Leadership
The LDES National Consortium will maintain a Leadership Team of 14 positions that will champion the development and success for the LDES National Consortium.
Six Leadership Team positions will be held for the duration of the project by the following individuals in representation of the National Laboratories that received federal funding to develop the National Consortium:
Will McNamara
Principal Investigator
Sandia National Laboratories
Will McNamara is the Principal Investigator for the Long Duration Energy Storage (LDES) National Consortium, representing Sandia National Laboratories as the lead lab for this effort. He also leads the Policy & Regulations Tiger Team for the National Consortium.
Will serves as Grid Energy Storage Policy Analyst for Sandia National Laboratories with a focus on energy storage policy development at the federal and state levels. Will has spent his entire 30-year career in the energy and utilities industry with a concentration on regulatory and legislative policy. He has served as a lobbyist in California and has represented major utilities across the U.S. in numerous jurisdictions in proceedings pertaining to integrated resource planning, procurement, cost recovery, rate design, and the development of policymaking best practices. Will’s areas of subject matter expertise, in addition to LDES policy, include distributed energy resources, AMI/smart grid, renewables, and competitive retail markets.
Patrick Balducci
Argonne National Laboratories (ANL)
Patrick Balducci is the Manager of the Power Systems and Markets Research Group in the Center for Energy, Environmental, and Economic Systems Analysis at Argonne National Laboratory. At Argonne, he also serves as the Lab Relationship Manager over the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Renewable Power Programs and the DOE Office of Electricity Energy Storage Program. Prior to joining Argonne, Patrick served as a Chief Economist at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) where he served for nearly 20 years. At PNNL, he led the energy storage analytics team where his research focused on storage valuation, integration, performance characterization, and control systems. Mr. Balducci has led research efforts evaluating the benefits of energy storage at 19 sites across the U.S. with combined power and energy capacities of 3.4 GW and 51 GWh, respectively, and leads efforts to enhance economic assessment tools for DOE. He holds a BS in Economics from Lewis and Clark College, where he graduated with honors, and an MSc in Applied Environmental Economics from the University of London, Imperial College of London.
Thomas Mosier
Idaho National Laboratories (INL)
Thomas Mosier is group lead for Energy and Water Systems Analysis within INL’s Power and Energy Systems Department. His research focuses broadly on innovations to support the clean energy transition. As examples, this includes supporting public utilities to navigate decarbonization, identifying and analyzing pathways to significantly reduce the cost of long duration energy storage technologies, and advancing the use of hybrid generation and storage systems to enhance market participation of the generation while also increasing local grid resilience. Before coming to INL in 2018, he worked in the World Bank’s Office of the Chief Economist for South Asia. In that capacity he led research to inform climate, water, and energy policy in South Asia. Thomas holds a dual-major doctorate degree in water resources engineering and mechanical engineering from Oregon State University.
Zhiwen Ma
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)
Dr. Zhiwen Ma is a senior engineer in the Thermal Sciences R&D Group at National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). He received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology (2000) and a M.S.M.E. degree from the University of Akron (1996). He was Test and Modeling Engineer at FuelCell Energy for six years since 2001 and worked at General Electric (GE) Aviation before joining NREL in 2009. His research focuses on particle thermal energy storage (TES), hydrogen production, and concentrating solar thermal power. Zhiwen is leading the research projects on long duration energy storage (LDES) using particle-based thermal energy storage, thermal and electrochemical modeling for electrolysis technology development, and solar fuel production. His research works on energy storage, solar receiver, advanced supercritical carbon dioxide power cycle, thermal and electrochemical modeling have been applied in Generation 3 concentrating solar power, solar fuel and hydrogen production. He has expertise in modeling and testing of particle TES, renewable solution and system development, component performance and cost analysis. He served as an associated editor for Frontier in Energy Research, has published over 80 papers, numerous technical reports, two book chapters, and was awarded fourteen patents.
