Battery Energy Storage Technologies and Applications

Dr. Babu Chalamala (IEEE Fellow) is a Senior Scientist at Sandia National Laboratories. In this role, he provides strategic vision for research areas in grid modernization, energy storage technologies, power electronics, and grid components and manufacturing. Earlier, he was head of the Energy Storage Technology and Systems Department and Program Manager for Grid Energy Storage at the laboratory. Prior to joining Sandia in 2015, he was a Corporate Fellow at MEMC Electronic Materials for five  years, where he led R&D and product development in grid scale energy storage. Before that, he had founding roles in two startup ventures commercializing large format lithium batteries and digital x-ray sources. Earlier, as a research staff member at Motorola and Texas Instruments, he made significant contributions to vacuum microelectronics and flat panel display technologies.

Professor Lee is a professor and the chair of the Electrical Engineering Department at the University of Texas at Arlington. He has been involved in the revision of IEEE Std. 141, 339, 551, 739, and 1584, and the development of 1584.1, 1584.2, 3002.8, and 3002.9. He is the past President of the IEEE Industry Application Society (IAS), co-chair of SusTech Initiative of IEEE TAB Future Direction Committee, member of IEEE TAB Hall of Honor Committee, member of Pillar 4 of the Global Power Systems Transformation (G-PST), chair of IEEE Smart Grid program, chair of IEEE Smart Cities Education Committee, member of IEEE Smart Grid Operation and Education Committees, and member of United Nations (UN) Council of Engineers for the Energy Transition (CEET).

Charlie Vartanian has over 30 years of experience deploying advanced grid technologies, performing electric power system studies, and contributing to technical standards development. Charlie currently consults to the Sandia National Laboratories supporting development of energy storage standards. He previously worked for the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Mitsubishi Electric, DNV KEMA, UET, A123 Systems, Enron, the CA Energy Commission, and Southern California Edison. During his 15 years at SCE, Charlie’s activities spanned grid planning studies through R&D projects including SCE’s Chino and  Catalina BESS projects.  He is a currently Secretary of the IEEE P1547.4 microgrid interconnection guide and is Secretary of the IEEE ESSB’s Energy Storage Collaboration Team. Charlie received his MSEE from USC. Charlie is a licensed professional Electrical Engineer and a senior member of the IEEE.

Waylon Clark is the Demonstration Projects Team Lead for Sandia National Laboratories’ Energy Storage Program. He is passionate about the role energy storage can play in strengthening grid resilience and reliability. Waylon has over a decade of experience in electrical engineering, project management, and technical leadership. He has worked on both brownfield and greenfield projects, from creating requests for proposals (RFP), to commissioning and operations, to decommissioning and disposal.

Mr. Mark Siira is director of utility compliance and solutions for ComRent. Mr. Siira is a senior member of IEEE, and the chair of the IEEE Standards Coordinating Committee 21 which focuses on Interconnection and interoperability standards for fuel cell, photovoltaics, dispersed generation and energy storage.
Mr. Siira is vice chair of the IEEE 1547-2018 Interconnection Standards and the IEEE Power Systems Relaying Committee K10. He’s also a member of the UL standards technical panels. Lastly, Dr. Siira is sub-group chair of the EPRI energy storage integration council.
Mr. Siira’s education includes a Bachelor’s of Mechanical Engineering Degree from GMI Engineering and Management Institute and an MBA from Harvard Business School.