WASHINGTON, D.C. – August 10, 2015 – (RealEstateRama) — Bobi Garrett, deputy laboratory director for strategic programs and partnerships at the Energy Department’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), was recognized by the Denver Business Journal as one of the region’s top female executives in the energy industry.
Garrett was featured in the Business Journal’s second annual Women in Energy special publication and honored at an event in July. The newspaper recognized the accomplishments of 40 women working across all areas of the energy sector.
Garrett’s work at NREL combines broad experience in energy research management, energy analysis, and strategic planning, along with a deep understanding of the Energy Department’s renewable energy and energy efficiency programs.
“I am honored to be recognized on behalf of all women at NREL, and in clean energy more generally, who have chosen this career path and are making a difference in transforming energy systems,” Garrett said.
Other NREL research teams and professionals won several prestigious awards for their work, including honors for NREL’s work with small business, innovations with energy-related data and four works by NREL researchers were honored with the “Best Conference Paper” awards at the IEEE Power & Energy Society’s meeting in Denver
Energy Department Honors Dunn for Small Business Efforts
The Energy Department recently selected NREL’s Rexann Dunn as its Facility Management Contractor Small Business Program Manager of the Year. As the small business program lead at NREL, Dunn received the award during the 14th Annual DOE Small Business Forum & Expo. Dunn was credited with establishing new relationships with small businesses, and reaching out to small or start-up businesses that may be able to provide products or services to NREL. The DOE’s Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization presented the award.
Weers, Brodt-Giles Hailed for Innovation
Jon Weers and Debbie Brodt-Giles received Energy Innovation Awards at DOE’s inaugural Energy Open Data Roundtable in Washington, D.C. DJ Patil, the White House chief data scientist, presented the awards to Weers and Brodt-Giles for their work on OpenEI. OpenEI is a free and open knowledge-sharing platform created to facilitate access to energy-related data, models, tools, and information. Two examples of data projects built on OpenEI are the U.S. Utility Rate Database and the DOE Open Data Catalog. Brodt-Giles is NREL’s digital assets manager and section supervisor for the OpenEI project, while Weers is a senior web strategist at NREL.
Brodt-Giles Shares in International Grand Prize
Brodt-Giles also shared in the grand prize award given by the International Society for Professional Innovation Management (ISPIM). Attendees of the ISPIM meeting in Budapest chose the Energy Department’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s (EERE) SunShot Catalyst program as the winner from among three finalists. SunShot Catalyst was a virtual hackathon that encouraged participants to come up with innovative approaches for the solar industry. Brodt-Giles supplied those participating in the collaboration with NREL data and tools.
Hudgins Wins for Clean Cities Program
Andrew Hudgins, a project leader in the Transportation and Hydrogen Systems Center at NREL, was among the recipients of the National Park Service’s 2015 Director’s Partnership Awards. The award was presented for Hudgins’ work on the Energy Department’s Clean Cities National Parks Initiative, a partnership designed to reduce petroleum use and greenhouse gas emissions in national parks. Hudgins is project leader for the initiative and manages it for the Energy Department.
Researchers Take Prizes for Conference Papers
Four works by NREL researchers were honored with “Best Conference Paper” awards at the IEEE Power & Energy Society’s meeting in Denver.
In the category of Grid Operation and Management, Sudipta Chakraborty, Andy Hoke, and Blake Lundstrom won for “Evaluation of Multiple Inverter Volt-VAR Control Interactions with Realistic Grid Impedances”; and Blake Lundstrom, Peter Gotseff, Julieta Giraldez, and Michael Coddington won for “A High-Speed, Real-Time Visualization and State Estimation Platform for Monitoring and Control of Electric Distribution Systems: Implementation and Field Results.”
In the Power System Modeling and Simulation category, Hongyu Wu, Ibrahim Krad, Anthony Florita, Jie Zhang, Bri-Mathias Hodge, and Eduardo Ibanez won for “An Assessment of the Impact of Stochastic Day-Ahead SCUC on Economic and Reliability Metrics at Multiple Timescales”; and Bryan Palmintier and Tim Hansen won for “A GridLAB-D Communication Interface for Smart Distribution Grid Simulations.”
NREL is the U.S. Department of Energy’s primary national laboratory for renewable energy and energy efficiency research and development. NREL is operated for the Energy Department by The Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC.
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