Industry Panels

Industry Panels at EPEC 2021

Saturday, October 30: 3:15-5:15 PM

  • 3:15 PM – Topic 1: Efficient Integration of Renewables in Canada o Presenter: Robert Hornung, CEO of Canadian Renewable Energy Association (CanREA)
  • 3:30 PM – Topic 2: AESO’s Transmission Planning Approach in Alberta to Maximize the Transmission Grid Utilization o Presenter: Biju Gopi, Manager of Operations Engineering and Market Support at the AESO.
  • 3:45 PM – Topic 3: Leveraging Transmission Technology to Address Challenges to Integrate DERs and Rapid Growth in Ontario o Presenter: Robert Reinmuller, Director of Transmission Planning at Hydro One
  • 4-4:45 PM Q&A and Panel Discussions

Panel Proposal for EPEC 2021

  • Session Title:
    Improving Utilization of Transmission Network for Renewable Integration and Grid Transformation Using Grid Enhancing Technologies
  • List of Session Topics and Presenters
    Each topic be presented in 15 – 20 minutes, followed by a 30 minutes Q&A session amongst the panelists.
    Topic 1: Efficient Integration of Renewables in Canada
    o Presenter: Robert Hornung, CEO of Canadian Renewable Energy Association (CanREA)
    Topic 2: AESO’s Transmission Planning Approach in Alberta to Maximize the
    Transmission Grid Utilization

    o Presenter: Biju Gopi, Manager of Operations Engineering and Market Support at the AESO.
    Topic 3: Leveraging Transmission Technology to Address Challenges to Integrate DERs and Rapid Growth in Ontario
    o Presenter: Robert Reinmuller, Director of Transmission Planning at Hydro One
  • Session Chair: Amir Motamedi, General Manager of Smart Wires in Canada, Amir.Motamedi@smartwires.com
  • Abstract:
    Electric networks around the world are undergoing rapid transformation, and power system planners are facing many challenges to plan their network with enough flexibility to accommodate these changes. Key trends include the integration of a significant volume of renewable energy, rapid DER integration, decarbonization of generation fleets and major transmission assets reaching their end of life. Improving network flexibility while enhancing the utilization of existing assets is crucial for successful grid transformations.
    In this panel session, three of the senior leaders in Electric Power System Industry in Canada will share their perspective on the major challenges that they are facing in developing a robust and flexible transmission plan that ensures value for future generations. One key way they are all achieving their plans is to deliver more network capacity by improving the utilization of their existing infrastructure.
    Similar to other utilities around the world, Canadian utilities are working on large scale of renewable integration and grid decarbonization. The AESO is facing significant renewable integration, DER penetration and coal phase out in Alberta. Hydro One is facing large-scale DER integration, rapid growth in some areas and major transmission facilities reaching their end of life. In this panel, the senior leaders in these utilities will present their key challenges and how they are using grid enhancing technologies to solve these problems by improving network utilization and flexibility.
  • Panelist Biographies
  • Topic 1: Efficient Integration of Renewables in Canada
    Presenter: Robert Hornung, CEO of Canadian Renewable Energy Association (CanREA)
    Robert Hornung is the President & CEO of the Canadian Renewable Energy Association (CanREA) – the voice for wind energy, solar energy and energy storage solutions that will power Canada’s energy future. Robert represents the interests of more than 275 member companies that are active in the deployment of these technologies in a variety of applications – from the residential to utility scale – in the Canadian market. Prior to becoming the founding President & CEO of CanREA, Robert served as the President of the Canadian Wind Energy Association (CanWEA) for
    17 years, and also worked on climate change issues with the Pembina Institute, Environment
    Canada, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development and Friends of the Earth Canada. Robert is currently a part of the Advisory Council of Positive Energy, a University of Ottawa initiative.
  • Topic 2: AESO’s Transmission Planning Approach in Alberta to Maximize the Transmission Grid Utilization
    Presenter: Biju Gopi, Manager of Operations Engineering and Market Support at the AESO
    Biju Gopi, Manager of Operations Engineering and Market Support at the AESO. Biju Gopi is currently Manager, Operations Engineering and Market Support at the Alberta Electric System Operator (AESO). His accountabilities include engineering studies, coordination with system and operations planning, engineering services for the control room, interconnection reliability standards and ISO rules, ancillary services, and market support . He is also leading the Grid Resiliency and Energy Storage Roadmap Initiatives on behalf of the AESO apart from being a core member of the DER roadmap initiative. Biju has more than 20 years of experience in the field of electricity markets, power system operations, interconnections, reliability standards, public policy and regulatory affairs.
  • Topic 3: Leveraging Transmission Technology to Address Challenges to Integrate DERs and Rapid Growth and to in Ontario
    Presenter: Robert Reinmuller, Director of Transmission Planning at Hydro One As a senior member of the Hydro One management team, Robert Reinmuller brings over three decades of energy sector experience. With exposure to municipal services, utility industry, grid engineering
    and outage planning, real time power system operations, emergency management and overall system planning & asset management, he brings a strong focus on not only securing and maintaining the current grid, but also in finding the right solutions for the customers and the economic development of the province. In his current role, Robert and the Transmission System Planning Team are responsible for Regional Planning activities, Customer connections as well as delivering over one billion dollars/year in capital development and sustainment projects. Robert is a Senior IEEE Member as well as Member of Professional Engineers Ontario and over the last decade contributed to multiple industry organizations. Currently, he serves as a member on the NERC RSTC Executive Committee, CEA Transmission Council, IESO Technical Panel, OEB RPPAG as well as the NATF Resiliency Advisory Group.
  • Panel Organizer and chair
    Amir Motamedi is currently the General Manager of Canada at Smart Wires. He is a power systems leader and expert with over 15 years of experience in power system planning, operation, and economics in different companies. Before joining Smart Wires, Amir was leading the System Planning team at the AESO. He holds a Ph.D. degree from the University of Calgary in Electrical Engineering, where he has been an adjunct professor with the ECE department for the past nearly 10 years. He holds a professional engineer designation with APEGA. Amir is a senior member of IEEE. Amir has published 14 peer-reviewed technical research papers with over 500 citations on power systems area.