Speakers
Phil Jones
(Key Note Speaker)
Northern Powergrid
CEO
Phil Jones is the Chief Executive Officer of Northern Powergrid Holdings Company, a subsidiary of MidAmerican Energy Holdings Company (itself a subsidiary of Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway). Northern Powergrid’s primary activity is running the electricity power distribution networks in Yorkshire and the Northeast of England. A chartered electrical engineer, Phil joined the sector in 1993 and has been President of Northern Powergrid since 2006.
He is an active representative on the smart grids forum, the environmental advisory group and the predecessor groups that provided technical advice to the Government and Ofgem on the development of distributed generation. His contribution to the industry was recognised in the award of an OBE in 2007.
Gareth Evans
Ofgem
Head of Profession, Engineering
Gareth is Head of Profession – Engineering and Technical Adviser at Ofgem, the gas and electricity regulator for Great Britain. He provides a focal point for Ofgem’s engineers and has responsibility for providing technical advice to the Smarter Grids & Governance Directorate and more widely across Ofgem.
Gareth joined Ofgem in 2002. He has over 35 years experience in the UK electricity supply industry. During his career he has worked in transmission, distribution, generation and the development of electricity storage. Gareth’s role at Ofgem is focussed in particular on the challenges of developing distribution networks to meet the low carbon challenge. He was responsible for the development of the Innovation Funding Incentive and the Registered Power Zone schemes and acts as the technical lead for the Low Carbon Networks Fund.
He joint-chaired the DECC/Ofgem smart grids Vision and Route Map project and played an active role in the European SmartGrids Technology Platform. He is now focusing on the regulatory challenges of smart grids in the UK and Europe, taking a leading role in the DECC/Ofgem Smart Grids Forum. He is a Chartered Engineer and a member of the IET. He is a member of the IET’s Energy Policy Panel and the High Level Group for EPSRC’s Supergen programme.
John Shine
Electricity Supply Board (ESB)
Deputy Chief Executive
John Shine was appointed Deputy Chief Executive of ESB in November 2009. Previously he held the position of Executive Director, ESB Networks from November 2002 and Chairman and Managing Director of ESB Networks Limited from November 2008. He joined ESB in 1978 and held a number of senior positions in the Networks, Marketing and Business Development areas of ESB.
He spent some years outside ESB developing a successful international services business before rejoining in 2002. He has Electrical Engineering and MBA degrees from University College Dublin.
Keith Redfearn
GE Energy Services
Regional General Manager - Europe
Keith Redfearn is Regional Sales Director for the Digital Energy business within GE Energy, which provides integrated hardware and software solutions and reliable power delivery systems to electric utilities as well as the oil & gas, critical infrastructure and industrial sectors.
Keith regularly represents GE at meetings with national governments, regulatory authorities and the EU Commission to discuss Smart Grid technology and implementation policy. He has also been a key note speaker at many industry conferences across the UK and Europe.
Duncan Botting
Parsons Brinkerhoff
Business Innovation & Growth Director
Duncan currently holds the posts of Business Innovation and Growth Director at Parsons Brinckerhoff (part of Balfour Beatty Group), Executive Chairman of the Scottish European Green Energy Centre and Managing Director Global Smart Transformation Limited. His previous roles included Managing Director, ITI Energy and ABB as Head of Technology & Business Development. He is also a visiting professor at Imperial College London and the University of Strathclyde.
He is an active member of IET and is involved in many influential panels, advisory boards and committees at a National, European and International level. He is engaged across the energy domain from market design to primary fuels, generation (including CCS), transmission and distribution to end user issues. As an active member of the IET Energy Policy Panel, Vice-Chair of the European Technology Platform for “SmartGrids”, DECC/Ofgem Smart Grid Forum and other Smart Infrastructure groups he is helping to shape future thinking in the energy sector. He is also a founding member and served on the shadow board of the National Skills Academy for Power.
In the area of energy and climate security Duncan has been a thought leader for over 20 years and has been contributing to national critical infrastructure working groups (DoE, UK, Asia), global corporate R&D and scenario building to inform and challenge board level decisions.
Brian Mullan
Microsoft
Global Business Intelligence Lead
Brian is the Global Business Intelligence Lead for Microsoft’s Operations Division. In this role he is responsible for the formulation of the global BI strategy, development roadmaps, business rhythm and corporate executive engagement. Brian leads a team creating innovative BI Solutions to provide rich insight and analytics across the key operations businesses.
