AHMAD GHAMARIAN
Nationality: United States of America
Key Qualifications:
Dr. Ghamarian has over 25 years of management, engineering and teaching experience in the power sectors, largely dealing with power sector issues in developing and emerging market countries. He is currently the President of Energy Markets Group (EMG). Energy Markets Group is an international consulting firm that provides market advisory services to the global energy sector, including utilities, government agencies, regulatory bodies, as well as private sector companies.
As Executive Director of the Energy Group at the Institute of International Education (IIE), he managed all of IIE’s energy related programs. Specifically, Dr. Ghamarian has designed, managed and supervised a series of capacity building/training projects for the power sectors in countries of Asia, Europe, Africa, and Latin America, from the needs assessment stage to training implementation and evaluation. These training projects have included Power Project Financing; Regulation, Restructuring and Privatization; the Economic and Financial Evaluation of Power Projects; and the Human Resources Development and Management of Electric Utility. To do this he has collaborated closely with a wide range of clients, including multilateral and bilateral donor organizations, in-country government ministries, private firms, and NGOs.
During this time, Dr. Ghamarian also served as the Project Director for several USAID capacity building programs in Nigeria and the region, including the Nigeria Energy Training Program (NETP). The NETP was a 2-year in-country project that supported the government in reforming and restructuring Nigeria’s energy sector, a project undertaken with the support of public and private sector stakeholders including the Nigerian Electric Power Authority (NEPA); Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE); Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC); and the Nigeria Gas Company (NGC). Under this program, Dr. Ghamarian directed both the assessment of the Nigeria Energy Training Sector Needs and the implementation of the resulting training program, from 2003-2004. The comprehensive training program was designed to support the development of both the electricity and gas & oil sectors through the following workshops, in which over 120 people from the above-mentioned stakeholders participated:
• Negotiating Power Purchase Agreements for Large Power Projects in Nigeria;
• Electric Utility Planning & Strategic Investment (for the National Electric Power Authority, NEPA);
• Management of a Distribution Company (DISCo): Customer Service, Billing & Metering.
Dr. Ghamarian went to IIE from the Exxon Research and Engineering Company, where he performed research and development, and provided consulting services to promote energy efficiency in Exxon’s refineries and chemical plants worldwide. Previously, he served as a Project Engineer with the Combustion Energy Company in Tehran, working on the design of several power-generation projects for the Iranian onshore/offshore oil industry. Dr. Ghamarian has served as Adjunct Assistant Professor at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, in the areas of energy and power, and as Adjunct Professor at The George Washington University, teaching Power System Engineering and Power System Economics. He is the author or co-author of over two-dozen technical reports and papers on energy and power that focus on efficiency and planning for sustainable development. His last report is titled Best Practices in Electricity Regulation in Latin America.
Education:
Ph.D., Mechanical Engineering (Energy Technology), The George Washington University, Washington, D.C., 1981
M.S., Mechanical Engineering (Energy and Environment), The George Washington University, Washington, D.C., 1977
B.S., Electrical Engineering (Power Systems), The University of Technology, Tehran, Iran, 1972
RAFAEL GRANJA
As a manager of Distribution Planning Department of FPL, I ensured that all of our HR needs of the department were met. This included the career development and human resource planning, hiring, training, perform evaluation, salary administration and compensation benefits. Additionally, I dealt with any other HR function adhered to through either existing systems or processes. Our HR structure is set both at a Corporate level and at a Business Unit level. Each Business Unit is responsible for their own needs, but will follow the corporate guidelines for higher corporate efficiency.
Experience:
2/04 – Present
Power Systems Project Manager on FPL’s new Automatic Meter Infrastructure (AMI) project. Responsible for identifying, redesigning and deploying all process changes associated with cost and efficiency benefits due to the AMI technology. This includes redesign of the Outage Management system and other Power System applications.
1/01 – 2/04
Manager of Distribution Planning. Responsible for managing a department whose output was FPL’s Substation and Distribution Expansion Plans. These included plans for 1, 5 and 10 year look ahead. This department accounted for 24% of Power Systems yearly Capital Budget. I was responsible for contracting a company that now does saturation
Studies for FPL, and it’s output was a an instrumental piece in FPL’s TLSA for the West Coast.
11/99 – 1/01
Manager of Distribution Reliability. Responsible for managing a department that identified, budgeted and deployed all the Reliability type programs for Distribution. This department was also responsible for recommending the yearly operating targets for the Distribution Business Unit.
2/99 – 11/99
Program Manager of the OFC Group. Responsible for managing a group that was replacing all the Oil Fuse Cutouts (OFC) from the Distribution grid. During my tenure we lowered the cost of replacing the equipment by 20% and increased removal productivity by 30%, through budgetary and process changes.
8/97 – 2/99
Distribution Regulatory Coordinator. Responsible for all activities relating to reviewing and responding to Florida Public Service Commission pertaining to FPL’s Distribution Business Unit.
5/93 – 8/97
Power Delivery’s Emergency Coordinator. Responsible for coordinating all aspects of FPL’s Power Delivery’s Business Unit Emergency plans. These plans included emergency coordination for Generation and Transmission Capacity Shortfall situations.
7/95 – 8/97
Power Supply Operations Engineer. Responsible for analyzing the reliable operation of the transmission system, through short term studies and transmission line clearances. Also identified transmission lines Available Transfer Capabilities per the 888 and 889 FERC changes. Worked and received accreditation on both the Generation and Interchange desks in Power Supply.
5/93 – 7/95
Power Supply Contract Coordinator. Responsible for ensuring Interchange Contracts were modeled correctly in Power Supply’s Energy Management System (EMS) and its Utility Billing System.
7/91 – 5/93
Power Supply System Engineer. Responsible for identifying future system needs for the EMS, Load Forecast and any other system that affected transmission or generation operations.
4/98 – 7/91
Protection and Control Engineer. Responsible for the Installation and Maintenance of protective relays in our Generation Plants (Turkey Point and Cutler) and in our Transmission and Distribution Substations.