Jeremy Twitchell
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL)
Jeremy Twitchell is a senior energy analyst at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, where he leads PNNL’s work on the Equitable Regulatory Environment thrust area of the Department of Energy – Office of Electricity’s Energy Storage Program. His research focuses on identifying the regulatory barriers that impede the deployment of energy storage technologies and best practices for reducing or eliminating those barriers, as well as providing technical assistance to states on energy storage-related topics. He also supports other efforts at the lab in areas related to grid planning, utility regulation, rate design, and energy system equity. Prior to joining PNNL, Jeremy spent five years at the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission.
Hope Corsair
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL)
Dr. Hope J. Corsair is a Grid Energy Economist in the Electrification & Energy Infrastructure Division at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. She specializes in cross-disciplinary and interdisciplinary work at the technical, social, economic, and environmental nexus of our rapidly changing energy landscape. Her work focuses on electric grid resilience, hydroelectric power-grid interaction, and community-scale energy solutions. Energy justice is a cornerstone of her work. Prior to joining ORNL, Dr. Corsair was a faculty member in Electrical Engineering & Renewable Energy at the Oregon Institute of Technology, and worked in resource planning and energy systems modeling in the electric power industry. She earned her PhD from Johns Hopkins University.
Two of the positions on the Leadership Team will be held by individuals from the National Laboratories and are reserved for the advisory roles for the Business Development Partner and DEIA (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility) Partner, who will also maintain their roles for the duration of the project.
Kailey Wulfert
Sandia National Laboratories (SNL)
The Business Development Partner will aid in recruiting and communicating with Teaming Partners; lead the production of accessible communication materials; support outreach events; and lead the Stakeholder Engagement Group.
Since 2018, Kailey Wulfert, Technical Business Development Specialist, has been partnering with Sandia National Laboratories’ Grid Modernization and Energy Storage Program leadership to create and implement strategic plans, manage winning proposal submissions, and develop customer relationships through marketing/messaging and event coordination. In her role, she partners with management and technical staff to lead the development of strategies that identify high priority program development opportunities and drive internal investment decisions. Kailey manages the creation and submission of competitive proposals to key sponsors, having submitted 300+ proposals to date. In addition, she leads efforts to facilitate customer and partner engagements through site visits, conference organization, discovery and outreach, and development of outreach materials. Kailey holds a B.S. in Population Health and Psychology and an M.B.A. with concentrations in Strategic Management/Policy and Human Resources/Organizational Behavior, both from the University of New Mexico.
Torrey Lyons
Idaho National Laboratories (INL)
The DEIA Partner will ensure benefits of LDES commercialization are equitably distributed; collaborate with communities and organizations for outreach and developing DEIA-focused deliverables; and lead the Community Outreach Task Force.
Torrey Lyons is a social scientist focusing on how transportation and energy decisions affect people, the environment, and economies. He is a research scientist in the Mobility Analytics group at the Idaho National Laboratory. He recently completed a detail to the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation where he worked on equity and tribal engagement. His award-winning dissertation examined social equity in transit service, establishing a new method for quantifying equity in transit and finding that regions with better transit experience lower levels of unemployment and poverty. Dr. Lyons has published articles on transportation outcomes associated with compact development, improvements to travel demand modeling, and the economic effects of transit service, among other topics. He has taught research methods for urban planners, land use and transportation planning, program and policy evaluation, and urban economics in the US and abroad. Prior to joining the Idaho National Laboratory and the Joint Office, Dr. Lyons worked in consulting and academia.
Seven positions on the Leadership Team are held by individuals from current Teaming Partners in the LDES National Consortium. The Teaming Partner positions on the Leadership Team will be determined yearly through a nomination process open to the entire population of official Teaming Partners. The following individuals serve as the Industry Leadership Team for 2024.
Todd Q. Adams
Visibility Marketing, Inc.
