Erich Gunther, EnerNex Co-Founder, Chairman, and CTO, Passes Away

Jun 20, 2016 | Press Releases

Smart Grid Industry Pioneer Known for Advancing Grid Modernization Efforts

June 20, 2016 03:04 PM Eastern Daylight Time
KNOXVILLE, Tenn.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–
With deep sadness, EnerNex announces Erich Gunther, co-founder, chairman and chief technology officer of EnerNex, passed away unexpectedly on June 18 at the age of 57.

Gunther was most well known for his leadership in fostering collaboration among a wide range of stakeholders to accelerate technology adoption in the energy industry, but to those close to him he was also admired for the excitement and passion he exuded. He spent over 30 years designing and developing innovative solutions for a wide array of power system problems, most notably, engineering communications networks and deploying technologies to improve the efficiency, operating practices and security of the electric power system.

In 2003 he co-founded EnerNex, an electric power research, engineering, and consulting firm based in Knoxville, Tenn., with partners Jeff Lamoree and Bob Zavadil, where he was extremely active in grid modernization and automation through the IEEE and other organizations. He consulted with some of the world’s largest utilities and vendors on how to plan, architect, deploy, test and scale Smart Grids from end to end.

Jeff Lamoree, EnerNex CEO, said, “Erich was not only my business partner for many years, but also a trusted and valued friend. His tremendous leadership, vision and passion for the electric power industry had an impact on the community, the country and the world. We are proud of his legacy and the firm will continue to uphold the standards he set for excellence and integrity. All of us will miss him greatly.”

Bob Zavadil, EnerNex executive vice president and co-founder, said, “I am so privileged and thankful for the opportunity to work closely with Erich for almost three decades, as a colleague, business partner, and most of all, a friend. He had a zest for all things in his professional and personal lives, and enriched those who were fortunate enough to cross his path. Our industry has lost a bright light, and we will miss him.”

Gunther was part of the original team that developed EPRI’s IntelliGrid Architecture and helped oversee its development through its first major application at Southern California Edison for the utility’s AMI and Smart Grid programs.

Gunther was a sought-after speaker for his ability to explain complex concepts associated with energy systems to audiences all over the world in a simple, but technically correct manner. His presentations helped to advance the understanding and collaboration necessary to solve real world energy problems. He held leadership roles within and received prestigious recognitions from many of the key grid modernization groups and standards organizations over the years:

  • In 2004, Erich was appointed to the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) GridWise Architecture Council, served as its chairman from 2010-2012 and continued to actively participate as member and chairman emeritus.
  • From 2010-2014, he served on the IEEE Power and Energy Society (PES) Governing Board as member-at-large for Smart Grid and was past-chair of the IEEE PES Intelligent Grid Coordinating Committee.
  • In 2011, Erich was recognized for his career-long work in the field of electric power quality by being named an IEEE Fellow.
  • He was appointed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) as a “Disaster Resilience Fellow” in 2014 – a program to bring in industry subject matter experts to provide review and input to their Disaster Resilience Framework.
  • He was Chairman of the Board of the Utility Communications Architecture International Users Group (UCAIug), served as Vice-Chairman of the Smart Grid Interoperability Panel (SGIP) board of directors, member of the UTC Smart Networks Council Advisory Board, and was a member of the IEEE Smart Grid Steering Committee.

Gunther was a licensed private helicopter and instrument-rated fixed-wing airplane pilot and aircraft owner, as well as an accomplished home brewer and grill master.

Gunther received his BSEE from Gannon University in 1980 and his Master of Engineering degree in Electric Power Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1984.

Smart Metering (SM) and Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI)

Smart Metering and AMI is a transformational process addressing multiple business and technical needs of the utility enterprise. This is more than just smart meters and communications networks; it includes all of the back end applications that can leverage the meter assets, such as outage notification, demand response, call center optimization, disputed billing process handling, pre-payment opportunities, and service connection management methods and procedures, to name a few.

Implementing SM and AMI faces the same business, engineering, and operational challenges as any other across-the-utility information technology endeavors – most notably risk associated with embracing proprietary technology, missing functionality and early obsolescence. Effective SM and AMI development, implementation, and operation relies on a marriage of electric power engineering with information technology expertise: a key component of EnerNex’s expertise and experience.

EnerNex provides an array of engineering and consulting services geared towards intelligent and effective implementation of SM and AMI. This covers all phases of project development, starting with capturing system requirements where our experts leverage a “Use Case” centric view of activities needed to be accomplished and their interaction with systems and other users. Subsequent project steps typically examine other critical areas, such as: modeling of business cases, building inter-department consensus, assembling and assessing system functional requirements and non-functional requirements, developing a system design, hardware and software specifications and standards, complete procurement services including RFI and RFQ process support, supplier rating system, response evaluation methodology, deployment management, and training of office and field personnel.

Demand Response (DR)

Demand response can be as simple as load interruption directed by the energy supplier in response to severe demand requirements, to complex customer defined load management in response to price signals. DR is one of the components of a “Non-Wires Alternative” that many utilities are effectively using to avoid expensive distribution fortification or upgrade.

