Alfred University set to host AUEnergy Conference

Alfred University will host the AUEnergy Conference on Thursday, Oct. 23, beginning at 7:30 a.m. The event, themed "Emerging Technology for a Resilient Grid," is a must for energy enthusiasts and power industry professionals. An optional Day 2 Power Quality Workshop will be offered on Friday, Oct. 24.

Speakers include Alfred University alumni Patricia Nilsen '88, CEO of Avangrid companies New York State Electric & Gas (NYSEG) and Rochester Gas & Electric (RG&E); John Edmond '83, founder and research fellow at semiconductor manufacturer Wolfspeed; and John Simmins '84, PhD '90, director of the GE Vernova Advanced Power Grid Lab at Alfred University. Nilsen and Edmond are members of the Alfred University Board of Trustees.

Nilsen earned a bachelor's degree in English from Alfred University in 1988 and went on to earn a master's degree in English from Syracuse University in 1990 and a master's degree in adult education from Elmira College in 1996. She was appointed president and CEO of Avangrid companies New York State Electric & Gas (NYSEG) and Rochester Gas and Electric (RG&E) in 2022 and is the first woman to lead the company in its 175-year history.

Avangrid is a leading energy company working to meet the growing demand for energy for homes and businesses nationwide through service, innovation, and continued investments in expanding grid infrastructure and energy generation projects. Avangrid owns and operates eight electric and natural gas utilities, including NYSEG and RG&E, serving more than 3.3 million customers in New York and New England. As CEO, Nilsen leads the NYSEG and RG&E teams which serve more than 1.2 million electric and 579,000 natural gas customers across more than 40 percent of Upstate New York. She has more than three decades of experience in the energy sector, beginning her career at NYSEG in 1992 in Human Resources.

Edmond earned a bachelor's degree in ceramic engineering from Alfred in 1983 and went on to earn a PhD in materials science from North Carolina State University. While at NC State, he and four other graduate students researched ways to synthesize silicon and carbon to create silicon carbide, a compound sought after by the electronics industry for use in lighting applications and in high power, high frequency, high temperature electronic components. In In 1987, he and five others-including the four fellow graduate students-founded Cree Inc. as a manufacturer of products utilizing silicon carbide technology.

The Durham, NC-based Cree-which changed its name to Wolfspeed when it moved from NASDAQ to being listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2021-is now a global leader in the development and manufacture of wide-band gap semiconductors, focused on silicon carbide and gallium nitride materials and devices for power and radio frequency applications such as transportation, power supplies, power inverters, and wireless systems. In 2022, Wolfspeed opened a $1 billion silicon carbide chip manufacturing facility in Marcy, NY. A nationally recognized scholar, Edmond is the inventor of record for 411 worldwide patents.

Simmins, who has bachelor's and doctoral degrees in ceramic engineering from Alfred University, was appointed director of the GE Vernova Advanced Power Grid Lab in July 2024. The lab, which launched in 2024, is part of a workforce development initiative that will prepare students for careers in the growing renewable energy industry. It is supported by a $466,853 grant from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) and $2.8 million in software licenses donated by GE Vernova.

Frank Guzman (left), an engineer with EDIBON, a manufacturer of grid control and distributed energy systems, discusses equipment his company installed in the GE Vernova Advanced Power Grid Lab with Junpeng Zhan, assistant professor of renewable energy engineering (center), and Dan Lu, associate professor of renewable energy engineering. Tours of the EDIBON lab, which houses state-of-the-art smart grid simulation equipment, will be part of the upcoming Alfred University-hosted AUEnergy Conference.

In July 2025, a state-of-the-art grid control and distributed energy system developed by Spanish company EDIBON was installed in the grid simulation lab, which enhances Alfred University's ability to conduct advanced research on distributed energy resources (DERs) and energy storage. The system includes components for solar, wind, hydro, fuel cells, syngas generation, hydrogen separation, and advanced battery and non-battery storage solutions. The facility benefits students in Alfred's Renewable Energy Engineering and Electrical Engineering programs by providing them with access to state-of-the-art equipment and training. It also supports industry partners, utilities, and government agencies working on renewable energy integration.

