Who We Are.

Paul Fenn, Founder & President of Local Power Inc., has twenty years of experience and recognized innovation in energy law, municipal finance, political initiation, and implementation planning, solicitation and data management. He has focused on innovative program designs and financial vehicles to drive down the costs of distributed energy resources, and created Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) as well as the nation's first municipal revenue bond for renewable energy and efficiency (San Francisco’s H Bond Authority), and the Localization Portfolio Standard (LPS). Fenn formed the successful No on Prop 16 campaign against PG&E's California initiative in 2010. Fenn has written and published widely and has authored a book on energy and politics, This is Not a Theory. Fenn holds a Masters degree from University of Chicago and a Bachelors of Arts from Bates College.

Julia Peters, Chief Financial Officer and Campaign Coordinator, co-founded Local Power, and has over twenty years of experience organizing political campaigns and administering large organizations. Her career first began in the Public Interest Research Groups (PIRG), initially serving as the Statewide Canvas Director of CalPIRG, and then as the National Canvas Director of PIRG itself. She also served as the Field Director for a California ballot initiative (Proposition 212), and was the Campaign Manager for Jerry Brown's initial successful run for Mayor of Oakland in 1998. Ms. Peters ran Local Power’s coalition and nonprofit fundraising activities prior to 2007 and managed San Francisco’s Proposition H campaign in 2001, and helped to form and manage the San Francisco Community Choice Energy Alliance.

Arthur Medlar, Chief Information Officer, co-developed WAIS, the first internet
search engine, as well as the early version of the Internet Archive
(waybackmachine.org). Art has 25 years in software development, design, and management experience - Starting with Thinking Machines in Boston, MA in the late 1980’s, Medlar was a software engineer programming massively parallel Connection Machines. During the 1990’s Medlar worked at Xerox Parc in Palo Alto, CA Operating Systems Research and Development. More recently Medlar was principal engineer at San Francisco-based Brightmail, an anti-spam software product, where he took a napkin sketch of the technology and managed the entire development process to full-scale deployment and sale of the company to Symantec in 2004.

Howard V. Golub, LPI Chief Strategic Advisor, is the former General Counsel of Pacific Gas & Electric. Mr. Golub advises LPI in developing and evaluating alternative business models or policies, including ownership of distributed generation and storage at customer sites and selling both electricity and thermal energy to the customer. Mr. Golub is a senior partner at Nixon Peabody LLP, and has thirty years of experience in the energy industry. He provides services to a wide range of clients in the energy industry nationwide including investor-owned and publicly owned utilities, independent power producers, and developers of technologies for the production of energy. Nixon Peabody LLP (NP) attorneys are leaders in providing advice and counsel to municipalities and public entities in the development and implementation of energy strategies. NP is a nationally recognized bond counsel with experience and leadership in all areas of public finance. NP is perennially among the top-10 bond counsel representing thousands of issuers.

John Cutler, Chief Operating Officer, co-founded Local Power and brings a deep knowledge of project roll out and business development from his 20-year career at T-Mobile USA and related wireless communication companies. Mr. Cutler managed the acquisition of cellular telephone operating licenses, radio and backhaul network design, real estate acquisition, site zoning and permitting, network roll out, and the expansion and rebranding of direct sales channels.

Bradley Turner, Vice President, Infrastructure Projects, began assisting LPI on time-process and economic modeling of integrated renewable distributed generation and storage in 2001 as part of LPI’s leadership in integrating its “H Bond” authority into the CCA program culminating in the City’s CCA Program Design, Draft CCA Implementation Plan and H Bond Action Plan (2007). Mr. Turner has contributed substantially to LPI’s time process modeling capabilities, building on our in-house experience from the wireless telecommunications industry to prepare local government utilities and energy programs to accomplish accelerated transitions to integrated local renewable, storage technologies and the communications systems that are part and parcel of their integration into the mainstream operations of the utility. Mr. Turner has multi-sectoral experience, including several major public works projects.

Robert Freehling, Vice President, Research, has worked for Local Power since 2003, becoming Research Director in 2006 and Vice President in 2010. Mr. Freehling has ten years of experience working in energy policy, regulation, and finance, and has provided technical analyses for a number of California municipalities and counties focused on accelerated transitions from conventional centralized generation to local renewable generation and storage. He has provided portfolio design and technology analysis on a wide range of Local Power's project work, inlcuding analysis of performance-based incentives for solar photovoltaics for SMUD's Solar Shares program and the concept, design, and economic modeling of clean energy replacement for a fossil fuel power plant for Chula Vista, California. Mr. Freehling contributed to modeling elements of San Francisco's Implementation Plan for CCA electricity purchases, with emphasis on photovoltaics and renewables as a hedge to mitigate natural gas price risk.

