Director, Executive Engineer Consultant
Academic Background
B.S., Electrical & Electronic Engineering, with a specialty in Power Systems Engineering, Washington State University, Washington 1991
Professional Experience
Ron Calvert is an engineering professional with a strong technical background and a deep understanding of the electrical utility industry. Mr. Calvert has over 27 years of power system experience spanning both transmission system planning and operations engineering. Mr. Calvert is proficient in the use of analytic tools for evaluating system performance and is well-versed in the capital planning processes used by electric utilities. Mr. Calvert joined Utility System Efficiencies, Inc. (USE) in 2005. At USE, Mr. Calvert has completed a wide range of projects such as transient stability evaluations, post-transient analysis, power flow analysis, simultaneous import limit (SIL) studies, generation and transmission interconnection studies and generation congestion analyses.
While employed at the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) from 1997-2005, Mr. Calvert held various positions. As the manager of CAISO’s Loads & Resources/Network Applications group, he helped compose and present seasonal Resource Adequacy Assessments for both the CAISO’s internal use and for submittal to regulatory agencies, including the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WECC), Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), California Energy Commission (CEC), California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) and the California State Senate, Legislature and Governor’s Office.
As the manager of CAISO’s Network Applications group, Mr. Calvert supported 3-8 engineers in the technical design and start-up development of the CAISO’s ABB Ranger EMS State Estimator, Advanced Applications, and the Network Model. Mr. Calvert helped facilitate internal and external communication: developing and actively promoting a vision for the EMS State Estimator and Advanced Applications, including managing expectations of how these new tools might change the roles of various CAISO departments. Deployment of the CAISO Network Model required coordination with and cross-checking of, the various power flow models and contingency definitions used by the CAISO engineering staff, California utilities and WECC. The work also included managing complexities of several different aspects of the project, including: real-world experience in the feasibility and use of Common Information Model (CIM) format, CIM model usage by other software vendors (Siemens, Areva), support of the WECC West-Wide Model vision and future uses of the Network Model and SE solution in the CAISO’s future Market Redesign and Technology Upgrade (MRTU) effort.
While employed at Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) from 1991-1997, Mr. Calvert held various positions. At the advent of industry restructuring in 1996-1997, understanding PG&E’s electrical transmission system became a critical factor in developing policies around reliability-must-run generation. Because of Mr. Calvert’s familiarity with the system and ability to provide technical guidance and clear explanations regarding PG&E transmission constraints, Mr. Calvert helped co-author “Appendix B: PG&E Must-Run Requirements” for PG&E’s July 19, 1996 FERC Filing on Market Power. Mr. Calvert was also selected as one of PG&E’s key task force members to participate and contribute to the first “California ISO Transmission Reliability Study” to determine must-run generation requirements (also known as the PTI Must-Run Study).
