ABOUT THE SPEAKERS:

Mark Siira is the Director of Utility Compliance and Solutions for ComRent International, a leader in load testing solutions for critical facilities and utility-scale systems.   Mark is responsible for technology strategy, external communication content.  
Mark is a senior member of IEEE and currently active as a leader in several standards making organizations; Chair of IEEE Standards Coordinating Committee 21. In this role, he leads the development of all interconnection and interoperability standards for Fuel Cells, Photovoltaics, Dispersed Generation, and Energy Storage. Concurrently, he is Vice-Chair for IEEE1547-2018 Interconnection Standard, and is sub-group chair of IEEE P1547.1 installation evaluation and commissioning.   
Mark was a member of the writing committee for IEEE 2030-2011 and was the chair of IEEE 2030.2-2015
Mark has a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering Degree from GMI Engineering and Management Institute (now Kettering University), and an MBA from Harvard Business School. 


Charlie Vartanian is a Sr. Technical Advisor – Storage Reliability and Integration, within PNNL’s Electrochemical Materials and Systems Group. His focus is the advancement of reliability and integration of grid connected energy storage systems.
Charlie has over 25 years of power industry experience deploying advanced grid technologies, performing electric system studies, and contributing to technical standards development. He has worked previously for Mitsubishi Electric, UET, DNV KEMA, A123 Systems, Enron, the California Energy Commission, and Southern California Edison. During his 15 years at Southern California Edison, Charlie’s activities spanned traditional T&D planning through R&D.  He is a currently Secretary of the IEEE 1547.9 Guide for DER Energy Storage Interconnection working group, and Co-Chair of the IEEE Energy Storage Task Force. Charlie received his BSEE from Cal Poly Pomona, and his MSEE from USC. Charlie is a licensed professional Electrical Engineer.


Sara Biyabani is the Founder and CTO of a GridComm startup in stealth mode. She is a Computer Systems Architect with extensive expertise in Computer and Distributed Systems hardware and software, as well as architectures for Smart Grid systems and Distributed Energy Resources in Power Distribution Systems
Sara is an IEEE Senior Member and member of IEEE Standards Association. She has actively contributed to the development of Interoperability Standards IEEE 2030-2011, IEEE 2030.2, IEEE 2030.5, and IEEE 1547. She was 2030.2-2015 ICT Sub-Group Technical Lead. Currently, she is the Co-Chair of IEEE P1923.1 and P1924.1, and also serves in California Rule 21 Smart Inverter WG and SunSpec Alliance Inverter Model Update WG.
Sara has a Masters in Electrical & Computer Engineering from University of Massachusetts, Amherst and a Bachelors in Physics and Computer Science from Smith College.
 

AFTER THE WEBINAR IS PRESENTED

• One (1) hour of Professional Development (PDH) will be available on the IEEE Smart Grid Resource Center for purchase within three (3) business days.
• All webinar recordings and corresponding slides will be available for download on the IEEE Smart Grid Resource Center within three (3) business days.
• NOTE: The slides and recordings are complimentary to IEEE Members who belong to an IEEE Smart Grid participating society.