4th Annual Canada Protection Symposium

Dr. Edmund O. Schweitzer, III, is recognized as a pioneer in digital protection and holds the grade of Fellow in the IEEE, a title bestowed on less than one percent of IEEE members. In 2002, he was elected as a member of the National Academy of Engineering. Dr. Schweitzer received the 2012 Medal in Power Engineering, the highest award given by IEEE, for his leadership in revolutionizing the performance of electrical power systems with computer-based protection and control equipment.

In 2019, Dr. Schweitzer will be inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame for his invention of the first digital protective relay.

Dr. Schweitzer is the recipient of the Regents’ Distinguished Alumnus Award and Graduate Alumni Achievement Award from Washington State University and the Purdue University Outstanding Electrical and Computer Engineer Award. He has also been awarded honorary doctorates from both the Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, in Monterrey, Mexico, and the Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí, in San Luis Potosí, Mexico, for his contributions to the development of electric power systems worldwide. He has written dozens of technical papers in the areas of digital relay design and reliability and holds more than 200 patents worldwide pertaining to electric power system protection, metering, monitoring and control.

Dr. Alexander Apostolov received MS degree in Electrical Engineering, MS in Applied Mathematics and Ph.D. from the Technical University in Sofia, Bulgaria. He has 40+ years’ experience in power systems protection, automation, control and communications.

He is presently Principal Engineer for OMICRON electronics in Los Angeles, CA. He is IEEE Fellow and Member of the Power Systems Relaying and Control Committee. He is past Chairman of the Relay Communications Subcommittee, serves on many IEEE PES Working Groups and is Chairman of Working Groups C2 “Role of Protective Relaying in Smart Grid”.

He is member of IEC TC57 working groups 10, 17, 18 and 19 and Convenor of CIGRE WG B5.53 “Test Strategy for Protection, Automation and Control (PAC) functions in a full digital substation based on IEC 61850 applications” and member of several other CIGRE B5 working groups. He is Distinguished Member of CIGRE.

He holds four patents and has authored and presented more than 500 technical papers. He is IEEE Distinguished Lecturer and Adjunct Professor at the Department of Electrical Engineering, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Cape Town, South Africa.

He is Editor-in-Chief of PAC World.

Damir Novosel is president and founder of Quanta Technology, a subsidiary of Quanta Services, a Fortune 500 company.  Previously, he was vice president of ABB Automation Products and president of KEMA T&D US. Damir has led development and implementation of pioneering concepts, methods, and products in the areas of automation and power system protection that improved reliability and efficiency of power grids.

Dr. Novosel is member of US National Academy of Engineers and served as IEEE PES President and Vice President of Technical Activities. He is also a member of the CIGRE US National Committee and received the CIGRE Attwood Associate award.  He is presently chairing Industry Technical Support Leadership Committee responsible for IEEE cooperation with global regulatory agencies and corporate engagement.

Damir holds 17 US and international patents, published over 140 articles, and contributed to 5 books.

Dr. Novosel, IEEE Fellow since 2003, is an adjunct professor of Electrical Engineering at North Carolina State University and was selected Mississippi State University Distinguished Engineering Fellow.

Bogdan Kasztenny has been working in power system protection and control since 1989. In his decade-long academic career, Dr. Kasztenny taught power system and signal processing courses at several universities and conducted applied research for several relay manufacturers. Since 1999, Bogdan has been designing, applying, and supporting protection, control, and fault-locating products with their global installed base counted in thousands of installations. Since 2009, Bogdan has been with Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories, Inc. Bogdan is an IEEE Fellow, Senior Fulbright Fellow, Canadian representative of the CIGRE Study Committee B5, and registered professional engineer in the province of Ontario. Bogdan has been serving since 2011 on the Western Protective Relay Conference Program Committee and since 2015 on the Developments in Power System Protection Conference Program Committee. Bogdan has authored over 200 technical papers and holds over 40 patents. 

Dale Finney received his bachelor of engineering degree from Lakehead University and his master of engineering degree from the University of Toronto. He began his career with Ontario Hydro, where he worked as a protection and control engineer. Currently, Mr. Finney is employed as a principal engineer with Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories, Inc. Mr. Finney holds over a dozen patents and has authored more than 30 papers in the area of power system protection. He is a member of the main committee and chair of the rotating machinery subcommittee of the IEEE PSRC committee. He is a senior member of the IEEE and a registered professional engineer in the province of Nova Scotia.

Eugenio Carvalheira received his BSc in Electrical Engineering from the UFPE University in Brazil and his MSc in Computational Engineering from the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in Germany. He has 16+ years’ experience in Power Systems Protection, Automation and Control (PAC). He spent part of his career as a Project Engineer responsible for the design, implementation and commissioning of PAC systems at Electrical Substations and Power Plants.

