EPRC Conference: Keynote Speaker
May 20, 2025
Adria Brooks
Dr. Adria Brooks is Director of Transmission Planning at Grid Strategies, where she helps clients achieve well-designed regional transmission systems. Sitting at the intersection of engineering and policy, Adria has over 15 years of public service experience at the academic, utility, state, and federal levels. Her expertise includes power system modeling, industry practices, wholesale electricity markets, state utility regulation, grid technologies, energy justice and labor concerns.
Prior to joining Grid Strategies, Adria served as a Senior Technical Advisor in transmission planning with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Grid Deployment Office. Her portfolio at DOE included national generation and transmission assessments, system reliability studies, renewable energy integration, large load integration, grid-enhancing technologies, transmission permitting, and energy justice. Earlier in her career, Adria served as a transmission planning engineer at the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin and as a solar energy researcher at the University of Arizona. She had a particular focus in educational outreach for young students.
Adria holds both an M.S. and Ph.D. in electrical engineering with a focus in energy policy and environmental resources from the University of Wisconsin—Madison. She has a B.S. is in engineering physics from the University of Arizona. At heart, Adria is a power grid and renewable energy nerd who is happiest when backpacking the nation’s forests.
EPRC Conference: The Plan Iowa Energy Project
James D. McCalley
Anson Marston Distinguished Professor and London Chaired Professor of Power Systems Engineering
James McCalley received the B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees from Georgia Tech in 1982, 1986, and 1992, respectively. He was employed with the Atlanta Gas Light-Company from 1977-1982 and with Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), San Francisco, from 1985 to 1990. His research and instructional activities revolve around electric power systems, with emphasis on long-term planning, transmission, power system dynamics, electricity markets, and renewable integration.
EPRC Conference: Resilience Round Table
Chris Ball
Chris Ball is the founder and lead strategist of Terenc, LLC, an Iowa-based consultancy dedicated to advancing energy resilience and sustainable infrastructure in rural communities. With a strong background in municipal energy systems, policy development, and grant writing, Chris has helped local governments, school districts, and rural small businesses secure funding and implement practical energy solutions. He supports the development of the Iowa Electric Grid Resilience Toolkit, a collaborative initiative led by Dr. Anne Kimber, aimed at equipping Iowa communities with actionable strategies to strengthen grid resilience. Chris’s work focuses on translating high-level resilience concepts into implementable local action.
EPRC Conference: Banquet Speaker
Thomas A. Wind, P.E.; Wind Utility Consulting, PC
Mr. Wind is a consulting engineer that has worked in the electric utility industry since 1974. He graduated from Iowa State University in 1974 with a BS in electrical engineering. He was employed at Iowa Southern Utilities for 15 years doing a variety of jobs before becoming a self-employed consulting electrical engineer. He has provided consulting services for transmission and generation planning, such as power supply, energy efficiency, wind power, and solar power. His clients include municipal and cooperative electric utilities, schools, colleges, businesses, landowners, and farmers in nine states. He has provided consulting services for two dozen community wind projects and several solar power projects and is a local investor in two community wind farms.
On behalf of American Wind Energy Association Mr. Wind has served on the IEEE Standards Coordinating Committee #21, that developed the IEEE 1547, which is for the interconnection of distributed generation resources. He also served on the U.S. Technical Advisory Committee for the International Electrotechnical Commission standards for wind turbines. He has made numerous presentations about distributed wind generation at workshops, seminars and conferences around the US.
EPRC 765-kV Design Workshop
May 21, 2025
Aaron Graber, P.E., ITC.
Supervisor, Special Projects
Aaron is a supervisor in the Transmission Line Design department at ITC with over 16 years of experience in the field of high voltage line design. He spent several years as an engineer designing and routing high voltage transmission lines in Iowa, before moving into standards and then into leadership. In his current role, Aaron is dedicated to leading ITC’s effort to develop 765 kV overhead line standards among other high priority projects. Aaron is a 2009 graduate of Iowa State University in the field of Civil Engineering.
Cornelius (Cory) Henderson
Cory Henderson has a master’s degree in engineering from the Northwest University in South Africa and is an Associate Consultant at Burns & McDonnell with 17 years of experience as a 765kV Transmission Line design engineer. He started his career in South Africa and has designed over 430miles of 765kV lines and has designed transmission lines in three (3) continents and is currently working and consulting on 765kV design efforts in the MISO and ERCOT regions.
