UWIG Announces 2011 Technical Achievement Honorees, Scholarship Recipients

Honors industry leaders for contributions, recognizes students

Reston, Va. – March 30, 2011 – The Utility Wind Integration Group (UWIG) announced today that Jay Caspary of the Southwest Power Pool (SPP), John Dumas of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), and key employees of the New York Independent System Operator, ISO New England, and Hydro Quebec will receive its 2011 Annual Achievement Award. The organization also announced winners for the third year of its scholarship program.

UWIG President Henry Durrwachter will present the awards and recognize the scholarship recipients at a reception during its 2011 Spring Technical Workshop and Annual Meeting held April 14-15 in Kansas City, Mo.

The citation for the award to Caspary notes his "advancement of transmission planning and markets in the SPP footprint."

The citation for the award to Dumas notes his "advances in the development and use of wind forecasts in operations planning in ERCOT."

The citation for the award for New York ISO employees Rick Gonzales, Rana Mukerji, and Dave Edelson highlight "advances in market design and operation to incorporate energy storage and variable renewables in the ISO."

The citation for the award for ISO New England employees John Norden and Bill Henson honor their "contributions to the study and understanding of wind integration issues in ISO New England."

UWIG announced it was honoring three teams of employees at Hydro Quebec for contributions to simulation tools, dynamic modeling, and analysis of power systems with a large share of wind power. The citations honor "Contributions to Large-Scale Real-Time Simulation of Wind Power Plants," led by Richard Gagnon of IREQ; "Contributions to A New Simulation Approach for the Assessment of Wind Integration Impacts on System Operations," led by Innocent Kamwa of IREQ; and "Contributions to the Computation of Dynamic Operating Balancing Reserve for Wind Power Integration," led by Nickie Menemenlis of IREQ.

According to UWIG’s Durrwachter, this year’s slate of honorees reflects the core mission for the organization: "All of these recipients have extended the state of the art and the science of integrating wind generation into utility power systems. Not only has there been an expansion of understanding of how to integrate wind, but there has been significant progress made in the steps to undertake it. As President of UWIG, it gives me great pleasure to announce these awards and to congratulate them."

In addition, the organization announced that Nicole Clock of the Oregon Institute of Technology, Kai Van Horn of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Adam Shirazi of Montgomery College are the recipients of the 2011 UWIG Scholarship Program. Clock and Van Horn will receive $2000 engineering scholarships while Shirazi will receive a $1000 wind plant/turbine technology scholarship. Durrwachter hailed the three as "outstanding students who are poised to make a difference in their areas of study."

The Utility Wind Integration Group (UWIG) was established in 1989 to provide a forum for the critical analysis of wind technology for utility applications and to serve as a source of credible information on the status of wind technology and deployment. The group’s mission is to accelerate the development and application of good engineering and operational practices supporting the appropriate integration of wind power for utility applications through the coordinated efforts and actions of its members, in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy, its National Renewable Energy Laboratory and utility research organizations. UWIG currently has over 150 members from the United States, Canada, Europe, and Asia including investor-owned, public power, and rural electric cooperative utilities; transmission system operators; and associate member corporate, government, and academic organizations.