AJ Howard is an experienced professional and leader with over 20 years of experience working on clean energy technologies including solar, energy storage, electric vehicles, energy efficiency and other Distributed Energy Resources (DERs). From his beginnings designing and building hybrid electric cars while getting his degree in mechanical engineering, AJ has worked across many sectors in the clean energy space. AJ has worked on a variety of programs and projects to enable the deployment of Distributed Energy Resources (DER), focusing on valuation and operations for DER technologies. AJ has also provided technical consulting to the U.S. EPA ENERGY STAR program and built and managed a team of engineers for research and evaluation of clean programs across the country.  

Olivia Patterson, Senior Vice President, brings over a decade of experience in executing research related to load flexibility, rates, and emerging technologies. Olivia has served as the Executive-in-Charge for several demand response engagements, including Xcel Energy’s Demand Response Portfolio Continuous Evaluation, Xcel Energy’s Transportation Electrification Portfolio, PSEG Long Island’s Demand Response Portfolio, and Ameren Missouri’s Demand Response Portfolio, among others. Olivia has overseen a variety of demand response portfolio evaluations, including direct load control and rate-based demand evaluations, across residential and commercial sectors for a variety of clients such as PG&E, Southern California Edison, Xcel Energy, and Ameren Missouri. When overseeing these evaluations, she focuses on integrating results from impacts and process evaluation activities to deliver actionable research recommendations. As load flexibility increases its relevance for DSM portfolios, Olivia has contributed to methodologies to assess the integrated nature of these interventions—and addressed some of the methodological challenges that go along with them. Olivia has evaluated a range of rate-based programs, including PG&E’s SmartRateTM Critical Peak Pricing (CPP) Program, Bill Forecast Alert and High Usage Surcharge programs, and Residential Automated Demand Response research. For the SmartRateTM CPP Program, she assessed the interface and overlap of TOU and demand response efforts while estimating load impacts, as well as the implications for customer baselines. Olivia holds key roles with the Peak Load Management Alliance (PLMA), including serving on the Executive Committee and as Co-chair for Connected Devices Interest Group, as well as serving as an evaluation instructor for Demand Response Evolution training. She is a trusted industry expert on demand response, market research, and impact evaluation, providing subject matter expertise across load impact and demand response research efforts. 

Robin Maslowski is a director and leads the clean Energy programs modeling team within Guidehouse’s Energy, Sustainability, and Infrastructure segment. Robin provides expertise in distributed energy resources (DER) and non-wires solutions (NWS) project management, cost-benefit assessment, potential studies, strategic planning, and modeling analytics. Recent project work includes determining m000000arket potential and forecasting for DER, developing cost-effectiveness frameworks for electric vehicles (EV) and demand response (DR), identifying implementation strategies and providing procurement support for DR resources, and identifying key areas of opportunity for market growth, such as utility intervention strategies for supporting the adoption of EVs.

Prior to joining Guidehouse, Robin worked for Synapse Energy Economics in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Robin recently founded Trillium Energy Consulting. 

Aditya Sundararajan (Senior Member, IEEE) is an R&D Associate Staff with the Grid Systems Architecture group in the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He received his M.S. in computer engineering in 2014 and Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering in 2019, both from the Florida International University, Miami. His research interests include applied machine learning, privacy-preserving data analytics, and emerging data strategies for microgrids and distribution grid intelligence. He also serves as the PES Vice Chair for IEEE PELS/PES East Tennessee Joint Chapter. 

Bio coming soon.

Dr. Scott Coe has worked in the electricity sector for two decades ago with an initial concentration on the design and implementation of wholesale electricity markets. More recently he has worked with utilities to design processes to accurately model, properly value, and efficiently support the integration of renewable generation and controllable devices into the distribution grid. Dr. Coe has broad international experience with major projects delivered in Europe, Asia-Pacific, and the Middle East. Through his consulting company, GridOptimize, he focuses on standardizing approaches to improve utility metrics across three metrics: Reliability, Efficiency, and – most importantly – Sustainability. A long-time PLMA member practitioner, Dr. Coe also serves as a co-chair of PLMA’s Global Load Management Interest Group. 

Ryan Hledik is a Principal of The Brattle Group. His consulting practice focuses on regulatory, planning, and strategy matters related to emerging energy technologies and policies. Mr. Hledik’s work on the grid edge has been cited in federal and state regulatory decisions, as well as by Forbes, National Geographic, The New York Times, NPR, and The Washington Post. He has published more than 30 articles on electricity matters, presented at industry events in 11 countries, given lectures on distributed grid economics at Penn, Stanford, and Yale, and served on the advisory boards of a demand flexibility startup and an energy storage trade association. Ryan received his M.S. in Management Science and Engineering from Stanford University, and his B.S. in Applied Science from the University of Pennsylvania. 

Chris Rauscher, JD, is VP & Head of Grid Services & Electrification at Sunrun. He leads the business unit responsible for originating and operating distributed power plant programs and contracts across the country. He and his team aggregate hundreds of thousands of customers and hundreds of Megawatts to provide peak reduction, capacity, and demand response, among other utility services. Chris joined Sunrun in 2015 and was previously Senior Director of Market Development & Policy, where he led new business policy and regulatory work with a focus on market entry and development of Sunrun’s EV and electrification business as well as storage, virtual power plants, and wholesale markets. Prior to joining Sunrun, Chris was an energy policy advisor in the US Senate where he worked on a diverse issue set, with a particular focus on DERs. Chris has been on various political campaigns and involved in a number of startup businesses. Chris serves on various boards, including the Efficiency Maine Trust, and was the founding board president of the Puerto Rico Solar and Energy Storage Association. 

Bio coming soon…

Kendrick has been at PG&E for 11 years with a background in electric operations before leading PG&E’s Demand Response programs. He is especially interested in helping California achieve its GHG-free goals by influencing the electric load curve to match the renewable electric supply curve. Kendrick is an attorney and earned a J.D. from the University of San Francisco and two degrees from the University of Pennsylvania. 

Joe Bourg is Vice President of Grid Services Business Development at Olivine, where he drives strategic growth initiatives centered on distributed energy resources (DERs) and grid modernization. With more than 35 years of experience in the electric utility sector, Mr. Bourg has led efforts in utility program design, renewable energy project development, and DER management. At Olivine, Mr. Bourg is instrumental in advancing the company’s Virtual Power Plant (VPP) solutions, leveraging Olivine’s proprietary Distributed Energy Resource Management System (DERMS) to integrate and optimize DERs at scale. 

Bio coming soon…

Wendy Brummer develops and supports DR programs at Pacific Gas and Electric Company in San Francisco. Since 2008, she has focused on residential DR programs including AC cycling, behavioral, DER technologies and critical peak pricing along with non-residential AutoDR incentives. She is currently the chair of the board of directors for Literacy for Environmental Justice which empowers youth and young adults through workforce development in a native plant nursery, habitat restoration and urban park stewardship. She also loves gardening and small dogs. 

Dr. Brendan Banfield is the co-founder and CEO of Gridsight, a leading grid-analytics company transforming how utilities manage electrification and distributed energy resources. With deep expertise in distribution networks, advanced modeling, and AI, Brendan helps utilities unlock capacity and accelerate grid modernization using grid-edge data. Before founding Gridsight, Brendan worked at Australian utility Evoenergy and completed a PhD in Electrical Engineering at the University of Wollongong. Under his leadership, Gridsight has grown into a market leader in Australia and New Zealand and is now deployed at scale across multiple major utilities internationally. 

Bio coming soon…

Bio coming soon…

Bio coming soon…