Michael-Allen Lane
Michael A. Lane received a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from the Pennsylvania State University, State College, in 1991. He has been working with circuit breaker technology for ABB, now Hitachi, since 1991. Through his career in circuit breaker technology, he has had various roles including marketing/sales, research and development management and product management. Currently, he is the Local Product Manager and Applications Engineer for Dead Tank Circuit Breakers, Live Tank Circuit Breakers and hybrid switchgear (PASS).
Jean-Pierre Marais
Jean-Pierre Marais is a Technical Executive EPRI, based in Charlotte, North Carolina, and joined the institute in November 2015.
Pierre is a Civil / Structural engineer with 35 years’ experience in various aspects of overhead line design including geotechnical and structural design. In South Africa he was the chairman of SANS10280-2, the South African national standard for overhead line design, and co-author of a number of the Eskom Power Series reference manuals in overhead line design and maintenance.
He fields of expertise include detailed structural design of lattice towers and steel poles, foundation design, profiling of overhead lines from 66kV to 765KV, conductor motion, and the development design software tools. He has established and managed overhead line engineering divisions, served on ASCE Blue Ribbon Panels, and has had significant involvement in Cigré, where he has led and contributed to a number of working groups.
Stephen Moerer, Burns & McDonnell
Stephen Moerer is a Senior Project Engineer who has been working in Burns & McDonnell’s Transmission & Distribution Global Practice as part of the Substation Department for 6 years with 11 total years of industry experience. Stephen’s work involves leading a team of ~50 people on topics of technical execution and quality, providing guidance on substation design, serving as the advisor for the BMcD AC/DC technical team, and is currently functioning as an owners engineer in the development of 765kV standards. He graduated from Missouri S&T with a Bachelor’s and Master’s in Electrical Engineering in 2012 and 2014 respectively.
Alex Rannow, ITC
Alex Rannow is ITC’s Supervisor of Substation Standards and the overall technical lead for ITC’s 765kV standards development effort. Prior to his current role, Alex held technical positions of increasing responsibility in both the Substation Design and Power Equipment & Maintenance groups. When he isn’t working, Alex enjoys making his own gear for backpacking. Alex graduated with a BSEE from Iowa State University in 2011.
John Spritzer
John Spritzer (invited) is a Geophysicist with the US Geological Survey Geologic Hazards Science Center (GHSC) Center and Geomagnetic Observatories. He is one of the USGS scientists working with ISU and UI on a project to build a new magnetic observatory in Iowa.
Matthew Tackett, P.E.
Matt Tackett is a Consulting Advisor in the System Planning Department at Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) where he advises management and staff on technical and strategic issues related to transmission planning. Tackett has 39 years of technical and/or management experience in the electric utility industry including experience working for a large investor-owned electric utility and a large regional transmission organization. Tackett has been at MISO for over 21 years and has worked in the MISO System Planning Department for the past 16 years. Tackett has a B. S. E. E. from Purdue University and is a registered professional engineer in Indiana and Virginia.
Evan R. Wilcox, P.E.
Director – Advanced Transmission Studies & Modeling, American Electric Power
Evan Wilcox is the Director of Integrated Planning Services for American Electric Power (AEP). He is responsible for standards, processes, and technology across Transmission, Distribution, and Generation planning.
In his 20 years with AEP, Evan has held a variety of leadership including Advanced Transmission Studies and Modeling, Transmission Planning, FERC & RTO Policy, and Engineering Standards. Evan holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from The Ohio State University, an MBA from Capital University and is a registered professional engineer in the State of Ohio.
HVDC Transmission Short Course
Per-Anders Lof
Per-Anders Lof is working at National Grid USA, where is a Principal Engineer in the Transmission Planning and Asset Management department in New England. He is also a part-time lecturer at Tufts University, where he teaches a course in Electric Power Systems and is advising two graduate students. He received his M.Sc., Tech. Lic,, and Ph.D. degrees from the School of Electrical Engineering at the Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden. His Ph.D. thesis was on long-term voltage stability in electric systems.
