Rich Simons Email & Phone Number

Extensive experience with electricity, natural gas, steam, and water data analysis and forecasting.Expertise in short-term load forecasting to support real-time and day-ahead operations of Independent System Operators (ISOs), large and small utilities, cooperatives, and Generation & Transmission (G&T) companies in the US and Canada. The results of my statistical models are used every day to submit demand bids to ISOs, to make decisions about grid management, and to operate distribution systems.Incorporate grid-connected and behind-the-meter (BTM) solar generation into forecasting models.Develop long-term and medium-term forecasts of sales, customers, energy, and demand to support budget and planning, incorporating end-use structure along with economic drivers.Estimate unbilled-energy and calendar-energy to assist utilities in closing the financial books each month.Develop and deploy weather-normalization models to allow utilities to analyze underlying sales trends without the impact of weather variability.Manipulate large sets of high-frequency weather and load data, addressing issues related to start/stop of Daylight Saving Time, interval-beginning vs. interval-ending, calculation of non-coincident and coincident peaks, completeness, and data quality.Implement Load Research systems to process interval data from disparate sources/formats to develop expansions to represent the population based on a sample of metered points.Train users onsite and remotely in statistical modeling, load research methodologies/processes, and all areas of complex 3-tier forecasting systems. Manage projects, perform the role of customer-facing contact, and act as lead analyst on multiple, disparate simultaneous projects.Provide hands-on guidance for installing and deploying software in Citrix, MS Azure, and Amazon Web Services, and on-premise with multiple SQL Server and Oracle databases, application servers, and clients workstations in production and non-production environments.Provide ongoing support to global user base of customers, emphasizing rapid problem-resolution, related to software issues including database connectivity, services, and execution of automated tasks, statistical models, forecast results, and general analysis issues.Develop and maintain business relationships with customers.Identify business requirements, write project scopes, and negotiate contracts with prospective customers for consulting projects and software implementations worth as much as hundreds of thousands of dollars.Lead trainings and software demonstrations.