Let's Connect
Contact us
Thank you for reaching out, we will be in touch shortly!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.
The Ascend Summit brings together prominent electric power experts to offer new perspectives on wholesale electricity markets, resource planning, green energy purchasing, battery storage, and merchant portfolio management.
The wide-scale adoption of renewable energy continues to create unprecedented structural change in energy supply. The Ascend Summit explores how to maximize the value of renewable project development and clean energy procurement by:
Professionals involved in utility and power planning, clean energy procurement, power development, and project financing including:
Take a deep dive into the exigent drivers for valuation, commercial structuring, and power procurement planning by attending Ascend’s pre-conference workshops.
Speaker:
Dr. Gary Dorris, CEO, Ascend Analytics
Pathways toward clean power grid from the longest tenured commissioner at FERC addressing: transmission build-out, wind monopolies, interconnection queue, rational economics vs regulatory precedence, distributed vs utility scale resources.
Keynote Speaker:
Allison Clements, Commissioner, FERC
The rapid acceleration of the Energy Transition has created new opportunities and challenges. In this panel, we will explore what we might expect next on a pathway of decarbonization marked by burgeoning demand. We will discuss the macro drivers, economic opportunity, hourly RECs, and impediments of queue reform, transmission, and reliability.
Moderator:
Dr. Gary Dorris, CEO, Ascend Analytics
Guest Speakers:
Allison Clements, Commissioner, FERC
Brent Morgan, Principal of Energy Strategy, Meta
Michael Enger, Vice President of Market Operation & Resource Planning, Austin Energy
Robert Shaw, CEO, Central Coast Community Energy
Reiko Kerr, SVP/CFO, MEAG Power
We‘ll review current power purchase values and trends portend for the future offtake prices along with the implications of 24x7 green on renewables, REC values, and storage. Changes to the future value of RECs to be time (hourly) sensitive and has significant implications for choices made today. In addition, a tightening capacity market creates additional exposure factoring into supply decisions. We will explore from the purchases perspective how to best position clean supply with a different future while meeting supply goals including: what it takes to realize 24x7 green, offtake structures and pricing for flexible loads, market conditions and expectations for future of procurement.
Moderator:
Anthony Boukarim, Director of Resource Planning & Valuation, Ascend Analytics
Guest Speakers:
Becca Glazer, Senior Director Energy Transformation, Walmart
Jared Ellsworth, Director of Transmission, Distribution & Resource Planning, Idaho Power
John Mertlich, Managing Director of Energy Supply Management, Grant PUD
The pathways to 100% clean power require significant irreversible commitments today to realize these goals. Learn the strategic approaches, critical criteria, and supply fundamentals to commit capital today and advance these goals with minimal regret. We‘ll also discuss what makes a clean supply portfolio robust and when marginal cost of abatement can achieve more productive carbon reduction value beyond the power sector.
Moderator:
Brandon Mauch, PhD, Managing Director of Resource Planning, Ascend Analytics
Guest Speakers:
Pedram Mohseni, Senior Director of Power Supply & Fuels, Duke Energy
Matthew Tomc, Vice President Regulatory Policy & Energy Supply, Ameren
Denis Obiang, Director of Power Planning, LADWP
Bleau LaFave, VP of Power Supply, NorthWestern Energy
Scott Lesch, Power Resources Manager, Riverside Utilities
Changes in tax equity to assume risk and the transfer of tax credits have changed the capital stack for project financing. Merchant developers with large tax credits are challenged to meet the risk criteria of traditional tax equity. For utilities with hundreds of billions of dollars in tax equity, we will be looking to monetize these credits through new transfer vehicles.
Moderator:
Hilary Lefko, Partner, Norton Rose Fulbright
Guest Speakers:
Robert Walsh, Managing Director, Blackstone
George Barlow, Partner, Novogradac & Company
Andrew Waranch, CEO, Spearmint Energy
David Haug, CEO, Bildmore Renewables
Sponsored by:
Transitioning from fossil to renewables holds the potential to create cycles of excess and shortages leading to depressed and extreme prices. Where, when, and how do opportunities unfold for renewables, storage, and DERS and what are the indicators of opportunity.
Speaker:
Brent Nelson, PhD, Managing Director of Markets & Strategy, Ascend Analytics
With interconnection queues jammed for both supply & load, the economics of hyper-localized power disrupting the landscape of power procurement.
