Invenergy Innovation, Technology & Agility

What project are you most excited to work on in 2025, and what is particularly compelling about this work for you?

Without a doubt, it’s Invenergy’s Grain Belt Express transmission project. Not only does this project have a number of interesting technical challenges within the design of the HVDC converter stations themselves but the complexity and magnitude of the project make the interfaces just as interesting. This means that our HVDC engineering team gets the opportunity to explore and support many different areas, including overhead line design, interconnection studies and commercial and regulatory aspects.

What does the roadmap for this project look like? Who will you collaborate with, and what challenges will you need to overcome in the process?

The team working on this project makes it truly special. Internally, we have a passionate group of individuals working together to solve new and exciting challenges. Externally, we work with experienced equipment manufacturers, construction partners and owners’ engineering firms to help oversee the design. We’ve faced a number of significant challenges in the past — and will face many more, I’m sure — but getting to work through them with the team that we have on this project is a blast.

What in your past projects, education or work history best prepares you to tackle this project? What do you hope to learn from this work to apply in the future?

In this role, it really feels like we get to use our engineering degrees every single day. In addition to education, the transmission line design and construction experience I received in my prior role at Invenergy has been valuable. While a converter station certainly looks different from a transmission line, many of the principles and skills learned on transmission lines remain relevant. This year, I am looking forward to continuing to learn more about the power system studies aspects of these projects.