Todd Q Adams is the owner of Visibility Marketing Inc., and he has over 20 years of experience delivering grid modernization and clean energy transition advisory services to investor-owned and municipal electric utilities nationwide. While leading the North American marketing strategy development for an energy and utilities services firm, Adams served on the Mayors Business Advisory Council for the United States Conference of Mayors. To support national innovation, he advised the Idaho National Laboratory in establishing an enterprise change management practice.
Leading the Community Benefits Plan development for a $30 million U.S. Department of Energy Long Duration Energy Storge grant in Wisconsin, Adams is helping to ensure environmental justice for tribal communities. In fighting for climate crisis economic justice from his Houston base, he serves as an advisor to underserved Climate Tech startup founders. Longer term, Adams is helping public utility clients explore clean energy transition strategies for coal plant closures, wind and solar generation, electric vehicle adoption, and energy storage innovation.
Dr. Gaurav Argade
Cummins Inc.
Dr. Argade has more than 18 years of experience in industry and academia in the field of Materials Science and Engineering. He presently works as a Stationary Energy Storage Engineer in the Advanced Decarbonization Technologies Team at Cummins Technical Center, Columbus, IN. Throughout his professional career, the focus has been on the Materials Processing-Structure-Property correlation and understanding the degradation and failure mechanisms of engineering materials. In the course of his journey, he authored peer-reviewed publications, technical reports, failure analysis reports, and internal materials specifications, supported multiple product launches, and assisted in current product support. At Cummins, he was part of a team that developed an electrochemistry lab at Cummins Technical Center for corrosion evaluation and played a crucial role in developing an elevated temperature electrochemical testing facility unique to global Cummins catering niche testing needs across business units. He also has contributed to working in the areas of additive manufacturing with experience in solid-state friction stir processing and powder metal binder jetting of materials. Currently, his efforts are aimed at developing capabilities within Cummins in the area of battery energy storage systems for long duration energy storage applications. Dr. Argade has a Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from Missouri S&T, Rolla, MO, and a Master’s in Business Administration from Kelley School of Business, Indiana University.
Elias Greenbaum
GTA, Inc.
Elias Greenbaum is President of GTA, Inc., a company whose mission is applying offshore wind and ocean energy to power subsea green hydrogen production. He is a member of the Green Hydrogen Working Group, Oceantic Network. He served a 3-year term as board member of the California Hydrogen Business Council. He has a proven track record in technology commercialization in the fields of biosensor and biomedical implant technologies. He held research, academic, and industrial positions at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, the Rockefeller University, and the Union Carbide Corporate Research Laboratory. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is a former staff scientist and group leader in the Chemical Technology/Chemical Sciences Divisions at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and received the ORNL 2000 Scientist of the Year award. He received the Department of Energy’s Distinguished Mentor award. More than 100 undergraduate and graduate students over 30+ years received practical lab experience working in his ORNL research group. He is a UT-Battelle Corporate Fellow and a UT-Battelle Distinguished Inventor. He received a Ph.D. in physics from Columbia University.
Kimberly Johnston
NextGen Energy Partners
Kimberly Johnston is the President of NextGen Energy Partners focused on catalyzing public and private sector collaborations to mobilize capital towards clean and reliable energy projects. She serves as a special advisor to several U.S. States on launching transformative energy initiatives.
She has 30 years of strategy, finance, policy, and regulatory experience in the energy sector serving in executive roles with Fortune 500 energy companies and global consulting firms. Kimberly previously served as EY’s Americas Power & Utilities Partner and Global Energy Transition Leader, CenterPoint Energy’s Corporate Finance Officer and Vice President of Tax, and began her career with the U.S. Treasury.
Kimberly has a proven track record in unlocking emerging energy markets with smart policy measures, forward-thinking regulations, and novel financing structures. She has testified on behalf of clients on complex energy structures and innovative ratemaking designs before FERC, Public Utility Commission of Texas, and other regulatory agencies.