Moderator:
Jon Powers, President, CleanCapital
Guest Speakers:
Mark Gabriel, CEO, United Power
Vibhu Kaushik, Senior Vice President, Prologis
The emerging standard of 24x7 clean has led to hourly REC values and premiums for clean sundown energy and the opportunity for storage to realize REC values. With multiple approaches for around-the-clock clean energy, from hourly load matching to measuring the locational marginal emissions, the costs of compliance and value of hourly REC‘s change.
Moderator: Mark Dyson, Principal, RMI
Guest Speakers:
Lena Perkins, PhD, Director of Planning & Technology, Palo Alto Utilities
Alan Cordova, Head of Renewables, Ever.green
Henry Richardson, Senior Analyst, WattTime
Erik Hansen, Chief Sustainability Officer, Wynn Resorts
Moderator:
Adam Hise, Managing Director of Storage Risk Solutions, Ascend Analytics
Guest Speakers:
Jacob Steubing, VP of Operations, GridStor/Goldman Sachs
Todd Johansen, VP of Origination, Intersect
Greg Silverberg, SVP of Strategy & Capital Efficiency, REV Renewables
Moderator:
Mike Huisenga, Managing Director of Bid Optimization, Ascend Analytics
Guest Speakers:
Daniel Casement, Director of Operations, Arevon
Matt Everett, Principal, Clearway Energy Group
Pablo Berruecos, Director of Storage Analytics, EDP-R
Antoine Bourdon, Director of Short-Term Operations, Total
Moderator:
Robert LaFaso, Director of Forecasting and Valuation, Ascend Analytics
Guest Speakers:
Norman MacArthur, Manager of Hourly Operations, Dominion Energy
Jingqi Yang, Managing Director, SoftBank Energy
Dylan Arnould, Managing Director, John Hancock
Jon Sarno, VP of Finance, New Leaf Energy
Moderator:
Jeff Hartsough, Managing Director of Asset Operations, Ascend Analytics
Guest Speakers:
Bob Moye, Senior VP, Tyr Energy
Adam Nygaard, Director of Business Development, FlexGen
Tiffany Elliott, Founder, Clean Capital Partners
Grant McDaniel, Director of Hybrid Engineering, Wellhead
Irrational exuberance or carpe diem, will today's winners be tomorrow's losers? What are projects selling for, rationalizations, and assessment of the current market conditions for asset sales by market, state, and location. What creates sustained project value and when is it at risk?
Moderator:
Rahm Orenstein, Managing Director of Ascend Energy Exchange, Ascend Analytics
Guest Speakers:
John Switzer, CEO, SMT
Hagen Lee, CEO, Peregrine Energy Solutions
Enjoy Boulder's best local hikes with your Ascend guides.
We have two hike options: one more strenuous, and one more flat. Shuttles will take hikers to the trailhead. If you are hiking, wear sturdy shoes and be prepared for changing weather conditions. For those not wishing to hike, we will have lawn games at Chautauqua Park.
Black Diamond: 1st/2nd Flatirons Trail
Strenuous 3.6 miles with 1,446 feet of climbing
Blue Square: Bluebell Trail to Enchanted Mesa
Moderate 2.5 miles with 500 feet of climbing
Green Square: Lawn games of Chautauqua Park
Relaxing 0.0 miles with 0 feet of climbing
Advance your skills and market knowledge with technical sessions across the Ascend product suite.
For those wishing to stay in Boulder throughout the afternoon, Ascend staff are available to be your guides to local breweries, road cycling, gravel cycling, or eBiking around town. Please notify Ascend if interested.
A - PowerSIMM Planner
B - PowerSIMM Portfolio Manager
C - BatterySIMM
D - SmartBidder
For those wishing to stay in Boulder throughout the afternoon, Ascend staff are available to be your guides in local breweries, road cycling, gravel cycling, or eBiking around town. Please notify Ascend if interested.
Brandon Mauch, PhD, Director of Resource Planning Analytics; and Zach Brode, Manager of Analytics.
Scott Wrigglesworth, VP of Operations & Strategy
Brent Nelson, PhD, Managing Director of Markets & Strategy; Santiago Saravia, Renewable Energy Analyst; Robert LaFaso, Manager of Resource Valuation
Jeff Hartsough, Managing Director of SmartBidder; Tapas Peshin, Manager of Bidder & Trading; Jonah Simon, Director of Battery Products Development
.webp)
Dr. Gary Dorris is a trailblazer in the realm of renewable energy, recognized as a visionary expert with over two decades of pioneering solutions for energy risk management and portfolio planning. As the founder and CEO of Ascend Analytics, he has spearheaded the organic growth of the company into a prominent provider of cutting-edge quantitative software solutions for energy portfolio management and data infrastructure. With an exceptional understanding of applied economics and finance as a Ph.D. from Cornell University and his remarkable track record spanning more than twenty years, Dr. Dorris has consistently been at the forefront of innovation in the field of renewable energy and battery storage. His groundbreaking analytical innovations have paved the way for the development of over a dozen proprietary software applications, utilized by a vast network of over 300 energy and renewable resource companies.
Dr. Nelson leads the forecasting practice at Ascend Analytics and is a renowned expert in new market dynamics, storage and renewable project valuation, resource planning, and renewable integration. Prior to joining Ascend, Dr. Nelson was an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Northern Arizona University, while also holding a collaborative appointment with the directorate of Scientific Computing and Energy Analysis at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. He also worked for the US Department of Energy from 2014-2016, focusing on technology research and development programs for energy efficiency and demand side management. Dr. Nelson holds PhD and MS degrees in mechanical engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology, and a bachelor ‘s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley.
Dr. Brandon Mauch leads a team of analysts at Ascend in providing modeling support for resources planning. He is currently managing work for NorthWestern Energy and Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. Prior to joining Ascend, Brandon was a Senior Program Manager for CLEAResult Consulting where he managed utility energy efficiency and demand response programs for Midwestern utilities. Before that, he was a Utility Regulation Engineer for the Iowa Utilities Board where he worked on regional energy policy issues, resource planning and rate cases for Iowa’s investor-owned utilities. Brandon holds a Ph.D. in Engineering and Public Policy from Carnegie Mellon University where his research focused on wind power forecasting and risk assessment of wind forecasts. He also holds a master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin and a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Kansas.
Mr. Boukarim conducts renewables valuation and resource planning for utilities and CCAs. His portfolio of projects in the US includes resource valuation, RFO administration, and forecasting analyses for Clean Power Alliance, Peninsula Clean Energy, Burbank Water and Power, Salt River Project Power, and Water, among others. Prior to joining Ascend, Mr. Boukarim worked at Arthur D. Little/McKinsey & Co as a management consultant in their Energy & Utilities Practice. In addition to four years of international experience in the energy sector, he holds a master’s degree in Energy Resources Engineering from Stanford University and a bachelor‘s degree in mechanical engineering from the American University of Beirut.
Mr. Hise leads the development and commercialization of insurance-backed revenue risk transfer offerings for clean energy assets. Mr. Hise founded and led the EnSurance team at Ascend, developing novel risk shifting products to advance storage and renewable energy deployment. Prior to Ascend, Mr. Hise held management roles at Scout Clean Energy and provided strategy consulting with emerging renewable tech businesses. Mr. Hise holds an M.S. in Environmental Science & Engineering from UNC, Chapel Hill and a B.S. in Biological Systems Engineering from Virginia Tech.
Dr. Fisher leads the Ascend Portfolio Analytics team and has spent the last 15 years of his career in the energy industry, most recently as Duquesne Light’s head of business development where he grew a development platform for the utility’s unregulated businesses. Dr. Fisher has a deep understanding of what developers and project finance professionals need across the project lifecycle. His doctoral research at Carnegie Mellon explored the technical, economic, and emissions impacts of distributed storage, where he created a battery optimization model that explored how storage behaves when responding to retail and wholesale value streams. Dr. Fisher holds a Ph.D. in energy policy from Carnegie Mellon University and a BS in economics and BAS in systems engineering from the University of Pennsylvania.
Mr. Hartsough leads the SmartBidder business, Ascend‘s real-time operations optimization platform for storage, renewables, hybrids, and load. He works across the technical and commercial teams to drive platform innovation centered on customer needs and ensure customers fully realize the value of SmartBidder‘s optimization capabilities. Prior to joining Ascend, Mr. Hartsough was a senior product manager at Cisco Systems, and led product development on energy, IoT, and cybersecurity products. He holds an MBA from the University of California, Berkeley and a BA from Yale University.
