Learn from the best in power markets
We’ve already confirmed some outstanding speakers for EMPOWER 25, which you can see below. Stay tuned as we continue to add even more industry leaders and innovators to the agenda, check back often for updates!
We’ve already confirmed some outstanding speakers for EMPOWER 25, which you can see below. Stay tuned as we continue to add even more industry leaders and innovators to the agenda, check back often for updates!
Pat Wood III has been the chief executive of the Hunt Energy Network since February 2019. Best known for his role in setting up competitive utility markets while serving as chairman of the Public Utility Commission of Texas and of the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Pat is an evangelist for the decentralized, decarbonized, democratized and digitalized future of power. At the Hunt Energy Network, Pat and his team are deploying a portfolio of distributed power assets across Texas. Presently, they have 300 MW of batteries in operation; by 2028, the team expects to have a portfolio of over 1,000 MWs of batteries and peaking generation attached to the ERCOT power grid.
Peter Kelly-Detwiler has over 30 years of experience in the electric energy industry, with much of his career in competitive power markets. Formerly and SVP leading Constellation Energy’s Demand response team, he’s currently a leading consultant in the electric industry, providing strategic advice to clients and investors, helping them to navigate the rapid evolution of the electric power grid. Mr. Kelly-Detwiler offers numerous keynotes, trainings, and workshops on a wide range of topics for organizations such as the American Public Power Association and the Smart Electric Power Alliance. He has also written widely on energy issues for Forbes.com and GE, with over 300 articles to his credit. His book on the transformation of electric power markets - “The Energy Switch” - was published by Prometheus Books in June of 2021.
Scott Adair is a seasoned energy trading executive with over 20 years of experience in power and environmental commodities markets, specializing in Western North America. His expertise spans both physical and financial energy trading, with a strong track record in portfolio optimization, congestion revenue rights (CRR) trading, and geographic arbitrage strategies.
Scott began his career at Powerex, where he advanced from real-time trading to senior trading roles over a nine-year tenure. He then spent time at TransAlta before joining Direct Energy, where he served as Director of Canada & US West Power. There, he played a key role in expanding the company’s presence in California’s Community Choice Aggregation market and securing substantial renewable energy and energy storage PPAs.
In 2022, Scott co-founded Cascade Trading Ltd., headquartered in Calgary, Alberta. Backed by a family office, the firm was built on the belief that rising electricity demand would create a massive opportunity as nodal markets absorbed unprecedented levels of new generation and load. His career reflects the evolving landscape of energy trading, from traditional power markets to the growing prominence of renewable energy and environmental commodities.
Bill Alkier is a Resource Planning Analyst at CDG Engineers. He has 10+ years of production cost modeling experience at Associated Electric Cooperative, Inc. (AECI) based in Springfield, MO utilizing multiple production cost models. This experience includes the preparation of Integrated Resource Plans, near term dispatch forecasts for budgeting, assessment of market energy and capacity transactions, analysis of renewable projects, development of load forecasts, and review of natural gas fuel supply alternatives. Bill has also supported reliability assessments of the AECI service area with consideration of extreme weather impacts, forced outage risk, and transmission import capability from neighboring systems. The recent focus on reliability included participation in an EPRI study “Resource Adequacy for a Decarbonized Future”, involvement in the SERC Resource Adequacy Working Group, and monitoring of reliability proceedings at MISO. Since joining CDG in May of 2024, Bill has engaged in production cost modeling activities for multiple clients.
Todd Crawford is the Vice President of Weather and Climate at Atmospheric G2, and has been with the company, formerly named WSI, since 2000. He received his BS degree at the University of Wisconsin, and MS and PhD degrees from the University of Oklahoma. During his tenure at WSI/AG2, he has developed various dynamical and statistical models that are used to predict temperatures, precipitation, solar, and wind in the US, Europe, and Asia, as well as seasonal forecasts of North Atlantic tropical activity. Currently he manages a global team of meteorologists at AG2, and also helps to develop new innovative products for the energy trading market. He has three patents and 10 scientific publications, and is regularly quoted in various energy publications, including Bloomberg and Platts.
Anthony Fratto is the Senior Director of Research and Analysis at ACP. Anthony oversees quantitative analysis that evaluates the impacts of policy and regulatory priorities for the clean energy industry. This includes power modeling, economic and environmental impact, supply chain, and tariffs. His primary interests are wholesale market design, hydrogen, transmission, and offshore wind.
Prior to joining ACP, Anthony was a Managing Consultant at E3. He worked on asset valuation in which he quantified future revenue streams and helped clients make decisions about capital expenditures. In addition, he helped lead E3’s electricity market forecasting for Texas and the Eastern Interconnect, and overseeing long-term resource planning projects under a decarbonized world.