 

Often the success and/or failure of demand response programs can be linked to program implementation challenges such as rate/tariff design rate structures communication (e.g. price signals) or ineffective incentives used by utilities to encourage customers to accept operational change. The issues of program design, rate structure and customer impact have a tremendous influence on the success or failure of load management initiatives. Demand response has traditionally been used as a tool of the energy industry to ensure system stability. However, the introduction of microelectronics, communications, home automation and the Internet of Things (IoT) has led to the development of cost effective solutions that have the capability to allow the consumer to take control of managing their energy load and ultimately, the price they pay for energy.

EnerNex has the experience and skills to turn your DR program into a successful operational asset and customer engagement process that can deliver value to all parties.

Energy Assurance Planning

Natural and man-made disasters cause an estimated $57B in average annual costs for all parties; large single events have resulted in losses of $100B or more. Events, such as the World Trade Center disaster, Hurricane Katrina, and most recently Hurricane Helene, have demonstrated an acute need to revisit, revise and implement an effective energy assurance plan. Energy assurance plans assess the functionality and interdependencies of buildings and infrastructure systems and the role they play in sustaining service and rapidly restoring critical services to a community following a hazard event.

 

EnerNex assists our clients in developing comprehensive energy assurance plans that mitigate and minimize the impact of energy disruptions. Our experts assess critical infrastructure risks and evaluate appropriate mitigation strategies and can help in developing an effective business continuity/disaster recovery (BC/DR) plan for utilities and your customers.

Microgrid Development

As the electric grid becomes more distributed and interactive, microgrids are playing an increasingly important role in our energy future. Decision makers at military bases, corporate and institutional campuses, residential communities and critical facilities across the world are exploring and implementing microgrids to meet economic, resiliency and environmental goals. Utility-grade microgrids are being deployed to meet transmission constraints, reliability requirements and safe-havens in the event of a significant storm event.

Microgrid_development Graphic steps to support grid modernization

Bringing together a portfolio of distributed energy resources into a controllable, islandable microgrid comes with its own set of challenges. The key to solving these challenges is in architecting a system to support information exchanges between components across well-defined points of interoperability (interfaces) in a technology independent manner. This interoperability ensures that the system is resilient to technology change. Modern systems engineering techniques must be employed to ensure that individual sub‐systems are clearly identified, their functions enumerated, their data requirements known, and the points of interoperability clearly specified, along with the commensurate monitoring, command and control that is needed to ensure grid stability. With such architecture, we can apply best of breed technology available today to support those information exchanges at interface boundaries but be free to upgrade / change the implementation technology later without causing a ripple effect throughout the system.

Enterprise Architecture

Enterprise Architecture focuses on aligning an organization’s business strategies with its anticipated, desired and planned technology enhancements. Enterprise Architecture provides a framework to cost-effectively transition from a current “as-is” technology to future enterprise-wide technological solutions. An effective Enterprise Architecture program aligns business investments with long-term business strategies while minimizing risk and providing superior technological solutions. EnerNex’s key asset is its highly skilled and experienced staff who are closely connected to both the smart grid and EA standards and practices. We provide clients with the insight necessary to operate a fully functioning smart grid, which is flexible, scalable, and vendor independent.

Grid Modernization Roadmap

Utility companies across the globe are continually modernizing their grid. Each company often has different rationales, objectives and priorities. Frequently, smart grid plans are developed for individual, incremental initiatives, rather than as a part of a whole, intelligent and interoperable infrastructure. Planning may be developed around technology choices rather than business and technical requirements. The result of incremental and flawed planning leads to increased cost and risk, lost opportunities, disconnected expectations and dead ends.

 

EnerNex’s approach to grid modernization roadmap development follows a proven, industry-standard approach to grid modernization planning by collaboratively working with the utility to develop a set of prioritized and time-phased grid modernization initiatives unique to its business strategy and objectives. The roadmap developed is holistic, requirements-based, business value driven and actionable. It often builds on and leverages existing applications and infrastructure, and incorporates industry standards to ensure interoperability, flexibility and reduced cost and risk.

Utility Communications

Utility communication and control systems are increasingly interconnected to each other and to public networks and as a result, they are becoming increasingly more susceptible to disruptions and cyber attacks. EnerNex has experience with the various issues relating to development, implementation and optimization including feasibility analysis, design, software development and customization, project management and acceptance. Our expertise extends from being involved in the development of the fundamental standards that support utility communication and automation, through deployment and securing of those resources. EnerNex personnel were heavily involved in development of such standards and protocols as IEC 61850, IEC 60870-5 and DNp3. Our staff played a key role in the EPRI Utility Communication Architecture (UCA) project and the IntelliGrid Architecture effort.

Related Articles

Related

Grid Modernization & Grid Architecture

Helping our clients implement and integrate grid modernization technologies and processes that are aligned with tomorrow’s utility. A Grid Modernization program frequently includes many complex utility engineering and operational topics, many times the scope of these...

read more

Grid Modernization with Artificial Intelligence

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Introduction The electric power industry is undergoing a transformative era, driven by digitalization, renewable energy integration, and increasing...

read more
X