Other scheduled presenters include Brian Seal, senior program manager for EPRI, an independent, non-profit research and development organization, which has provided short-course training courses for students and power utility workers through the NYSERDA-GE Vernova supported workforce development initiative; Abdelrahim Brown, director of the Center for Grid Innovation, Development, and Deployment (GrIDD) and Advanced Energy Research and Technology Center (AERTC) at Stony Brook University; Alfred alumnus Behrouz Azimian '19 (M.S., electrical engineering; master's thesis on the design of an Alfred University microgrid system), senior electricity market software engineer, GE Vernova; and Anthony Fiore, chief program officer at NYSERDA. A panel discussion of Emerging Technology Companies is also planned.

The conference will feature a ribbon cutting on the new EDIBON Advanced Power Grid Simulation Lab; tours of labs across the McMahon Engineering Building; a poster presentation of current research by students from Alfred University's Renewable Energy Engineering and Electrical Engineering programs; and a networking reception.

The schedule for Thursday's events is as follows:

• Check in/Registration/Continental Breakfast - 7:30-8:30 a.m. at Powell Campus Center
• Morning presentations - 8:30 a.m.-noon at The Knight Club, Powell Campus Center
• Lunch - noon
• Afternoon presentations - 1-3:45 p.m. at The Knight Club, Powell Campus Center
• Ribbon Cutting of the EDIBON Advanced Power Grid Simulation Lab at McMahon Engineering Building - 4:00 p.m.
• Tours of GE Vernova Lab, Edibon Lab, Battery Testing Lab, and Tiny House - 4:30-5:30 p.m.
• Student Poster Session and Reception, with heavy hors d'oeuvres and bar - 4:30-7 p.m.

Parking will be available behind the McLane Center with shuttles to Powell Campus Center.

Mamodou Wurry Jallow, an electrical engineering major at Alfred University, gives a demonstration on equipment installed in the battery testing lab in the McMahon Engineering Building. The demonstration was given during a class which was offered last spring as part of a pilot workforce training program titled "Training College Students in Battery Degradation and Remaining Useful Life Prediction Using Machine Learning." Tours of the battery testing lab will be part of the upcoming Alfred University-hosted AUEnergy Conference.

The conference offers an optional Day 2 Power Quality Workshop, presented by EPRI.

Why attend the Power Quality Workshop? Power quality has become a core enabler of operational and economic excellence. Utilities worldwide tie it directly to three business outcomes-grid system performance, utility economics, and customer satisfaction. Interest is surging because the grid must deliver more from existing assets, cut operating and repair costs, manage rising edge-of-grid complexity (DERs, EVs, power-electronics loads), and retain and attract load with superior PQ and customer support.

Attendees will connect with industry leaders, top alumni, and innovators in energy technology, leveraging Alfred University's network to accelerate your career and projects. They will also learn cutting-edge strategies for power quality and energy efficiency and learn industry-standard frameworks from EPRI experts; see live demonstrations and real-world case studies; and get access to actionable templates-monitoring plans, mitigation checklists, and ROI tools.

The content is tailored for every audience: manufacturers looking to cut downtime and boost process reliability, utilities aiming to enhance grid resilience and customer satisfaction with proven PQ methods, and Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) members seeking deeper standards expertise (and eligible continuing-education credits, where applicable).

Attendees will walk away with a ready-to-implement monitoring plan, a mitigation checklist for common and advanced PQ issues, and an ROI template to justify investments and improvements. In short: turn hidden PQ problems into uptime, yield, and credibility-learn the standards, see the failures live, and leave with an ROI-backed fix plan.

Register for the 2025 AU Energy Conference, "Emerging Technology for a Resilient Grid," and the Day 2 Power Quality Workshop here.