Diane Barr
Camas LLC

Colin Sasthav
Department of Energy

David Howell
Avista

DESCRIPTION

Pot pie of speakers representing various financial positions in the hydropower market including merges & acquisitions, federal grants/loans, rate cases, buy/sell, marketplace valuations, and considerations with the changing federal programs.

This panel is within the Hot Topics at the conference. 
This is a general interest topic relevant to anyone working in the Northwest.  

Moderator:
Diane Barr, CEO, Camas LLC

Panelists: 

• Matt Shapiro, CEO, rPlus Hydro
• Colin Sasthav, Technology Manager, Dept. of Energy Water Power Technologies Office
• David Howell, Director of Generation and Maintenance, Avista
• Drew Martin, Energy Markets Trader, PacifiCorp

Speaker Bios:

• Diane Barr is the owner and founder of Camas, LLC, a regulatory consulting firm supporting the energy industry for over 25 years.  Ms. Barr has spent a portion of her career working within regulated and non-regulated energy companies and owning and operating a company.  This diverse background has allowed her to support power market strategies, inter-connection agreements, outdated flood curves restricting generation, asset acquisition due diligence, and barriers to market for small hydro operations.  She has presented in the US and Central America on standing up top-tier corporate compliance programs for environmental and asset management.   Ms. Barr remains committed to the future of hydroelectric power in our national grid resiliency through her Board of Director role with the NWHA, NHA participation, and membership in the US Society on Dams Public Safety Committee.  

• Matthew Shapiro first entered the field of renewable energy development nearly 35 years ago, when he started out as a wind energy site scout and development strategist. He immediately saw the potential for the use of pumped storage hydro to firm wind energy and compete against fossil generation, but there wasn't much interest at the time. In 2009, seeing an emerging need for new energy storage resources, he formed Gridflex Energy to pursue the best new pumped storage prospects in the US. In 2019, Gridflex and then-new renewable energy development firm rPlus Energies joined forces to create rPlus Hydro, which today is a leading developer of new US pumped storage projects, including two at the Final License Application stage with FERC. Matthew leads the pumped storage development effort.

• Colin Sasthav is a Technology Manager for the Department of Energy Water Power Technologies Office. He earned his PhD in Energy Science and Engineering from the University of Tennessee Knoxville where he studied how to reduce costs and improve environmental performance for small hydropower. Now he manages a portfolio of hydropower research and development initiatives focusing on small hydropower development, advanced materials and manufacturing, and innovation testing with the goal of getting sustainable hydropower technologies in the water.

• David Howell has been working in the energy industry for regulated utilities for over 25 years. He has engineering, operations, and leadership experience related to gas transmission and distribution system, electric transmission and distribution, and both thermal and hydro generation.

• Drew Martin is a Short-Term Energy Market Trader at PacifiCorp, helping to manage PacifiCorp’s operational needs across its six state service territory.  Drew’s background in Real-Time and as a Generation Operator, give him the insight to optimize PacifiCorp’s diverse generation fleet with its system obligations.   Drew’s knowledge of market fundamentals along with his diverse background give him the ability to meet the challenges of a changing regional landscape.