In his broader role Brian is a member of the Global Business Operations Leadership team, he also works closely with a number of their subsidiaries worldwide engaging with key global customers to advise and showcase the BI strategy and Microsoft technologies. Brian also sits on the Operations UK Senior Engagement Team, working closely with the UK Senior Leadership Team.
Brian's career at Microsoft has spanned seventeen years in a wide variety of Business & IT leadership roles, both at Microsoft’s EMEA Operations Centre in Dublin and also the Global Headquarters in Redmond, USA.
Cliff Walton
PPA Energy
Executive Director
Cliff is currently an Executive Director of PPA Energy base in Guilford, Surrey with specific responsibilities for innovation in the power sector. Previously Head of Strategic Development for EDF Energy Networks, he has extensive experience in engineering, innovation, commercial, financial, business process and technology change activities. He has had a wide range of roles and responsibilities in both power and telecommunications.
Cliff has worked and consulted around the world on issues relating to power distribution networks. He has also been involved in the development of a wide range of business cases for the commercial exploitation of utility assets and the commercial development of ‘smart network technologies’, with particular experience in issues around network management and condition monitoring.
John Cunningham
Kelvatek
CEO
John Cunningham is currently CEO of Kelvatek, part of the Camlin Group of which John is also Chairman and CEO.
Kelvatek was set up following the sale of Kelman to General Electric in 2008 . He set up Kelman in 1994 in Lisburn, NI. By the time of sale to GE, it had operations in 29 countries. Prior to Kelman John owned and controlled another business operating in the power sector, Circuits & System Design (CSD). This business was grown and sold to the Hathaway corporation in 1992.
John has over 40 years experience in the electricity sector. He holds degrees in both Mathematics and Physics.
Conleth Donaghy
Qualitrol
Global Product Manager
Conleth Donaghy is the Global Product Manager for Information Products in Qualitrol, an independent subsidiary of Danaher with corporate headquarters located in Fairport, NY, USA Qualitrol provides smart utility asset condition monitoring across the globe, including partial discharge monitoring, asset protection equipment and information products across generation, transmission and distribution. Conleth holds an MBA and is an active representative with Smart Grid Ireland, Qualitrol are currently a board level member with SGI.
Mo Cloonan
Community Energy Scotland
Development Manager
Mo Cloonan is a Development Manager at Community Energy Scotland , a Scottish social enterprise dedicated to assisting and supporting community led sustainable energy development. Community Energy Scotland have helped over 600 communities take forward renewable energy projects in and for the benefit of their local communities and have helped to overcome difficult grid conditions by enabling the development and uptake of small scale integrated energy storage systems with a unique Wind2Heat model.
Mo leads on taking new programmes of decentralised energy development forward for Community Energy Scotland and the communities it represents, working with the Scottish DNO’s and the Scottish Government, as well as leading the Policy team at Community Energy Scotland and managing the Powerdown project – a grassroots project supporting wholescale behaviour change in relation to climate change targets.
Mo previously worked as a Energy consultant and as a Sales Manager for GE Wind Energy in Ireland. Mo studied first at Queens University Belfast and also at Strathclyde University gaining an MSc in Energy Systems and the Environment.
Allan Brisbane
Qualitrol
Technical Specialist, Partial Discharge Monitoring
Allan is a Technical Specialist for Partial Discharge monitoring and has worked for Qualitrol for the past two years developing a new Partial discharge monitor for GIS and Transformers that offers enhanced continuous real-time detection plus alarming and analysis of partial discharge events.
In his role he is also responsible for managing a number of R&D initiatives with University of Strathclyde. Prior to joining Qualitrol, Allan has worked for 20 years in the electrical industry globally, from Australia, the Middle East to throughout Europe including: Utilities: Saudi Electric Company, MEW Kuwait, China Light and Power, TNB, KEPCO and Singapore Power Industry: BP, ConocoPhillips, Total, Saudi Aramco, Shell and Kuwait Gulf Oil Company
Steve Johnson
(Key Note Speaker)
Electricity North West
CEO
Steve Johnson has been Electricity North West’s Chief Executive Officer since September 2008 and led the transition of more than 1000 staff from United Utilities Electricity Services to Electricity North West following its acquisition in 2010. In October 2011, he was appointed chair of the Energy Networks Association – the industry body for the UK’s electricity and gas distribution and transmission networks. He is also a member of Ofgem and DECC’s Smart Grid Forum. Steve has worked in both the electricity and water sectors – spending his early career at Yorkshire Electricity and Norweb.