Samuel Golding, Managing Director, joined Local Power in January of 2011. His expertise is in demand-side management and customer-facing smart grid applications, and he also manages projects, staff, and daily operations, including finances and subcontractor relationships. Prior to this, Mr. Golding spent four years at KEMA, Inc., a world leader in utility management consulting and smart grid strategy. In his capacity as Senior Energy Analyst, he conducted electricity and natural gas demand-side management potential studies across five states, evaluated numerous utility programs and managed the collection of onsite energy data at over 700 residential, commercial, and industrial sites, and compiled market research in demand dispatch, vehicle electrification, virtual power plants, smart grid and home area networks, and emerging technologies in energy efficiency. Mr. Golding holds a Bachelor’s degree in International Political Economy and Mandarin from Colorado College.

Charles Schultz, Development Director, joined Local Power in June of 2010. Prior to this, he was a broker at the Chicago Board of Trade (now CMEgroup), and was the Managing Director for a non-profit that investigated the negative externalities of fossil fuel extraction, transportation and consumption. Mr. Schultz has also worked in video and social media, producing viral marketing and political messaging campaigns for environmental causes, as well as advertisements for startups. He holds a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan.

Ben Rasenow, Senior SCADA Specialist, Distributed Generation and Storage, has been a Control System Engineer for LPI since 2008. He focuses on SCADA and control systems design and Smart Grid technology inter-face and inter-operability evaluation, preparation of distributed generation project proposals, development of decision support applications for renewable energy projects identification, and contractor bid support. Mr. Rasenow is a technical expert in the feasibility integrating distributed generation and storage projects into SCADA infrastructure. He is an Associate Control System Engineer for the East Bay Municipal Utility District’s OP/NET SCADA system. His responsibilities include providing Control System Project Management, Operations Support, Organizational Standards, Practices, and Policy Development, Intra- Agency Security Liaison, and SCADA communications design. He has managed the District SCADA system, integrated SCADA and control systems related to capital improvements, supporting maintenance and upgrades, as well as database management, HMI display development, network management, microwave network deployment, and PLC program modifications; as well as trouble-shooting of WAN communications, including 202T modems, DAR radio, SBC circuits, terminal servers, firewalls, and router analysis, and protocol analysis and development. He is experienced in design drawings and specifications including P&ID, loop diagrams, electrical schematics, PLC elementaries, panel layout, process plan, conduit and cable schedules, and interconnection. He has a B.S.M.E from San Francisco State University, 1995, and is a Registered Professional Engineer of Control Systems, Lic. No. CS 7293.

Ken Smokoska, Training and Labor Advisor, has been a leading expert on renewable energy and alternative vehicles for over 10 years. He developed the “Cool Cities” transportation program that has been implemented by the Southern California Association of Governments and Ventura Council of Governments, and has helped to build networks for knowledge-sharing and capacity-building across California, in Alameda, Marin, Mendocino, San Diego, San Francisco, and San Luis Obispo counties. His deep commitment to the triple-bottom line came from having raised twelve adopted at-risk teens over the last decade. Mr. Smokoska is also a Business Development Director for IBEW/NECA, and currently serves on the CPUC/CEC/CARB lead Task Force for Workforce, Education, & Training for a Green Economy, providing needs assessment guidance for California’s Long Term Energy Efficiency Strategic Plan.

Eric Veium, Energy Engineer, began working with Local Power in October of 2009, after an internship with Deloitte focused on technology integration. For the last five years, Mr. Veium has worked to transition existing communities to resilient ones. His primary focus is on the development of local renewable energy systems, with a secondary focus on regional food system development. He has been analyzing San Luis Obispo County’s renewable and efficiency resources for Local Power, and also serves on the board of directors for the Central Coast Agricultural Network (CCAN). Mr. Veium is a recent Cal Poly graduate in Industrial Engineering, with a focus on sustainability and technical systems integration. While at Cal Poly, he was the President of Cal Poly Biodiesel, a member of the Empower Poly Sustainability Coalition, and co-founded the Green Campus Program.

Chad Worth, Energy Engineer, joined Local Power in October of 2009. Previously, he worked for Absolute Solar in San Luis Obispo, after a Technical Solutions Engineer internship at PG&E performing large scale commercial energy audits. Mr. Worth is also an activist and a teacher, who organized four Energy Town Hall events around San Luis Obispo County engaging local elected officials about local energy solutions on behalf of the Sierra Club, and currently teaches “Introduction to Green Technology” at Cuesta Community College. Mr. Worth holds a degree in Industrial Engineering from Cal Poly.