Anthony received his Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering and Political Science from the University of Utah, and a Master’s in Technology and Policy from MIT.
Sonya Gustafson is the Head of Data at Equilibrium Energy. Sonya has over 15 years of experience developing powerful data solutions for the nodal markets. As Head of Data, Sonya helps align the immense data requirements of an energy startup with leading technologies and platforms. As a member of the engineering organization she builds solutions to help Equilibrium’s Best In Class science, trading and forecasting teams create new clean energy solutions.
Equilibrium Energy is a technology company building a next-generation clean power company. Its mission is to accelerate society’s transition to climate and energy equilibriums. Founded in 2021, Equilibrium operates at the intersection of cutting-edge AI, power systems fundamentals, modern software, novel commercial structuring, and dynamic risk management across the power value chain.
Ryan Hakim is Vice President of Commercial and Corporate Strategy at Cordelio Power. As a subject matter expert on U.S. power markets, he is responsible for employing analytics to evaluate market opportunities and risks, enhance competitive positioning, and support capital rotation efforts to drive company growth. Prior to Cordelio Power, Ryan led long-term market fundamentals at Brookfield Renewable in support of multiple platform and asset acquisitions and served as an economic consultant to various utilities, IPPs, and PUCs at London Economics.
Leah Kaffine leads a technical team at Pattern Energy as the Senior Director Energy Systems Planning. She has spent her career in quantitative roles in the across energy industry including utilities, a national lab, energy software and energy consulting. Her team’s ability to model and analyze energy markets enables cross-functional informed decision making in finance, origination, trading, policy, and development. Pattern Energy owns, operates, and develops exclusively green energy infrastructure including Sunzia, the largest clean energy infrastructure project in U.S. history. Leah holds a B.S in Applied Mathematics and a B.A. in Art History from University of California, Santa Barbara. Leah is based out of Pattern Energy’s office in Boulder, Colorado.
Emma Konet is the Co-Founder and CTO of Tierra Climate, a venture-backed startup dedicated to achieving a Net Zero power grid by unlocking and monetizing the decarbonization potential of grid-scale batteries. She co-leads the Energy Storage Solutions Consortium (ESSC), a coalition of 90+ companies developing a novel carbon instrument to enhance the decarbonization impact of energy storage projects. Emma also serves on the Greenhouse Gas Protocol’s Scope 2 Technical Working Group, where she helps shape global emissions accounting standards, ensuring the integration of energy storage into corporate sustainability strategies.Before founding Tierra Climate, Emma served as Director of Market Strategy & Operations at Key Capture Energy, where she led the optimization of some of the first grid-scale batteries deployed in NYISO and ERCOT. Earlier in her career, she worked as a power trader at Citibank, managing risk in East power markets. Emma graduated Summa Cum Laude from Tulane University with a B.S. in Chemistry and Mathematics and holds an MBA from Rice University.
Cory Paddock is President and Co-Founder of GBE Energy (est. 2013) and a Partner at Greenwich Commodities. With more than 15 years of experience in power markets, he specializes in short-term PJM trading. Cory holds an MBA in Global Energy and a Bachelor of Commerce in Finance from the Haskayne School of Business. He also hosts Energy Untold, a podcast exploring the pivotal—yet often misunderstood—role of energy in our daily lives and collective future.
Kailash Raman leads Form Energy's market development in the Western US, evaluating commercial opportunities across the region and engaging with utility, regulatory, and policy stakeholders to accelerate the deployment of multi-day storage. As a subject matter expert in energy systems modeling, he also works closely with electricity resource planners to identify the role that multi-day storage can play in addressing acute challenges on the grid. Kailash holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering and an M.S. in Management Science and Engineering from Stanford University.
Michael heads the Market Analytics group at Peregrine Energy Solutions, a growing IPP focused on storage, wind, and solar. Prior to Peregrine, he led global business development for energy, financial trading, and AI at Dell. He developed his energy skills over 14 years at NextEra where he held several roles performing market analytics, algorithmic trading, and corporate venture capital.
In his career he has implemented a variety of AI/ML algorithms on topics including energy trading, storage optimization, EVs, smart meters, and HR to name a few. Michael is a practitioner at heart and loves a good conversation around data and the AI challenges found in the energy industry.
Michael holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Tufts University and an MBA from the Johnson School at Cornell University.
An accomplished renewable energy executive, Bill has held leadership positions in energy trading and project origination at the world’s largest renewable energy developers.