He was Managing Director in United Utilities Contract Solutions business, and in 2001 led the Welsh Water operations contract. He joined AWG Plc in 2006 as MD of Morrison (the support services group) and successfully led the sale process of Morrison Utilities to private equity.
Francisco José Arenas Pérez
(Key Note Speaker)
Schneider Electric
Business Development Director
Francisco is the Business Development Director for Schneider Electric. Schneider Electric is a global specialist in energy management with operations in more than 100 countries, offering integrated solutions across multiple market segments including the electricity sector. Francisco has been responsible for managing a wide range of technologies including the Advanced Distribution Management System (ADMS) and the Meter Data Management (MDM) product lines. He has also managed large and complex IT projects for a many utility companies across the world including Red Eléctrica de España (Spain), Rio Light & Power (Brazil), Edechi (Panama), Union Fenosa (Spain), PLN (indonesia) and many more.
He was recently chairman of the Smart Grid, Smart Cities, Smart Future conference in Amsterdam, October 2012. He was also a key speaker at the JIECC 2011, International Electrical Equipment Conference, Bilbao, Spain.
Colonel Tim Collins
OBE BSSc MA PSC, LATE R IRISH
Tim Collins was born in Belfast and educated in The Royal Belfast Academical Institution and Queen’s University Belfast where he read Economics. During 1980 he lived and worked in Dallas in Texas. He was commissioned into the Royal Signals in 1981, before joining the 2nd Battalion, Royal Irish Rangers in West Berlin where amongst other duties he guarded the Nazi Deputy Fuhrer, Rudolf Hess, at Spandau Prison.
After completing several operational tours of duty including Northern Ireland tours and tours in the Falklands Islands and Cyprus, where he was an aide to the Chief of Staff in the UN in Cyprus he volunteered for the Special Air Service in 1988. He took part in a number of operations over the next four years including the first Gulf War, the Narcotics wars in Colombia and the intervention in Zaire. He attended the Army Command and Staff Course, including an attachment at the US Command and Staff College in Fort Leavenworth USA. As an SAS Lieutenant he was responsible for detaining Persons Indicted for War Crimes (PIFWCs) in the former Yugoslavia, including General Gallic and the Serb politician Radislav Brdjadin. He trekked in Eastern Nepal with the Gurkhas before assuming command of 1 R IRISH in Jan 2001. He led the Battalion in the Liberation of Iraq. He was awarded the OBE in 2003 for his part in that campaign. After promotion to Colonel, he was project Director for a Peace Support Training Centre in Sarajevo, before taking up the appointment of Deputy Assistant Chief of Staff, in charge of the Training Department in HQ Land Command in Dec 2003 he retired from the Army in August 2004.
Since his leaving the forces he has been much in demand as a speaker and has, amongst others, addressed the Oxford and Cambridge Unions, been made patron of the Trinity College Dublin Philosophical Society and addressed the North Atlantic Committee and the Royal Society for the Advancement of Arts. He has made several TV documentaries as well as writing a book, Rules of Engagement, which reached the top 10 best sellers list for six weeks spending two weeks at number 3. He founded New Century, a capacity building company specializing in intelligence training in 2007.
Dave Openshaw
UK Power Networks
Head of Future Networks
Dave is a Fellow of IET and holds the position of Head of Future Networks at UK Power Networks which manages the electricity distribution networks serving 8 million homes and businesses in London and the East and South East of England. His role is to co-ordinate the development of the electricity system to meet the future challenges and opportunities presented by the Government’s UK Low Carbon Transition Plan.
Dave is actively involved in the development of smart grids and the current GB smart meter programme. He chairs the Energy Networks Association (ENA) - Electricity Networks and Futures Group - Smart Metering Steering Group, and currently sits on the following industry forums and working groups:
- The Ofgem / DECC Smart Grids Forum
- The DECC Smart Metering Implementation Coordinating Group
- The Smart Meter Ministerial Industry Rollout Group
- The IET Energy Policy Panel
Dave also sits on the International CIRED Technical Committee where he holds the chair for Distributed Energy Resources and Efficient Utilisation of Electricity.