She has played an instrumental role in comprehensive energy growth strategies for investor-owned utilities, natural gas pipeline companies, and competitive market participants resulting in billions of economic value for communities and investors.
Kimberly is a frequent speaker at National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) and numerous global energy conferences, served on policy committees for Edison Electric Institute (EEI) and American Gas Association (AGA), led CEO-CFO DC-Fly-Ins on policy priorities for the power and utilities industry, and served as Finance Chair for the Texas Taxpayers and Research Association (TTARA) and Co-Founder of the Houston Tax Executive Institute (TEI). She has hosted climate and energy sessions convening the public and private sector at the United Nations Climate Change Conferences in collaboration with the Coalition of Rainforest Nations.
She is a CPA and holds a B.S. in Accounting from University of Utah and certifications from Harvard, Northwestern University, Southern Methodist University, and Idaho University.
Mike L. Perry
Largo Clean Energy (LCE)
Mike previously worked for 20+ years at the former United Technologies Corporation where he led multiple teams focused on advanced electrochemical-flow-cell technologies, such as fuel cells, redox flow batteries, and electrolyzers. This work included developing what ARPA-E has described as a “breakthrough flow battery stack.” This technology was successfully scaled up to a complete product via a close collaboration between Mike’s team at United Technologies Research Center and Vionx Energy (which was subsequently acquired by Largo). Mike has been the Principal Investigator on four different ARPA-E projects. Mike was inducted as a Fellow of the Electrochemical Society in recognition for his “key innovations in fuel cells and redox flow batteries,” and he is a named inventor on 80+ issued U.S. Patents. Mike was an officer and aviator in the U.S. Navy for 9 years, and he is a veteran of the 1991 Gulf War.
Dr. Indresh Rampell
Holtec Government Services
Dr. Rampall, a veteran of the nuclear industry with 25+ years at Holtec, is a Consulting Engineer in the Holtec’s Nuclear Consultants International (NCI) division. Dr. Rampall received his Ph. D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Notre Dame in Indiana (1993) and B. Tech. in Chemical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi (1978).
Dr. Rampall has been leading analysis and testing efforts supporting safety analysis packages developed at Holtec. Specifically, he has been leading the efforts on thermal design and evaluation methodologies for metal and concrete dry cask storage systems which employ natural circulation cooling to reject decay heat and site-specific accident evaluations using Computational Fluid Mechanics models for many of Holtec’s clients. He has been leading the efforts on analysis and testing the Holtec’s Neutron absorber MetamicTM which has been successfully approved by the NRC and EPRI and is being currently used in many nuclear power plants. He has worked on the thermal-hydraulic design and analysis of natural circulation cooled Small Modular Reactors and on the integrity analysis of PWR steam generator under corrosive environments. As a leading analyst, Dr. Rampall has authored over 100 Holtec Technical Reports in areas including fluid dynamics, thermal evaluation, local temperature analysis and time to boil calculations.
Dr. Rampall’s recent work is focused on repurposing retiring coal fired power plants by converting them into energy storage and on-demand clean power delivery plants using Holtec’s Green Boiler Technology. He is also working to integrate Green Boiler technology with an advanced solar collection system to generate base-load power.
Rachel Wilson
Form Energy, Inc.
Rachel Wilson joined Form Energy in February 2022 as the Manager of Strategy and Market Development. In her role at Form, Rachel analyzes data to inform product strategy decisions, as well as regulatory and policy decisions, and to demonstrate the value of multi-day storage in both vertically-integrated and deregulated markets. She is an internationally recognized expert in utility resource planning and electric system modeling. Prior to coming to Form, Rachel spent 15 years as a public-interest consultant where she led projects related to the integration of renewables and storage into the electric grid in support of decarbonization goals. She has testified as an expert witness in dozens of utility dockets in 16 different states, as well as in Queensland Land Court in Australia. Rachel has a Bachelor of Arts in Environment, Economics, Politics (EEP) from Claremont McKenna College and a Master of Environmental Management from Yale University.
