Storage Asset Management: Optimizing BESS Operations

Kenneth Kim applies a multidisciplinary background in power plant engineering, energy storage system expertise and commercial market development to his role as Vice President of Technology and Equipment Procurement at Origis Energy.He is responsible to help drive the company’s renewable energy technology roadmap and foster supplier relationships core to the company’s mission to deliver clean and cost effective solar and energy storage solutions. Prior to joining Origis in 2019, Ken held senior management positions with Wärtsilä Energy, the Energy Storage System (ESS) division of Samsung SDI, Intel, Sargent & Lundy Engineers, and the Bechtel Corporation.  He holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering and an MBA from the University of Davis, CA.

Michael Eyman leverages over 25 years of leadership, operations, and business experience in his role as Managing Director, Origis Services. Under his leadership, Origis Services, a wholly owned subsidiary of Origis, manages a growing portfolio of utility scale and distributed generation solar and storage assets across the United States. Prior to joining Origis, Mr. Eyman served as the Vice President of Business Development for MaxGen Energy Services, where he drove significant growth across the distributed generation and utility markets. He also held positions as Director DG O&M and Director of Business Development and Senior Manager for Supply Chain Strategy over 5 years with SunPower. Before taking solar industry leadership roles, Mr. Eyman had a 21-year career in the United States Navy as a Naval Aviator. He served in multiple theaters over 13 deployments and retired at the rank of Commander. He holds a Master of Business Administration from the University of Texas, a Master of Science in Military Strategy and Foreign Affairs, from Air University, and a Bachelor of Science in Oceanography from Texas A&M University.

Stefanie has spent 20 years in the power industry. She supported traditional power plants for over 10 years working with ABB and GE. She then transitioned to the renewable industry where she lead First Solar’s O&M push into the 3rd party O&M space. They became the leading solar O&M provider in the industry.  Stefanie then transitioned from large utility scale solar to community solar by leading the Asset Management/O&M team at Nautilus Solar.  She currently leads the distributed infrastructure and renewable strategy for NAES, the largest power generation O&M provider supporting over 50GW of generation.  NAES is leveraging it’s 40-year operational history to elevate the solar industry by bringing our seasoned focus to safety, operational excellence, rigorous compliance, and uncompromising quality.  NAES provides solar O&M, Asset Management, NERC Services, Energy Solutions and Independent Engineering for utility scale, DG, C&I and Battery Storage plus solar. 

Mr. Hanawalt has worked in the independent power industry since its birth in the early 1980's. Over the past thirty years, has developed a deep set of operational & management skills including start-up engineering, performance engineering, operations management, and asset optimization.Steve started his career as an engineer with International Power Technology. Recognizing personal computing technology allowed engineers for the first time to automatically acquire and process realtime plant data, he founded Power Factors Incorporated in 1986 to provide plant performance analytic services to the power industry. Steve successfully ran Power Factors as CEO for 12 years before being recruited by Calpine in 1999 to develop its Plant Optimization business unit. Steve developed and led the group for 7 years where his team was responsible for optimizing the thermal and economic performance of Calpine’s 25,000 MW portfolio of combined cycle power plants.In 2007, Steve left Calpine to join SunPower Corporation as Global Vice President of O&M where he had responsibility for commissioning and managing the largest fleet of solar photovoltaic power plants in the world at the time. Recognizing the solar industry needed an independent monitoring and asset management software platform, Steve left SunPower in January of 2012 to form Power Factors LLC with two additional partners.Steve is an Executive Vice President at Power Factors where he works with customers to ensure their successful use of the Power Factors’ SaaS solution which is now monitoring over 20 GW of solar and wind power projects around the world.Steve received his Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley in 1982 with a specialization in energy conversion.