Mr. Orenstein leads Ascend Energy Exchange, an analytics-based marketplace that enables Ascend customers to buy and sell high quality energy storage and renewable energy projects effectively. Prior to Ascend, Mr. Orenstein spent 15 years holding executive positions in the renewable energy industry, including as CEO of Sunflower Sustainable Investment, Ltd (TASE: SNFL), a global developer and IPP of renewable energy and energy storage; VP Business Development – Energy Storage and VP Business Development – Americas, at Ormat Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: ORA), a global developer and IPP of renewable energy and energy storage. Mr. Orenstein holds an MBA from Reichman University and a BS degree in Mechanical Engineering from Tel Aviv University.
Mr. Saravia serves as a senior renewable energy analyst on the storage products team, where he leads valuation efforts for dozens of storage projects across deregulated U.S. power markets, including project f inance and M&A support for over 5GW of hybrid and standalone projects in Texas and California. Mr. Saravia is an expert on location-specific Inflation Reduction Act tax incentives for renewable and storage projects, having developed maps to identify current and future eligibility. Mr. Saravia earned his bachelor‘s degree in environmental Analysis and Economics from Pomona College.
Zach Brode leads resource planning, portfolio management, and valuation projects. He also manages the development of PowerSIMM. Zach joined Ascend after completing his M.A. in Economics at the University of British Columbia. At Ascend, Zach works with utility clients to model energy systems in support of capacity planning and resource assessment and valuation. He also has experience with avoided cost analysis and new resource power procurement analysis.
Prior to joining Ascend Analytics, Mr. Huisenga was a Senior Vice President and Energy District Business Line Leader with WSP USA, a Top 5 ranked design firm by Engineering News Record (ENR), spending 15 years in roles covering sustainability services, renewable energy, and management. Mr. Huisenga experience also includes leading Product Strategy for Spruce Power, a Residential Solar & Battery Storage Asset Management f irm. Mr. Huisenga earned his Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Iowa and his Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.
Robert LaFaso leads Ascend Analytics’ Market Intelligence (AscendMI) day-to-day practice area, which encompasses the development of long-term supply-stack, market-price, and project-economics forecasts. His work influences Ascend‘s software suite, as AscendMI forecasts drive the analytics behind PowerSIMM and BatterySIMM. Mr. LaFaso conducted the Valuation Due Diligence for many significant M&A transactions, including the multi-gigawatt portfolios behind TerraGen’s sale to Masdar and Origis Energy’s sale to Antin Infrastructure Partners. Mr. LaFaso holds a B.S. in Energy Systems Engineering from the University of Wyoming and a M.S. in Engineering Management from the Colorado School of Mines.
Commissioner, FERC
Director of Business Development, FlexGen
Managing Director,
John Hancock
Partner,
Novogradac & Company
Director of Storage Analytics, EDP-R
Director of Short-term Operations, TotalEnergies
SVP, Strategy & Capital Efficiency, REV Renewables
Director of Operations, Arevon Energy
Principal, RMI
Senior Vice President, Market Operations & Resource Planning, Austin Energy
Director of Market Optimization & Trading, Clearway Energy Group
CEO,
United Power
Senior Director Energy Transformation, Walmart
Chief Sustainability Officer, Wynn Resorts
Senior Financial Planning & Analysis Manager, Grant PUD
VP of Origination,
Intersect
Senior Vice President, Prologis
Founder, Clean Capital Partners
VP of Power Supply, NorthWestern Energy
CEO,
Peregrine Energy Solutions
Renewable Energy Tax Partner, Norton Rose Fulbright
Manager of Hourly Operations, Dominion Energy
Senior Director of Power Supply and Fuels, Duke Energy
Principal Energy Strategy, Meta
Director of Power Planning, LADWP
Resource Planning Director, Idaho Power
Director of Planning & Technology, Palo Alto Utilities
President,
CleanCapital
Senior Analyst,
WattTime
VP Finance,
New Leaf
Chief Commercial Officer, Perfect Power
VP of Operations, GridStor/Goldman Sachs
CEO,
SMT Energy
Vice President Regulatory Policy and Energy Supply, Ameren
Managing Director, Blackstone
CEO,
Spearmint Energy
Managing Director,
SoftBank Energy
Products
Consulting
©2024 Ascend Analytics. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy.
.svg){kind=small}
.webp){kind=small}