Key Contributors

Mark Paterson

Principal / Lead Systems Architect, Energy Catalyst

Over the last two decades, Mark has developed an international reputation for leading multi-stakeholder collaborations that build trust and holistically address complex energy sector challenges.

Mark’s work at the intersection of strategic foresighting, systems engineering, and multi-stakeholder collaboration has been widely recognised as the global energy sector has experienced accelerating change. Most recently this included delivery of the seminal, end-to-end Reference Architecture of Australia’s National Electricity Market (NEM).

Internationally, Mark is a Fellow of the Pacific Energy Institute and an invited Associate of the US Department of Energy’s GridWise Architecture Council (GWAC). He is also a contributing author for the IEEE Power & Energy and an invited expert contributor to Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) grid resilience activities.

Dr. Jeffrey Taft

Formerly Chief Architect, Electric Grid Transformation, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (USA)

Dr Jeffrey Taft was formerly the Chief Architect for Electric Grid Transformation at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and is now a Fellow of the Pacific Energy Institute. He has played a seminal role in the development of Grid Architecture methodologies through the US Department of Energy’s Grid Modernization Laboratory Consortium (GMLC). He was also a co-lead for the US DOE’s Modern Distribution Grid (DSPx) initiative.

Jeff draws on his unique multi-disciplinary industry experience including electric power systems, software, communications, sensors and signal processing, network theory, and control systems, as well as extensive skills and experience as a system architect. He also formerly held Chief Architect positions related to grid modernization at Cisco Systems, Accenture, and IBM, as well as various engineering positions at Westinghouse Electric Company.

Paul De Martini

Executive Director, Pacific Energy Institute (USA)

Paul De Martini is a globally recognised expert on the business, policy, and technology dimensions of a more distributed power system. He works with utility, regulatory, and government clients on the practical application of architecture for industry transformation, including DER integration and utilization, integrated resilient system planning, and grid modernisation.

Over the past decade, Paul has advised 12 of the largest US electric utilities, over 30 US state regulatory commissions, and market operators in Australia, Canada, and the US in their transformation efforts. Paul is currently the technical lead for the US Department of Energy’s Transmission-Distribution-Customer Operational Coordination initiative and is a principal contributor to the US DOE’s Grid Architecture and Integrated Distribution System Planning programmes. He previously was the chief technology and strategy officer for Cisco’s energy Internet of Things business and vice president of grid and distributed technology at Southern California Edison.