Energy, Automobile, EV, Renewable News | EnerNex Marks 20 Years of Innovative Solutions for the Electric Power Industry

EnerNex Marks 20 Years of Innovative Solutions for the Electric Power Industry

July 18, 2023

KNOXVILLE, Tenn.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–#20yearsinbusiness—EnerNex, a CESI company, a leading electric power engineering, consulting, and research firm, celebrates its 20^th anniversary this month.

Co-founded in 2003 in Knoxville, Tennessee, by Erich Gunther, Jeff Lamoree, and Bob Zavadil, EnerNex offers a cross-cutting blend of expertise in grid modernization planning and implementation; renewable energy engineering, design, and integration; and electric power systems planning and engineering. Over the past 20 years, EnerNex has gained a reputation of being a go to resource for understanding, analyzing, and solving an assortment of diverse, complex, and unique challenges for the electric utility and power industry.

EnerNex President and CEO Jeff Lamoree reflects, “It’s quite an achievement to see the company that the three of us founded 20 years ago become what it is today. I believe our success stems from the company’s deep-rooted passion for engineering and problem solving, the hard work of our highly experienced team, and our customers around the world who continue to call on us to solve their energy challenges. It is because of this, that we look forward to continued success in the years to come.”

Summary of key achievements:

A month after the company formed, the Northeast blackout of August 2003 occurred. EnerNex developed a white paper explaining what happened and posted it online within hours of the event. The paper went “viral” bringing international attention to the infant company.
Have performed power system studies for over 22 GW of onshore and offshore wind power plants, over 8 GW of solar power plants, and 1 GW of Battery Energy Storage.
The only Tennessee company awarded a contract from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency to research ways of enhancing the cybersecurity of electric utility communication and control systems.
Honored by GridWeek and the U.S. Department of Energy for Innovation in Implementation and Deployment in grid modernization.
Involved in the EPRI IntelliGrid initiative, an effort to lay out an architecture for a self-healing, reliable grid.
Played a crucial role in the development of industry standards for studying the impacts of integrating large amounts of renewables into the power grid. The company led the Eastern Wind Integration and Transmission Study (EWITS) which began by modeling wind resources in a large part of the Eastern Interconnection and finished by conducting a detailed wind integration study and top-down transmission analysis.
Awarded a contract by the U.S. Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in support of the Smart Grid Interoperability Panel standards development and harmonization effort.
Taking the firm’s expertise worldwide with engagements in Papua New Guinea, Ivory Coast, Philippines, the Caribbean and West Africa to modernize the electric power grids overseas.
Active in developing energy system resiliency strategies through multiple projects and thought leadership activities for utilities, Fortune 500 companies, municipalities, and non-profit institutions.
To honor the life and memory of co-founder and Smart Grid pioneer Erich Gunther, the IEEE Power & Energy Society established the Erich Gunther Future Power Innovator Scholarship to recognize those students in a power engineering discipline who are pushing the bounds of current thought to make the power and energy industry better.
In June of 2018, EnerNex joined CESI, a world-leading energy technology and innovation consulting company headquartered in Europe. The partnership has expanded EnerNex’s global footprint, capability, and impact in the marketplace.

In planning for the future, EnerNex announces a key addition to their team. Tom Jones joins as the Director of Transmission and Interconnection with over 30 years of experience involving all aspects of power systems engineering – systems planning and analysis; conceptual plan development; detailed engineering design of facilities; regional operations planning and compliance. Jones is a vital addition to the team as the firm grows its transmission and interconnection service offerings.

Michele Pastore, Chief Business Strategy Officer stated: “I am proud of our 20-year commitment to industry and the contributions of our staff to improve the operation and reliability of electric power systems. As we look ahead, we share a renewed commitment to offer advanced, innovative engineering services. Utilities, asset owners, and the rest of the industry will continue to address the increasing role of wind, solar, and storage as well as the additional complexity of managing high level of Distributed Energy Resources (DER) on the grid and our team stands ready as we solve these challenges together.”

About EnerNex

EnerNex, a CESI Company, is a leader in providing engineering, consulting, and research services to the electric power industry worldwide. Founded in 2003, the company is focused on helping their clients understand, adopt, and leverage new and emerging electric power technologies to advance a cleaner, smarter energy system of the future.

To learn more about CESI, a world-leading innovation, technical consulting and engineering company for the electric power sector, visit: www.cesi.it.

For more information on EnerNex: