementation of the first Portuguese nationwide Broadband Backbone and Fixed Wireless Access. His 18 years at ONITELECOM gave him the opportunity to focus on service convergence innovation and tailored E2E assurance practices for corporate, enterprise and financial customers, developing cross-functional managerial experience by holding directive positions in Engineering, Operations and Customer Care, leading to is latter position as the company’s CTO. Back in E-REDES since 2014, currently holding a position as deputy director of Digital Platform Division, and vice-chair at the European Telecommunication Council (EUTC), he is actively involved in connectivity solutions for the energy transition, leveraging on E-REDES’s Fiber and IP-MPLS infrastructure, and addressing the access domain through a Private MVNO, 4G and 5G capabilities and edge computing. The current wave of ICT convergence and digital disruption, where ML/AI, IoT and edge processing pervasiveness are considered game changing capabilities, requiring new sourcing and assurance practices, motivates his current research on new technologies, architectures and supply models, promoting peer cooperation, pursuing an “open” advanced architecture and sourcing for resilient perimeters, preserving performance and security, fostering the Utility’s contribution to the energy and digital transformations.
James Irvine
Reader, Strathclyde University, PNDC (Strathclyde University)
Dr James Irvine is a Reader at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, where he is the Academic Lead for the Communications: Systems, Integration and Security theme at the Power Network Demonstration Centre. Currently working on security and resilience for 5G and CNI, his part projects included the deployment of a 5G test network in the north of Scotland. A past President of the IEEE Vehicular Technology Society, he chaired working groups within the IEEE Future Networks and Blockchain initiatives, and co-chairs IEEE WCNC 2023. He is a co-author of two text books, 7 patents, and over 200 research papers.
Frans Campfens
Principal Consultant Energy Consulting (IT/OT and Analytics), Alliander
Mr Frans Campfens has a master degree in Business Telecommunication and a solid background in microelectronics and ICT. In the last 33 years he was primarily involved in the utility industry as an project manager and consultant with a wide range of subjects a.o telecommunication, ICT, AMR, Smartgrid and Network Analytics; and he has gained considerable experience with issues in this industry. Currently he has a position as a Principal Consultant at Qirion Energy Consulting involved with the implementation of utility products to avoid congestion in relation to the remote control of large solar- and wind farms and the security aspects. Mr. Campfens has a large international network.
Chris Farrow
Technical Services Manager, Chronos
At Chronos Chris is responsible for all technical services including Synchronisation MasterClass Training, Sync Audit and network planning consultancy, customer demonstrations and he is also a member of the Chronos Product Development Group. Chris has been "in sync" since the early 1990s initially working on clock-recovery cards in PSTN switches and later the first commercially available GPS frequency references as they were introduced. Working through a number of sync & timing technology upgrades with major carriers in the 1990s/early 2000s has given Chris a grounding in all the practical aspects of testing, deploying, operating & maintaining all sorts of frequency and time generation & distribution systems. Chris holds a First Class Honours Degree in Physics & Electronics from UMIST (University of Manchester Institute of Science & Technology).
Ljupco Jorguseski
Senior Consultant Wireless Access, TNO
Ljupco Jorguseski is currently a senior consultant wireless access at TNO with focus on radio planning and optimisation of wireless cellular networks. Before joining TNO in 2003, he worked at TU Delft from 1997 to 1999 as researcher on the ETSI standardization proposals for 3G wireless cellular networks (e.g. the FRAMES project) and from 1999 to 2003 in the research and development laboratory at KPN, the national telecom provider in The Netherlands. He has been actively involved in various European wireless research projects such as SOCRATES, SEMAFOR, SUNSEED, Clear5G, etc. His recent research activities include further development of 5G/6G networks for particular verticals, and providing enhancements for their standardisation in 3GPP. He has obtained his Ph.D degree in telecommunication from Aalborg University, Denmark in 2008 and has co-authored 15+ scientific publications, three book chapters, and 15+ patents.
Nuno Pereira
Principal Security Consultant, ENCS
Nuno Pereira is a Principal Security Consultant in the European Network for Cyber Security (ENCS). He works together with European energy grid operators to secure the operations technology (OT) systems supporting European critical infrastructure. From 2011 until recently, he worked as an OT Cyber Security Officer in the largest Distribution System Operator (DSO) of Portugal, contributing to National and European cyber security exercises, projects and work groups. He holds an MSc in Electrotechnical and Computers Engineering from the Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia of Universidade Nova de Lisboa (FCT-UNL), and an MSc in Information Security from the Faculdade de Ciências of Universidade de Lisboa (FCUL).