Prior to joining CleanArc, Bill concentrated on wholesale energy trading as Vice President of Energy Marketing at RWE Renewables Americas. He also served as Chief Commercial Officer at LevelTen Energy, where he led efforts to aggregate corporate and institutional (“C&I”) demand and syndicate renewable energy solutions for all classes of C&I buyers. Previously, Bill served as Director of Global Commercial & Industrial Origination at First Solar. Prior to First Solar, Bill was Vice President of Development and Energy Marketing at E.ON Climate & Renewables Solar PV and led the company’s utility-scale solar development and commercial contracting efforts in North America. Before entering the renewable energy industry, Bill was a Senior Energy Trader at Xcel Energy. Bill began his career at AIG, where he was a foreign currency and interest rate derivatives trader.
At CleanArc, Bill is responsible for delivering comprehensive energy solutions CleanArc TrueAdditionality. His team sources and structures renewable energy products for CleanArc’s hyperscale data centers. Bill holds a BS in Geology from the University of Colorado-Boulder and an MS in Hydrogeology from Dartmouth College.
Greg Turk founded Horizons Energy in 2016 to provide data services to users of the EnCompass model, as well as to delivery insights into North American power markets through the Horizons Advisory service. For over 25 years, Greg has developed electricity market analytics software and databases and consulted to industry participants on topics including: price formation, resource planning, and scenario-based and stochastic portfolio valuation. He holds Bachelor of Science degrees in Physics and Mathematics from Elmhurst University and a Master's in Technology and Public Policy from Purdue University.
Alex Bennitt is the Product Manager for Live Power and partner content integration at Yes Energy, where he utilizes a background in market fundamentals and Live Power operations to help steer product direction. Over the past 7 years, Alex rotated through many roles within Live Power operations, from deploying sensors in the field, to calibrating raw sensor data, and most recently running a market fundamentals team. In his free time, Alex is an avid skier that chases snow almost year-round.
Jesse Carver is an Account Executive on our new accounts team. He has been with Yes Energy for over 10 years, helping connect the needs of market participants with Yes Energy’s solutions. He enjoys hiking, travelling, and a good black manhattan.
Director of Customer Success for EnCompass at Yes Energy working with EnCompass software which simulates power systems and wholesale energy markets for price forecasting, asset valuation, resource planning, risk analysis, nodal and zonal transmission infrastructure analysis.
Daniel Cullen is a Product Manager at Yes Energy for Submission Services and Position Management. Daniel has been at Yes Energy for 3 years and previously worked in trading and risk management within the agricultural and financial industries. In his free time, he enjoys going on hikes with his dogs, reading financial news, studying the space industry, and traveling.
Laura Fletcher is the Associate Product Manager for the Infrastructure Insights product at Yes Energy. She joined Yes through the acquisition of The C Three Group in 2023 where she spent 4 years working in the physical infrastructure side of the energy industry. Outside of work, Laura likes to spend her time traveling, reading, and hiking.
Portia Gilman manages the Market Monitoring team, a group that stays abreast of the ISO energy markets so you don’t have to. Market Monitoring serves internal and external clients with regulatory market knowledge and subject matter expertise on impacts to Yes Energy’s clients, data, and the energy industry as a whole. Before coming to Yes, Portia was an analyst for ISO New England’s internal market monitoring group for over 6 six years, specializing in compliance, price formation, SCED dispatch, and capacity market economics.
Mike is a Vice President at Yes Energy guiding our Forecast Data & Analysis team, which develops and supports forecasting products that range from the short to the long term and from the Americas to Europe to APAC. Mike joined Yes Energy a little over a year ago by way of our acquisition of TESLA, Inc., where he spent the prior 19 years of his career immersed in the energy industry. He hails from Richmond, Virginia where he lives with his wife and two children, and he spends his little spare time hiking, reading, and learning whatever he can.
Quinn Gray is the Product Manager for Yes Energy's flagship product, PowerSignals. He has been with Yes Energy for a little over 4 years; he loves building on Yes Energy’s best-in-class visual analytics tools to save customers both time and money. Outside of work, Quinn is an avid cook, adventurer and storyteller.
Brad Harrison is a Principal Consultant at Yes Energy. He is responsible for supporting the EnCompass software and data models. Mr. Harrison has over 20 years of experience in the energy markets. Specialties include market price forecasting (Zonal and Nodal), asset evaluation, fuel budgeting,
transmission constraint and congestion analysis, and environmental compliance.
Jason’s journey through the energy industry started in 1995 encompassing roles in power trading and asset management to software solution selling. He currently leads the sales effort for Yes Energy’s PowerCore platform, working with existing and prospective clients to help them automate and streamline their operations in areas such as asset optimization, scheduling, settlements, contract management, E-Tagging, trade capture, and risk management.
Jason has previously worked for Valero Power, Pacific Gas & Electric, Equitable, AEP, and InterGen/Shell He has a bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry & Molecular Biology (with honors) from Washington University, and is also a licensed system operator in both ERCOT and SPP.