Michael P. Kuchkovsky, Architectural Advisor, LEED AP, Associate AIA, has advised Local Power since 2005. Mr. Kuchkovsky was formerly Architectural Designer at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and Ishtirak, Research Associate at the East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation, and Architecture Associate at Kaiser Permanente Hospitals. He holds Masters Degrees from Stanford University and Rice University, and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Pomona College, and has published articles on Local Power's design approach in Architecture Magazine and arcCA, the Magazine of the AIA.

Major Advisors

Chris Kiriakou, Chief Procurement Advisor, has assisted Local Power with bid preparation, rate design and project negotiation. Mr. Kiriakou was Assistant General Manager of Energy Resources for the Turlock Irrigation District in California's Central Valley until 2002, where he served for 26 years before forming Cornerstone Consulting, specializing in power planning including conservation and energy management and rate design early in his career.

Bill Powers, PE, Registered Professional Mechanical Engineer, has been working and publishing in energy since 1986, and consulting for LPI for five years. He most recently authored “San Diego Smart Energy 2020,” an energy plan that focuses on meeting the San Diego region’s electric energy needs through the accelerated integration of renewable and non-renewable distributed generation, in the form of combined heat and power (CHP) systems and solar photovoltaic (PV) systems. With Local Power, Mr. Powers works directly on combined heat and power, photovoltaics on rooftop and field, battery storage at intermittent renewable sites, biomass, microturbines, air emission control systems technologies and regulation, combined cycle natural gas-fired power plants, air permitting processes, and marginal cost issues associated with operating or replace natural gas fired combined cycle power plants. Mr. Powers is a Mechanical Engineer, California (Certificate M24518), American Society of
Mechanical Engineers.

Sundell Larsen – Site Acquisition Advisor, has advised Local Power for ten years on site acquisition, permitting, construction, and the integration of distributed resources. Mr. Sundell's extensive experience is mainly in the wireless communications industry, where he has served as National Site Acquisition Manager for deployments of radio frequency equipment in Chile and Azerbaijan, as well as Site Acquisition Manager and Senior Construction Engineer for smaller deployments in the United States as well as Brazil, Budapest, Hungary, Switzerland, and Qatar. His clients include T-Mobile, Nokia, Azerfon, Cingular, Nextel, and Vodafone.

Anthony Mazy, PE, Senior Electrical Engineer, advises Local power on electrical distribution architecture, jurisdiction and technology, contributing to our microgrid and islanding technolgy work. Mr. Mazy has nearly thirty years of very broad-based experience in utility systems and energy analysis experience, in facilities energy design and administration, advanced technology research, development and demonstration, technical analysis, utility and energy policy, and technical standards development. He has worked for the United States Navy and the CPUC for over a decade as a utilities engineer. Mr. Mazy specializes in automated meter reading systems, meter and data communications standards, and advanced metering infrastructure, and distributed generation policy and interconnection standards. In private practice, he has consulted on the development of a wide variety of small-to-medium distributed generation development projects, on distributed generation and electric restructuring policy for national and international studies, national standards development working groups for distributed generation and advanced metering infrastructures, and arc flash hazard analysis for small industrial facilities. Reg. Cal. E-14862

Rusty Klassen, Capital Projects Advisor, was Senior Advisor/Project Designer Origination for the Sonoma County Water Agency from 2004 to 2010, where he developed the vision, conceptual design, strategy and tactic for a regionally based globally replicable response to climate change, hinging on the energy/ water nexus, andn helping establish Sonoma County and its Water Agency as global leaders in the development and deployment of innovative technical, policy, financial and social solutions to the threat posed by this phenomenon. Mr. Klassen was Vice President National Marketing for First California Capital Markets, Strategic Advisor and Business Partner with West Fresh/Merril Farms, and Municipal Bond Broker for M.L. Stern Company.

James Burgett, Resource Recovery Advisor, made his reputation by revolutionizing the computer recycling world. His Alameda County Computer Resource Center processing plant in Oakland, California recycles thousands of tons of electronic waste each year, with no diversion to landfills or Asia, and is staffed largely by ex-cons who seek technical education and training in the computer industry. Mr. Burgett has distributed over 16,000 repaired and recycled computers to schools and individuals who cannot afford personal computers across the United States, and regularly contributes computers to nations such as Cambodia, Chile, and Vietnam to help with research, education, and government operations. He has also testified before Congress on recycling policy. Mr. Burgett has been featured on CNN’s “Heroes” segment, and profiled in Wired Magazine.