Power Plant Sales
Resume:
PETER J. SPINNEY
Spinney and Partners
Education
M.P.A. Graduate School of Public Affairs, University of Washington (Specialization in energy economics and technology assessment)
B.S. Psychology, University of Illinois (experimental design and quantitative research methods)
Professional Experience
September 2017-Present: Executive Director, Spinney and Partners
Broad-based consultancy leveraging Mr. Spinney’s extensive skill set and broad network to help businesses, trade organizations and NGOs navigate difficult choices involving energy economics and changing technology. Projects have included a comprehensive analysis of economic analysis in support of regulatory pricing policy for New England nuclear power plants; and evaluation of the North American market for advanced fossil-fired power plant instrumentation, and benchmarking and best practices assessments for power producers that became familiar with Mr. Spinney’s capabilities through their experience with NeuCo and/or CRA.
June 1998 -August, 2017: Director, Markets & Technology, NeuCo, Inc.
Founded in 1998, NeuCo helps electric power producers improve profitability, emissions compliance and market position through optimized asset performance. As NeuCo Founder, Mr. Spinney identified the technology opportunity on which formation of NeuCo is premised, developed the initial business plan, attracted investors, and recruited its Management Team Spinney. He was instrumental in all sales through the early years of NeuCo operations, as well as ongoing formal responsibilities for business development, product management and technical sales management. He also led successful development of business relationships with all NeuCo business partners. NeuCo was acquired by GE in April, 2016. He retained the same responsibilities and took on additional functions under GE ownership for two years after the acquisition.
February 1990-June 1998: Principal & Director Energy Resource Planning, CRAI
During eight years with Charles River Associates, Mr. Spinney both sold and led a wide variety of electric power and natural gas projects, initially as a Senior Associate and subsequently as a Principal and Director of Electric Power Planning. He oversaw several large-scale DSM impact and process evaluations, helped architect an integrated resource planning program, and served as an expert witness with consistently favorable outcome in a variety of regulatory cases. Mr. Spinney helped was instrumental in writing several industry guide-books for the Electric Power Research Institute on competitive bidding for energy supply and DSM as well as best practices for DSM program evaluation. He also developed several simulation models for applications such as integrated resource planning, determinations of need, and quantifying stranded-investment-related exit charges.
February 1989-January 1990: DSM and Energy Efficiency Consultant to Northeast Utilities
As part of a one-year contract through Synergic Resources, Mr. Spinney both performed and managed vendors for a wide array of commercial and industrial DSM and energy efficiency evaluations. Subsequently while at CRAI he was hired by NU to help develop their integrated resource planning efforts required by both Massachusetts and Connecticut regulators.
June 1986-February 1990: Electricity Policy Advisor at the Washington Utilities Commission
Mr. Spinney spent three years advising the three appointed Commissioners on all facets of electric power policy. He also led successful efforts to design and implement some of the earliest US efforts at Integrated Resource Planning and competitive bidding initiatives that opened former regulated electricity markets to competition. During this time Mr. Spinney played an active role in the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners and helped lead technical support for NARUC's DSM and Energy Efficiency Committee, working closely with US utility commissioners and utility CEOs.
July 1984-June 1986: Director Program Evaluation at the Washington State Energy Office
During his two years at WSEO Mr. Spinney developed and led a team of six professionals charged with quantitative evaluation of the impacts of all state- and federally funded DSM and energy efficiency programs administered by this agency. During this time he also developed and implemented a comprehensive database management system to replace antiquated paper file management of a $10 million per year federally funded energy efficiency program for institutional buildings (government, schools and hospitals).
Mr. Spinney also held DSM and energy efficiency program evaluation and generation resource planning positions for more than a year at Seattle City Light first as part of a paid graduate school internship and subsequently as a full-time employee.
Summary of Capabilities
Mr. Spinney has exceptional skills in business strategy, channel management, leadership, and management of cross-functional teams. He is equally effective in management roles and as an individual contributor, especially when such capabilities are needed to land large sales with important strategic accounts. He is a proven technology visionary, having founded and grown a company based on big data, machine learnings, and edge computing before any of these terms were commonly used. His ability to combine in-depth knowledge of complex technologies and the markets in which such technologies are sold and deployed consistently provided win-wins for customers and shareholders alike. The same capabilities combined with strong social skills make him very strong for managing partnerships, trade alliances and sales channels. Mr. Spinney is an accomplished professional and has a strong track record providing the leadership required to grow technology businesses. He brings a combination of business development, strategic and market planning, sales process, and product management.