Stewart Reid
Scottish & Southern Energy
Future Networks & Policy Manager
Stewart leads SSE’s team dedicated to developing the company’s electricity networks, and their operation in order to support a low carbon future. Stewart has worked in the electricity industry since 1983 and has been involved in managing electricity networks in many parts of Scotland, in a range of roles including, operational engineer, Planner, policy engineer and Project Manager (IT and Engineering).
Stewart is now Future Networks and Policy Manager, with the remit of introducing new and better ways of managing SSE’s electricity networks, and translating these new ideas into business as usual. A key part of Stewart’s role is as Project Director for SSE’s New Thames Valley Vision (NTVV) and Northern Isles New Energy Solutions project (NINES). These projects include, monitoring, active network management, analytics and modelling, frequency responsive demand and some of Europe’s largest embedded energy storage facilities, including a 1MW NaS battery and a 150MwHrs distributed energy storage portfolio.
Professor Peter Grindrod
University of Reading
Director of Innovation & Knowledge Exchange
Peter is the Director of Innovation and Knowledge Exchange at the University of Reading. He is also the Director of the Centre for Mathematics of Human Behaviour (CMOHB) at Reading. The latter focuses on maths R&D for sectors that have a massive numbers of users, customers or contributors, seeking to derive insights from large data sets by applying modern complex adaptive systems methods. Applications with major commercial partners lie within the Energy, Retail, Telco, Defense, e-Commerce, and Media/Advertising sectors. The CMOHB is also funded via the RCUK Digital Economy programme. This year it has hosted workshops on “Maths for Counter Terrorism” and the “Growth of Social Norms”.
Professor Ronnie Belmans
KU Leuven, Belgium
Electrical Energy, Department of Electrical Engineering
Ronnie Belmans received the M.S. degree in electrical engineering in 1979 and the Ph.D. degree in 1984, both from the K.U.Leuven, Belgium, the Special Doctorate in 1989 and the Habilitierung in 1993, both from the RWTH, Aachen, Germany. Currently, he is a full professor with the K.U.Leuven, teaching electric power and energy systems. His research interests include techno-economic aspects of power systems, power quality and distributed generation.
He is also guest professor at Imperial College of Science, Medicine and Technology, London-UK.
Neil Stewart
Dimplex Renewables
Managing Director
Neil Stewart is Managing Director of Dimplex Renewables, a new business unit set up by the Glen Dimplex Group in 2010 to focus on developing a successful renewables business in the UK and Ireland. This includes an InvestNI backed investment in 2 new manufacturing facilities and 2 new R&D laboratories for renewables in Ireland.
The Newry factory manufactures heat pumps and the Portadown factory manufactures stainless steel water tanks for heat pump and solar thermal systems. Neil was previously responsible for the Seagoe Technologies electric heating business and latterly had responsibility for all manufacturing and logistical operations for the Glen Dimplex Heating Division in the UK. Neil Graduated as Master of Engineering, QUB 1988 and as Master of Business Administration UU 1992.
Jeremy Fitch
Invest Northern Ireland
Managing Director, Clients Group & Business International
Invest NI is Northern Ireland’s main economic development agency. Jeremy holds the position of Managing Director, Clients Group and Business International. This role has two main parts: (i) responsibility for new inward investment into Northern Ireland and (ii) development of existing clients in a number of sectoral teams. The Group has an annual programme budget of about £40m and staff of over 100.
In his time with Invest NI, Jeremy and his team have been involved in securing a number of significant investments for Northern Ireland. These include Bombardier’s C Series project, Citi, New York Stock Exchange, Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Firstsource, Fujitsu, HBO’s Game of Thrones, Allen & Overy and Herbert Smith as well as expansions from Allstate, Liberty IT, Teleperformance, B/E Aerospace, Caterpillar, Seagate and Terex.
A first class honours and International MBA graduate from the University of Ulster, Jeremy previously worked for Marks and Spencer plc and KPMG Chartered Accountants. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland.
Tanya Wishart
Uregni
Director of Electricity
Tanya Wishart is Director of Electricity at the Utility Regulator in Northern Ireland and is responsible for the regulation of the electricity companies in Northern Ireland. The generation wholesale market operates on an all island basis and there is a Single Electricity Market (SEM) Committee to regulate this market. She is a member of the Oversight Committee, which comprises staff from the Utility Regulator and the Commission for Energy Regulation (the energy regulator in the Republic of Ireland), which oversees operational aspects of the SEM.