Anjos Nijk
Managing Director, ENCS
Anjos Nijk is Managing Director of the European Network for Cyber security (ENCS). In addition to his duties with ENCS, he is an observer in the Steering Committee of the Smart Grids Task Force of the European Commission, member of cybersecurity EG2 and ENCS liaison with European associations including ENTSO-E, E.DSO and EUTC. He started his career in various international management functions at AT&T and Lucent Technologies and was involved in various innovative start-ups. Anjos holds a degree in Technische Bedrijfskunde (Business Administration and Informatics) at University of Twente, The Netherlands
Dmytro Cherkashyn
Head of Cybersecurity Development, Institute of Security and Safety
Dmytro Cherkashyn holds the Master Degree in Nuclear Energy with focus on Security aspects and was assigned for different security related tasks either technical, managerial or consultative for last 13 years. Currently he is working as the Head of Cybersecurity Development for Institute for Security and Safety at the Brandenburg University of Applied Sciences, creating with his team modern approaches for customer-customized security trainings for critical infrastructure sector. Dmytro is also active in consulting nation states to build capacity in cybersecurity sector through the education and advice, being a member of EE-ISAC, IAEA, ITU CoE and other organizations. His topics of priority are OT and Automotive cybersecurity.
Joana Abreu
Cybersecurity Manager, E-REDES
Joana Abreu has a Masters degree in Mathematics and Applications from Instituto Superior Técnico. Before joining E-REDES in February 2020, she worked as Security and Business Continuity Manager at OMIClear, the Clearing House of the Iberian Energy Market, and she is currently the manager of the OT Cybersecurity Department at E-REDES.
Aurelio Blanquet,
Secretary General, EE-ISAC
Aurelio Blanquet has an MBA degree and is an Electrotechnical Engineer with a specialization in Systems Automation. Since September 2021 he is Secretary General of EE-ISAC, the European Energy Information Sharing & Analysis Centre. Until 2021 he was Board Advisor at E-Redes, the Portuguese DSO, and from 2007 was Director of Energy Networks Digital Platform at EDP Distribuição, being responsible for the Critical OT Strategy and Roadmap, including SCADA, SAS, HV/MV Smart Grid Automation, Telecommunications and Cybersecurity. Besides his duties with EE-ISAC he is active in the EUTC - European Utilities Telecom Council as Honorary Member. He is also member of the WEF - World Economic Forum. Throughout his professional career he assumed several roles and responsibilities in European entities: · Chair of the Assembly Committee and General Assembly of ENCS - European Network for Cyber Security · Vice-Chair of EUTC - European Utilities Telecom Council · Principal Director at Prime Alliance · Head of the Portuguese National Secretariat of Cired - International Conference on Electricity Distribution · Participant of several digital initiatives promoted by the CCE - Conseil de Coopération Économique
Konstantinos Moulinos
Information Security Expert, Programme Manager Smart Grid Security, ENISA
Moulinos is an expert in the network and information security (NIS) area. He is the manager of ENISA's energy security projects. He has worked for more than 10 years as an information systems auditor and for ten years he has contacted ENISA as an expert in the area of critical information infrastructure protection (CIIP) with a focus on the energy sector cyber security. Also, he acts as a key contact point of ENISA with the NIS Directive Cooperation Group. He has served the NIS area from various posts: as an Information Systems’ auditor on behalf of the Hellenic Data Protection Authority (HDPA), as a security expert of ENISA (the European Network and Information Security Agency), as a scientist during his doctoral research, as a researcher involved in various NIS European projects, as an advisor participating in various technical committees and last but not least as a guest speaker at several seminars, public discussions and lectures. Moulinos has been awarded a diploma in informatics, a master of science in information systems and a Ph.D. in privacy enhancing technologies. He has more than 20 peer-reviewed publications covering areas such as information and network security, CIIP, data protection and privacy-enhancing technologies.
Alexander Novotny
Information Security Manager, EVN
Alexander Novotny is information security manager at EVN Group. EVN is a multi-utility company headquartered in Lower Austria. In addition to its core business in Lower Austria, EVN is active in many European countries, including as a grid operator in Bulgaria and North Macedonia. Alexander has several years of experience in cybersecurity, privacy and critical infrastructure protection and holds a doctoral degree in information systems from Vienna University of Economics and Business. Besides his work at EVN, Alexander is an external lecturer on cybersecurity. He has been a reviewer for EU Horizon 2020 research and innovation actions on digital security. Furthermore, Alexander is a member of the EE-ISAC, which is an industry-driven, information sharing network of trust. He is a certified information security manager according to ISO 27001, certified data protection officer and a qualified auditor for the IT security of critical infrastructures according to § 8a (3) BSIG of the German IT-security law.
Jalal Bouhdada
Global Segment Director for Cybersecurity and Founder of Applied Risk, DNV
Jalal Bouhdada is the founder of Applied Risk and Amsterdam based Industrial cybersecurity specialist firm established in 2012. In 2021, Applied Risk joined forces with DNV. Jalal is recognized as thought leader on Industrial Control Systems (ICS) security and Critical Infrastructure Protection. He’s a board of advisor for EE-ISAC and active member of several professional security societies and has co-authored ICS security best practices for ENISA and ISA.