The Fall Engineering Distinguished Lecture will tackle a topic very much in the news: energy storage. While the overheating of lithium-ion battery in smartphones is currently receiving much attention, energy storage on a large scale is equally important.
The amount of electrical energy derived from photovoltaic and wind sources varies with time, day of the week, season, weather, and other factors. Electrical energy must be stored during times when production exceeds consumption, and returned to the grid when production falls below consumption. Large-scale electrical energy storage is the single most challenging issues that California faces as it moves toward more dependence on renewable sources.
The free lecture will take place on Thursday, Oct. 20 from 5-7 p.m. at The Pointe in the Walter Pyramid. To save your seat, please RSVP. Experts on the distinguished panel will discuss how the available technologies can help solve the energy storage channel.
The speakers include Josh Gerber, Manager of Advanced Technology Integration at San Diego Gas & Electric; Jennifer Didlo, Market Business Leader at AES, Western U.S.; and Taison Tan, Technical Staff Senior Member of the Energy Technology Department at The Aerospace Corp.
At San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E), which is owned by Sempra Energy, Gerber leads enterprise-wide advanced technology strategy, policy, and project alignment, including SDG&E’s energy-storage program and smart grid deployment plan. In his 13 years with the Sempra utilities, Gerber has held multiple senior positions. They have involved policy, strategy, and implementation of energy storage, smart grid, advanced metering, as well as data center infrastructure.
With more than two decades of leadership in power generation, Didlo ’02 is president of AES Southland and AES Hawaii in addition to AES market business leader for the western U.S. For the past six years, she has led business development for AES West, including redevelopment of the California thermal generation fleet. From 2005-2009, she was president and plant manager of AES Deepwater, a 140MW petroleum coke-fired generation facility and AES’ first operating plant. Previously, she was president and plant manager of AES Placerita from 1999-2002 during California’s deregulation era. Prior to joining AES, Didlo held plant manager, supervisory, and engineering positions at Southern California Edison. She was an integral member of the SCE divestiture team during California’s electrical deregulation. She holds an MS in Mechanical Engineering from CSULB.
Dr. Taison Tan has been working with lithium-ion batteries for 14 years, developing products for implantable medical devices, military, aerospace, and automotive applications. He began his work at Quallion, a battery company developing solutions for medical devices and military applications. He transitioned to ENERDEL, where he worked on Department of Energy programs developing batteries for automotive applications, such as the Fisker Karma and THINK EV. He spent a year in China as CTO of a venture developing battery solutions for electric buses, taxis, and grid energy storage products. Before joining the Aerospace Corp., he was VP of Research and Development at 24M Technologies. Dr. Tan holds multiple patents and was awarded the R&D100 award in 2008 for development of a high-power battery for hybrid electric vehicles.