Mr. Spinney has in-depth knowledge of the theoretical and practical issues relating to advanced analytics, machine learning, edge computing, IoT, Industry 4.0, generation planning, power plant management, instrumentation and control systems, power systems modeling, electric and gas utility regulation, and competitive power markets. He has throughout his career applied a variety of quantitative and qualitative research methods in helping utilities acquire resources, develop integrated resource plans, and formulate long-term business strategies. Mr. Spinney has particular expertise in the areas of technology commercialization, competitive power markets, engineering economics, and risk analysis.
While at NeuCo, Mr. Spinney was responsible for a diverse array of market, business and product development, including:
Founded and grew the company to become the industry-leading provider of power generation software solutions;
Helped develop of a full-scale professional sales team comprised of National and Technical Account Managers;
Oversaw joint sales and technical efforts with NeuCo partners Babcock Power, Black & Veatch, Yokogawa, Zolo Technologies, Alstom and GE;
Supervised a team of power industry veterans employed for technical sales support and developed an internal process for their certification as optimization "gurus."
Managed the successful integration of NeuCo's closed-loop optimizers with Zolo Technologies tunable diode laser-based in-furnace combustion measurement system.
Spearheaded and helped manage successful proposal for a $19.1 million 4-year US Department of Energy Clean Coal Power Initiative at Dynegy's Baldwin Energy Center;
Broadened NeuCo's market presence and brand recognition through publication and presentation of multiple technical papers, case studies, and conference presentations in every year.
Led efforts to build upon NeuCo's success with its initial combustion optimization product with large-scale multi-million dollar deals for its newer products focusing on optimal boiler cleanliness, thermal performance, and the detection, diagnosis, and remediation of equipment health issues with reliability implications.
Served as formal liaison between Sales, Marketing and Product Management departments to help ensure that NeuCo R&D and technology development efforts were responsive to the needs of the electric power generation market that NeuCo dominates.
Helped develop and awarded US patent on application for optimal dispatch of generating units based on real-time marginal fuel and emissions costs.
Developed a highly visible NeuCo market presence through regular blogs on market and technology developments that continues to attract a wide audience in power generation and closely followed my major industry trade publications.
Mr. Spinney has been involved, either as project manager or a senior team member, in the development of a wide variety of optimization models for electric utilities and other power producers over the last 25 years. He is an accomplished and sought-after public speaker. While at NeuCo his blog drew a wide audience and was frequently quoted in a variety of industry trade journals.
Selected Publications and Presentations
Mercury Species & Multi-Pollutant Control at the Texas NRG Limestone Generating Station. Coal-Gen 2009. With Terry Smitherman & John Hudspeth, NRG Texas Limestone and
Steve Piche & Rob James, NeuCo, Inc. August, 2009
Integrating In-Furnace Measurements with Combustion Optimization. Electric Power 2009 Conference, Chicago, Illinois. With Mario Sanjuan, CPS Energy, Ron Zimmerman, Zolo Technologies, and Vikas Malik, NeuCo, Inc. May, 2009.
The Financial Benefits of Flexibility with Real-Time Asset Optimization. Energy Central Newsletter. CyberTech, Inc. February, 2009.
Nations First Completed CCPI Project: Optimization for Plant Emissions & Performance. Coal-Gen Conference, Charlotte, NC. Co-Authored with Joe Naberhaus, Dynegy, Inc. August 13, 2008
Boiler Optimization and SCR Systems: Reducing NOX, Managing Tradeoffs. With Rob James. Power Engineering Magazine, July 1, 2008.
Artificial Intelligence To help power plants weather the industry’s sea change. Electric Light & Power, November-December 2007. Volume 85.
Substantial Progress in Clean Coal Power Initiative Results. Power Engineering Magazine, January 2005. Pennwell Corporation.
Real-Time Optimization for Today’s Plant Challenges. Electric Power 2002 Conference. St. Louis, Missouri, March 18th, 2002.
Optimization and Emissions Compliance Strategies. Multi-Pollutant Control Strategies Workshop, CoalGen Conference, Chicago, Illinois. July 25th, 2001
ProcessLink Technology for NOx Reduction at Fossil Steam-Turbine Generating Units. Presentation to the California Air Resources Board. Sacramento, California, May 16, 2001.
Information Technology and Today’s Power Generation Industry. IBM/Xcel Energy Technology Forum. Denver, Colorado, February 12, 2001.
NeuCo’s ProcessLink Optimization Technology. Presentation to Massachusetts Senate Energy and Natural Resources Senate Committee Chair Bruce Tarr. Massachusetts State House, October 17th, 2000.
Neural Networks For Real-Time Optimization. With Ian Willetts. Power Plant Performance and Reliability Conference, August 21, 2000.
Neural Networks For Real-Time Optimization. With Curt Lefebvre. Power Plant Performance and Reliability Conference, December 10, 1999.
