Principal Power Systems Engineer
Academic Background
- M.S., Electrical Engineering, California State University, Sacramento 2008
- B.S., Electrical Engineering, University of California, Davis 2003
Professional Experience
Joseph Gillette has 20 years of experience performing power system studies as an electrical engineer in the electric utility industry. His expertise is in transmission planning for entities in the Western Interconnection. He has also served as a subject matter expert for many of the NERC Reliability Standards that are applicable to the Transmission Planner (TP) and Planning Coordinator (PC) functions.
Mr. Gillette has worked at Utility System Efficiencies, Inc. (USE) from 2010 to 2013 and from 2019 to the present. During his tenure at USE, he has contributed to power system studies across the Western Interconnection, including a system impact study for a proposed 500-kV transmission project, annual planning assessments, interconnection studies, operating nomogram studies, and a major WECC three-phase rating process. These efforts have involved steady-state, post-transient, transient stability, and reactive power margin analyses, demonstrating technical expertise across multiple study disciplines. He has also developed tools and programs to automate and support power system studies.
Prior to returning to USE, Mr. Gillette worked at Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) from 2009 to 2010 and again from 2013 to 2019. In his final role at SMUD, he served as Grid Planning Department Manager, where he led a team of six transmission planning engineers responsible for planning SMUD’s 230 and 115 kV bulk system. He was the inaugural Chair of the Planning Coordinator Committee of the Balancing Authority of Northern California (BANC), where he served as the subject matter expert for fourteen TP and PC standards for BANC members SMUD, Modesto Irrigation District, the City of Redding, and the City of Roseville. Before becoming a manager at SMUD, Mr. Gillette performed technical studies supporting regulatory compliance and enterprise objectives as a transmission planning engineer. His work included SMUD’s first NERC CIP-014 study, which received a positive observation from WECC, as well as minimum generation studies and interconnection studies for generation and load projects, among other assignments.
Earlier in his career, Mr. Gillette performed power system studies in support of both the Transmission Planning and Transmission Operations departments at the Turlock Irrigation District, an electric and water utility in Central California. He also played a key role in demonstrating compliance with the brand-new NERC reliability standards.
Mr. Gillette also worked as an Energy Specialist in the Electricity Analysis Office at the California Energy Commission. In that role, he performed production cost model studies of the Western Interconnection, evaluating the impacts of various scenarios and policy initiatives. He developed software tools to support the collection and analysis of generation, transmission, and load data.