He joined OMICRON in 2008 as Training and Application Engineer developing test automation solutions for protection relays, providing technical product application support and responsible for the IEC 61850 training courses at OMICRON. He is currently SEC Engineering Manager for North America based in Houston, TX. He is an active member of IEEE PES serving many PSRC working groups.

Fred Steinhauser studied Electrical Engineering at the Vienna University of Technology, where he obtained his diploma in 1986 and received a Dr. of Technical Sciences in 1991. In 1998 he joined OMICRON, where he worked on several aspects of testing power system protection. Since 2000 he worked as a product manager with a focus on power utility communication. Since 2014 he is active within the Power Utility Communication business of OMICRON, focusing on Digital Substations and serving as an IEC 61850 expert.
Fred Steinhauser is a member of WG10 in the TC57 of the IEC and contributes the standard IEC 61850. He is one of the main authors of the UCA Implementation Guideline for Sampled Values (9-2LE). Within TC95 of IEC, he also contributes to IEC 61850 related topics. As a member of CIGRÉ he is active within the scope of SC D2 and SC B5. He also contributed to the synchrophasor standards IEEE C37.118.1 and IEEE C37.118.2

John Bettler, PE.   John has a BSEE from Iowa State and a MSEE from Illinois Institute of Technology.   John has worked at the Chicago area power company ComEd for 29 years.  He has experience as a field engineer and protection engineer.   Currently he is the Principal Engineer for ComEd’s relay section and his team’s purview includes 4kV & 12kV feeders up to 765kV transmission lines and all T&D equipment in between (TR / Buses / Cap / Inductors).  John’s team also reviews interconnections, IPP and Distribution Generation projects.   John is also adjunct faculty at IIT and UW Madison teaching power & protection classes.  He is a PE in the State of IL.

John D. McDonald, P.E., is Smart Grid Business Development Leader for GE’s Grid Solutions business. John has 45 years of experience in the electric utility transmission and distribution industry. John received his B.S.E.E. and M.S.E.E. (Power Engineering) degrees from Purdue University, and an M.B.A. (Finance) degree from the University of California-Berkeley. John is a Life Fellow of IEEE, and was awarded the IEEE Millennium Medal, the IEEE Power & Energy Society (PES) Excellence in Power Distribution Engineering Award, the IEEE PES Substations Committee Distinguished Service Award, and the IEEE PES Meritorious Service Award. John is Past President of the IEEE PES, the VP for Technical Activities for the US National Committee (USNC) of CIGRE, the Past Chair of the IEEE PES Substations Committee, and the IEEE Division VII Past Director. John received the 2009 Outstanding Electrical and Computer Engineer Award from Purdue University. John has published over one hundred papers and articles, has co-authored five books and has one US patent. 

Employed by G&W Electric since 2008.

Currently serves as the Manager for Power Grid Automation and previously, a Supervisor for the production electronics engineering group which supports sales orders from quote stage to aftermarket. She is also a G&W internal ISO auditor. Kate held earlier roles with Ohmite Manufacturing as an Application Engineer/Technical Support and Maplechase as a Design Engineer.  

She is actively involved in a number of professional organizations including IEEE (10 years), IEEE PES (6 years) and NEMA (3 years).   Kate spoke at the Omicron Recloser and DA Conference in Houston, TX during 2016, 2017, and 2019, the Omicron Conference in Toronto December 2018, and at the Survalent Users Forum in Destin, FL in 2018. 

John Kumm is with POWER Engineers, serving as Vice President, Field Services and Director for Testing and Energization.  John has been with POWER in their Clarkston, WA office since 2007.

John graduated from the University of Idaho in 1989 with a BS in Electrical Engineering and earned an Executive MBA degree from Boise State University in 2011.  His career in the power industry includes experience as an applications and product engineer at Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories in Pullman, WA and eight years leading his own consulting firm.  He and his team served electric utilities and wind plant owners across the US and in Canada. Since joining POWER, John has served in several project management and engineering leadership roles.

John is a regular author and presenter of technical papers and presentations in the fields of protective relaying, human performance improvement, and microgrids and is co-author of the books, “Protective Relaying Quick Reference” and “Human Performance Improvement Pocket Guide.”  He is a member of the University of Idaho College of Engineering Industry Advisory Board.  In his free time, John enjoys spending time outdoors with his family.  He is a licensed pilot, a drummer for his church worship team, a Senior Member of the IEEE, a registered professional engineer in several states and Canadian provinces, and a proud grandfather.