What’s the future of offshore wind on the West Coast? What opportunities could the technology offer utilities looking to diversify their energy portfolios? Further, what challenges might it pose to ocean co-use, and what land-based infrastructure upgrades would be necessary to prepare for potential power flows from the ocean to the coast?
Mark your calendars to join us on Wednesday, April 10, 2024, from 12 PM – 1:30 PM PST, for this exploratory lunch conversation and networking event at the Perkins Coie office downtown Seattle.
Featured Speakers:
Mark Severy, P.E., Research Engineer, Wind-Wildlife Portfolio Manager, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL)
Mark Severy is a research engineer at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and serves as a transmission advisor to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Grid Deployment Office. Mark is a licensed mechanical engineer and excels in interdisciplinary projects combining energy, environment, technology, and policy. His work at PNNL focuses on addressing some of the challenges of offshore wind energy development in the United States, including evaluating transmission system capacity, mitigating environmental effects, and characterizing wind and ocean conditions.
Rob Hammond, Researcher III – Software Engineering, National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Rob is a Research Software Engineer and the Software Lead for the Wind Plant Technology Characterization Task. Rob designs, builds, and maintains software across a wide variety of wind energy research areas, including wake modeling, operational analysis, and technoeconomic analysis. Rob’s focus is on the adoption of software best practices and a documentation driven software development paradigm with the aim to make research software more accessible to researchers and software engineers alike.
Siobhan Doherty, Director of Power Management, Seattle City Light
Siobhan Doherty joined Seattle City Light as the Director of the Power Management Division in September 2022. The Power Management Division is responsible for power marketing, participation in the CAISO Western Energy Imbalance Market, resource planning and acquisition, and managing the utility’s portfolio of wholesale power contracts.
Siobhan is a very experienced energy professional and leader with over 15 years’ experience in the industry. Prior to Seattle City Light she spent 5+ years leading power procurement and planning as Director of Power Resources at Peninsula Clean Energy, a community choice energy agency in California.
In her time at Peninsula, Siobhan helped build a team responsible for responsible for a 3,600 GWh / $200MM+ annual energy supply portfolio, including strategy, analysis, procurement, resource planning, and regulatory compliance. She provided vision and leadership for Integrated Resource Planning and negotiated Purchase Power Agreements (PPAs) over 700MW of renewable energy projects. She was responsible for representing the organization in joint procurement efforts with other community choice energy agencies, including in the first ever solicitation for long duration energy storage.
Before joining Peninsula Clean Energy, Siobhan had a served as Finance Director at EverCar, an electric mobility platform provider. Prior to that, she spent 5 years at SunEdison, a developer, operator and owner of solar power plants, in multiple leadership roles related to project finance, development, contracting, and innovation.
Siobhan is a graduate of Smith College in Northampton MA, with a BA in Government and Environmental Science. She also holds an MBA and an MS from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
Moderator:
Maya Gillett, Washington State Policy Manager, BlueGreen Alliance
Maya Gillett (she/her) is the Washington State Policy Manager for the BlueGreen Alliance, a national organization that unites labor unions and environmental organizations in order to ensure that the energy transition maintains and creates quality jobs and a thriving, equitable economy. Working with over 20 Washington-based organizations, Maya has facilitated work on transmission planning and development; clean building materials; worker safety in refineries; workforce development; implementation of various federal programs funded by both the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (2021) and the Inflation Reduction Act (2022) and the development of an offshore wind supply chain in Washington. She currently sits on the Leadership Committee of the Washington Blue Wind Collaborative; and she has previously served as a board member for the Washington Fair Trade Coalition.
Maya is a graduate of Oberlin College in Oberlin, OH, and a proud member of United Steelworkers Local 2002.
Introductory Speaker:
Ryan Thomas, Counsel, Perkins Coie
Ryan Thomas provides practical, business-centered advice to support his client’s objectives. He helps navigate complex statutory
and regulatory schemes in order to obtain and defend the approvals and agreements necessary to complete projects, while drafting and negotiating bespoke agreements with private and public parties. Ryan’s practice blends land use, real estate, project
development, and energy law. He has experience in administrative law, and both state and federal court. Ryan understands the
pressures and pace of the business community, providing guidance that is sensitive to his client’s business needs.
Land Use and Real Estate Development
Ryan’s land use and real estate development practice focuses on all aspects of project development, including preacquisition diligence, setting and implementing entitlement strategy, implementing public-private partnerships, complying with environmental laws and processes, and drafting and negotiating key agreements necessary to mitigate risk and implement business objectives. He works with the private sector and with school districts and regularly negotiates agreements with local municipalities. Ryan’s work often includes advising around Washington’s State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA), the Growth Management Act (GMA), the Shoreline Management Act (SMA), the subdivision laws, and other statutory frameworks affecting the environment and development.
Energy Counsel
Ryan’s energy practice centers on the complex regulatory framework for energy companies. Ryan leverages his local and federal government knowledge to support strategic, efficient, and successful project development. He has experience advising companies with regulatory issues before the state public utility commissions and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), and regularly negotiates utility franchise agreements that give energy companies the right to occupy and use rights-of-way for utility facilities.