Allison Hurley is the Product Manager for Market Data at Yes Energy and a former member of the Customer Support team. She has been with the company for 3 years. She enjoys working with clients to fix data issues and identify what new datasets can be collected to support their needs. No stranger to working with energy market participants, Allison also has 5.5 years of experience as a natural gas and LNG analyst.
Jake Landis has been with Yes Energy 5 years and was previously an end user of the products. He spent over a decade in various power trading roles utilizing the Yes Energy solutions on both the utility and speculative trading side. He currently works with customers and the business to match solutions that fit their needs.
Sam Lockshin is the product manager of the data products at Yes Energy. He has a passion for programmatically delivering Yes Energy’s high-quality power market data catalog reliably to customers so they can achieve their business goals. You can catch him at karaoke, playing piano, or checking out the latest horror flick.
Michael is the president of Yes Energy and one of its founders. Michael named the company based upon its commitment to be a positive force in the power industry, and a helpful partner for its customers. Michael often warns new employees “be careful what you become good at, because that’s what people in business will want from you!” And what people want from him and his friends at Yes Energy is hard work solving data problems in the niche that is nodal power markets. Equally important to Michael is providing a company culture where employees can take risks, learn to become leaders, and be themselves. In addition to his Yes Energy “passion project,” Michael enjoys snowboarding, pretending he knows how to surf while on vacation, trail running (which he actually does know how to do), spending time with his lovely wife and their dogs... oh and music - all kinds!
Emily Merchant is a Director of Product at Yes Energy in charge of setting the vision and strategy for Yes Energy's PowerSignals, QuickSignals, and Trading Regions (public data) products. Emily has over 12 years of experience working in the energy industry. A career highlight was being on the team that brought on S&P Global as a new partner to Yes Energy in 2022. Outside of work Emily loves traveling (London is her favorite city), biking, reading, and spending time with friends & family.
Ben Perry is the Product Manager for Forecasting products at Yes Energy. He came to Yes at the beginning of 2024 after 10 years as a Demand Forecasting Analyst at TESLA, Inc.
Mike Perry has been involved in supporting the North American power markets with software and data for nearly 30 years and has been with Yes Energy for the last nine. He feels lucky to be a part of such a dynamic industry and has the privilege to support Yes Energy customers who are incredibly talented at what they do. When not managing the Account Executive team at Yes, he is busy with his family that includes keeping up with his wife and three boys on the ski slopes.
Zenab Rangwala has almost two decades of experience in the energy industry, and is a Sr. Product Manager at Yes Energy in charge of developing the PowerCore family of bid-to-bill solutions for the SPP markets. One of Zenab's key career highlights was planning and coordinating the multi-year implementation and simultaneous go-live for numerous participants in the SPP Integrated Marketplace. Her favorite way to unwind is enjoying long hikes around Denver with her spouse and fearless 9-year old, though crafting comes a close second.
Norm is the founder of Anchor Power Solutions, which was acquired by Yes Energy at the end of 2023. Norm created the EnCompass modeling software, and oversees the development and success of the product.
Cliff Rose leads Yes Energy's efforts to build products that help our customers leverage power market data to make better asset siting decisions. He has ten years of experience helping companies navigate power markets in both consulting and Saas businesses. Outside of work you can find Cliff engaging in stereotypical Colorado activities such as skiing, running, and biking.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/cliff-rose-87155514/
Greg is the Director of Product Strategy for EnCompass at Yes Energy, guiding our product vision and strategy. He is driven by simplifying the complex with data and tools needed to make informed decisions in a rapidly evolving energy landscape. His 20+ year journey in the energy industry, with a focus on product development, management, and strategy, has equipped him with a deep understanding of the challenges faced by energy professionals. Outside of work, he’s passionate about exploring the outdoors with loved ones and expanding his knowledge of fermentation.
Summer Trudell is a Senior Account Executive, supporting the EnCompass simulation software for the last two years. She has over 15 years of guiding clients in software selection, evaluation, and deployment in the energy industry. Outside of work, she is a mom to three boys and enjoys traveling, various outdoor pursuits, and yoga.
Isaac Velander is a co-founder and the Chief Product Officer at Yes Energy. His two decades in the power markets have focused on delivering products that reduce the friction to market participation and increase the transparency into the mountains of data that the markets produce. When he's not in front of his laptop, he's out in the mountains of Colorado with his wife and son.
This year’s session topics will address the most pressing challenges and opportunities in today’s power markets. Our aim is to deliver actionable insights that help you navigate the evolving landscape with confidence. From integrating renewable energy to adapting to market expansion, each session targets key areas impacting operational efficiency, market strategies, and investment decisions.
The conference room block is sold out, but there may still be availability at the Sheraton, or there are many excellent hotels in easy walking distance. There is also a free shuttle that serves the 16th Street/downtown area for easy access to hotels a bit further out.
