Debra Lew – Executive Director
Debbie is the Executive Director of ESIG. She has over 30 years of experience in the energy industry with a focus on power system studies. She previously worked at GE Energy Consulting, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and was seconded to the Hawaiian Electric Company. She is a Fellow of the IEEE and the Past Chair of the IEEE Power & Energy Society’s Renewables System Integration Coordinating Committee. She is a member of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Board on Energy and Environmental Systems. She has a PhD in Applied Physics from Stanford University and BS degrees in Electrical Engineering and Physics from MIT.
J. Charles Smith – Principal Consultant
Charlie is a member of the IEEE Power and Energy Society; a member of CIGRE, the International Council on Large Electric Systems; a US representative to the IEA Wind Annex Task 25 on Design and Operation of Power Systems with Large Amounts of Wind Power, and a Fellow of the IEEE. He is a guest editor for the IEEE Power and Energy magazine, and a past editor for the IEEE Transactions on Sustainable Energy. He is a recipient of the IEEE PES Ramakumar Family Renewable Energy Excellence Award, and currently serves as the Technical Advisor to the US National Committee for IEC SC 8A, Grid Integration of Renewable Energy Generation.
He received his BSME and MS degrees from MIT in 1970. He currently is the Principal Consultant with the Energy Systems Integration Group (ESIG). Previously, he served as President of Electrotek Concepts, an international power engineering consulting firm. He has 50 years of experience in the electric power industry.
Julia Matevosyan – Associate Director, Chief Engineer
Julia is ESIG’s Associate Director and Chief Engineer, and has more than 20 years of experience in the power industry. Prior to joining ESIG, Matevosyan was the Lead Planning Engineer of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT). In her time with ERCOT, she worked on adequacy of system inertial response, system flexibility, frequency control and performance issues related to high penetration levels of inverter-based generation and ancillary services market design. Julia received her BSc from Riga Technical University in Latvia, and her MSc and PhD from the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Sweden.
Matthew Schuerger – Senior Fellow
Matt is ESIG’s Senior Fellow, providing leadership and support to several ESIG working groups and task forces, including the Distributed Energy Resources Working Group, the System Operation and Market Design Working Group, and the System Planning Working Group. For the eight years prior to joining ESIG, Schuerger was a Commissioner of the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission. In this role, he provided key state, regional, and national leadership on reliability and integrated planning. Schuerger holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University; a MBA from the University of St. Thomas; and a MSc in Electrical Engineering from the University of Minnesota.
James Okullo – Director of System Planning
James is ESIG’s Director of System Planning and has more than a decade of experience in the power industry. Prior to joining ESIG, Okullo was Manager, Strategic Assessments at the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO). In this role, his areas of focus included forward-looking resource adequacy and accreditation of capacity resources, evaluation of system reliability attributes under an evolving resource mix, emerging generation and transmission technologies, and support of other MISO priorities, such as the Long-Range Transmission Planning.
Erik Ela – Director of System Operation and Electricity Markets
Erik Ela, ESIG’s Director of System Operation and Electricity Markets, has worked across the power industry for 20 years, specializing in electricity market design and operations, renewable energy and emerging technology integration, bulk power system operations, essential reliability services, resource planning, and electricity policy. Prior to joining ESIG, Ela was a Program Manager with the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI). Additionally, he worked for several years with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) as a senior research engineer and before that for the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO).
Alex Shattuck – Director of Grid Transformation
Alex Shattuck, ESIG’s Director of Grid Transformation, has worked across the power industry for more than 10 years, specializing in maintaining bulk power system reliability as inverter-based resource (IBR) penetration increases. Prior to joining ESIG, Shattuck was a Senior Engineer in Engineering & Security Integration at North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC). In his role, Shattuck provides support to the Reliability Working Group, as well as other multidisciplinary ESIG task forces.
Ryan Willis – Director, Marketing & Operations
Ryan is the Director of Marketing & Operations and leads and coordinates ESIG’s marketing and communications efforts and manages the organization’s operational activities. He has more than 15 years of marketing and communications experience, having most recently served as Vice President of Ackermann Marketing and PR.
While at Ackermann, Willis managed a number of ESIG initiatives, including overall communications efforts, social media, webinars and renaming and rebranding the organization.
Karin Matchett – Director of Publications
Karin Matchett supports ESIG’s task force leads and staff in developing clear, compelling reports, fact sheets, and other publications; coordinates graphic design process; and oversees a small team of editorial professionals. She has collaborated with scientists and engineers for 20 years, helping them to translate their expertise and tailor it for the audiences who will use and act on it. She has worked with organizations including several research universities, the National Academy of Sciences, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Union of Concerned Scientists, and the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy. She holds a PhD in the history of science from the University of Minnesota.
Lacey Jamison – Assistant Director, Marketing
Lacey Jamison is the Assistant Director of Marketing, managing ESIG’s marketing and communications initiatives and promotional activities. Prior to joining ESIG, Lacey oversaw growth marketing initiatives for Lendlease, an international property development and investment management firm, for nearly 10 years. She started her career with McNeely Pigott & Fox Strategic Communications, a mid-sized public relations firm located in Nashville, Tenn. Lacey holds a Master of Arts degree in Mass Communication from The University of Florida.
Brooke Brown- Operations & Maintenance Users Group Director
Brooke is ESIG’s Operations & Maintenance Users Group Director. She comes to ESIG with a strong background in the wind industry, supporting two Sites in the Pacific Northwest for over six years. During that time, Brooke has been the lead on projects including curtailment and de-rate analysis, preventative maintenance quality assurance, and training compliance.
Prior to her work in renewable generation, Brooke received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Human Development from Washington State University. She worked in education, teaching GED classes upon graduation.