James D. McCalley
Anson Marston Distinguished Professor and London Chaired Professor of Power Systems Engineering
James McCalley received the B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees from Georgia Tech in 1982, 1986, and 1992, respectively. He was employed with the Atlanta Gas Light-Company from 1977-1982 and with Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), San Francisco, from 1985 to 1990. His research and instructional activities revolve around electric power systems, with emphasis on long-term planning, transmission, power system dynamics, electricity markets, and renewable integration.
Xin Fang
Xin Fang is an assistant professor at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Mississippi State University. He received his Ph. D. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, in 2016. He was the principal investigator of multiple Department of Energy-funded research projects on cyber-physical dynamic modeling for distributed energy resources integration. Before joining Mississippi State University, he was a senior researcher at DoE National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO, from 2017 to 2022.
Matthew Tackett, P.E.
Matt Tackett is a Consulting Advisor in the System Planning Department at Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) where he advises management and staff on technical and strategic issues related to transmission planning. Tackett has 39 years of technical and/or management experience in the electric utility industry including experience working for a large investor-owned electric utility and a large regional transmission organization. Tackett has been at MISO for over 21 years and has worked in the MISO System Planning Department for the past 16 years. Tackett has a B. S. E. E. from Purdue University and is a registered professional engineer in Indiana and Virginia.
Ali Mehrizi-Sani
Dr. Ali Mehrizi-Sani received the Ph.D. degree from the University of Toronto in 2011. He is currently a Professor at Virginia Tech and Director of VT Power and Energy Center. He is a Senior Editor of IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion and has been an Associate Editor for several other journals. Among his recognitions are the 2025 VT College of Engineering (COE) Dean’s Excellence in Research Award, 2023-2024 VT COE Dean’s Fellow, 2023 VT COE Dean’s List of Instructors, 2018 IEEE PES Outstanding Young Engineer Award, 2017 IEEE Mac E. Van Valkenburg Early Career Teaching Award, 2017 WSU EECS Early Career Excellence in Research Award, and 2016 WSU VCEA Reid Miller Excellence in Teaching Award. He was a Connaught Scholar for 2007-2011 and received the 2007 Dennis Woodford prize. He has held visiting positions with TU Graz, Austria; CanmetENERGY, Montreal, QC; and Manitoba Hydro International, Winnipeg, MB. He has published over 200 peer-reviewed papers and has received over $13M in research funding.
Leon M. Tolbert
Leon M. Tolbert received the Bachelor’s, M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from Georgia Tech. He worked at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN, from 1991 until 2020 on electric distribution and power quality projects. He joined the University of Tennessee in 1999, and he is currently a Chancellor’s Professor and the Min H. Kao Professor in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. He is a founding member for the NSF/DOE Engineering Research Center, CURENT, which develops power electronics and power systems technology for the future electric grid to accommodate a high penetration of renewables and transportation electrification. Dr. Tolbert is a Fellow of the IEEE and a Registered Professional Engineer in the state of Tennessee.
Hantao Cui
Hantao Cui is an associate professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at North Carolina State University. Prior to joining NC State, he was an assistant professor at Oklahoma State University from 2021 to 2024. He earned his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (2018), following his M.S. (2013) and B.S. (2011) in the same field from Southeast University, China. He is the author of ANDES for power systems modeling and analysis, and a recipient of the NSF CAREER Award. Previously, he served as the Chief Technologist of the CURENT Large-Scale Testbed (LTB), a winner of the 2020 R&D 100 Awards. He is the Chair of the IEEE PES Computer and Analytical Methods Subcommittee (CAMS) and has been an Associate Editor of the Journal of Modern Power Systems and Clean Energy since 2019. He is a Senior Member of the IEEE.
Raj V. Rajan, PhD, P.E.
Raj Rajan is currently Vice President of Project Development for SOO Green, building a rail co-located, weather-resilient, inter-RTO, HVDC power transmission link. Raj has four decades of experience in environmental stewardship related to production infrastructure and supply chains of several industries. He most recently served as the global technical lead for corporate sustainability strategy at Ecolab. He was appointed by two Minnesota Governors as state-wide business representative to the Clean Water Council, where he served for eight years advising the Legislature.
Raj is a licensed Professional Engineer in multiple states and holds a PhD in Environmental Engineering from the University of Massachusetts, and is a Fellow of the Institute on the Environment at the University of Minnesota. He currently serves on these non-profit boards: Climate Generation and Environmental Initiative.