Applied Neural Network Simulation: An Overview. With Curt Lefebvre. Rutgers University Advanced Workshop in Regulation and Competition, January 17, 1997
“Public Utilities, Technological Change, and Industry Structure: Insights From the Telecommunications Front”. With Bridger Mitchell. The Virtual Utility: Accounting, Technology, and Competitive Aspects of the Distributed Utility. Edited by Shimon Awerbuch and Alistair Preston. Forthcoming.
Monte Carlo Simulation Techniques and Electric Utility Resource Decisions. With G.C. Watkins. Energy Policy, Volume 24, Number 2. February 1996.
Estimating DSM Program Impacts for Large Commercial and Industrial Electricity Users. With Robert Fagan, Manju Gokhale, Daniel Levy, and G.C. Watkins. Presentation at 1995 International Energy Program Evaluation Conference, Chicago, IL, August 1995.
Aligning Regulatory Incentives with IRP Policy Goals. CRA White Paper developed for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. April 1994.
Mexican Energy Policy Perspectives. With G.C. Watkins. Draft Report and presentation for PEMEX, April 1994.
Demand-side Information Systems for Electric Utilities. With Robert Fagan. EPRI Report, June 1994.
Impact Evaluation of Commonwealth Electric’s Custom Rebate Program. With G.C. Watkins and Robert Fagan. CRA report, April, 1994.
Addressing Uncertainty and Risk as Part of Electric Utility IRP. Workshop for the Missouri Public Service Commission, sponsored by the Regulatory Assistance Project. September 22, 1993.
The Importance of Customer Research in the Utility Industry of the 1990s. With P.S. Fox Penner. CRA report produced on behalf of the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI). May 10, 1993.
Methods for Competitive Resource Procurement. Workshop for the Pennsylvania Public Service Commission, sponsored by the Regulatory Assistance Project. April 2, 1993.
Process Evaluation of Commonwealth Electric’s Custom Rebate Program. With W.H. Babcock. CRA report, November 1992.
Process Evaluation of Commonwealth Electric’s Small Commercial Efficiency Program. With W.H. Babcock. CRA report, September 1992.
DSM Process Evaluation: A Guidebook to Current Practice. With P.D. O’Rourke and J. Peters. EPRI Report TR-100647. May 1992.
Risk Analysis and Integrated Resource Planning. Canadian Electrical Association’s Annual Meeting, November 1992.
Organizational Barriers to the Implementation of Commercial and Industrial DSM Programs. Presented and published as part of the 1991 International Energy Program Evaluation Conference in Chicago. August 1991.
The Acquisition of Third-Party Demand-Side Management Resources. With Peter S. Fox-Penner and Paul D. O’Rourke. EPRI Report CU-7362, June 1991.
Integrating Third-Party Generation and DSM Bids. Presented as part of the Sixth Annual Cogeneration and Independent Power Market Conference in New Orleans, April 1991.
Indirect Costs of Third Party Transmission Services: Issues, Precedents, and Methods. With Peter S. Fox-Penner. Edison Electric Institute monograph April, 1991.
Competitive Procurement of Electric Utility Resources. With Peter S. Fox-Penner and Paul D. O’Rourke. EPRI report, July 1990.
Least-Cost Planning and Competitive Bidding: Mutually Exclusive Paths or Interlocking Parts? Presented and published as part of the National Regulatory Research Institute’s Biennial Regulatory Information Conference, September 1988.
Least-Cost Planning at the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission: Its Evolution and Prospects. With Steve Aos. Published in the Solar Energy Association of Oregon’s Seogram, July 1988.
Least-Cost Planning and Avoided Costs: Evaluating Resources for an Uncertain Future. Policy paper for the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission, June 1987.
Estimating Employment Impacts for Conservation and Renewables: A Simple Input-Output Approach. Published and presented as part of the Interstate Solar Coordinating Conference Annual meeting, May 1986.
The Washington State Solar Bank: A Comprehensive Program Evaluation. Washington State document, November 1985.
Software in the Evaluation Context: Choosing and Using the Right Tools. Published and presented as part of the Second National Conference on Energy Conservation Program Evaluation, Chicago, Illinois, August 1985.
Economic Analysis and Program Evaluation. Published and presented as part of the Second National Conference on Energy Conservation Program Evaluation, Chicago, Illinois, August 1985.
Appropriate Technology Small Grants Program in Washington State: 1979 1984. Washington State document, October 1984. Resulted in national recognition for the Washington State Energy Office.
Seattle City Light Geothermal Exploration Studies. Published and presented as part of the 8th Annual Electric Power Research Institute Conference on geothermal energy, June 1984.
Contact Information
Peter Spinney
99 Roslindale Apt 2
Boston, Ma 02131
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