Nine Finalists Selected for the Annual UAI Excellence Awards

The Utility Analytics Institute (UAI), the only organization dedicated to enabling utility transformation through analytics, announces finalists for its 2022 UAI Excellence Awards. UAI honors the best in the utility analytics profession, recognizing the individuals, teams, and organizations that have achieved and maintained excellence through innovation.

2022 UAI Excellence Awards finalists will be recognized, and winners will be announced during Utility Analytics Week 2022, taking place October 18-20, 2022, in San Diego, CA hosted by San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E). To learn more about the UAI Excellence Awards visit https://utilityanalytics.com/awards.

Awards that will be announced during UA Week 2022 include:

Analytics Ambassador
Best Innovative Utility Analytics Team
Best Utility Analytics Leader
Best Utility Analytics Professional
Community Engagement

Most Engaged Individual Member
Most Engaged Utility Member

UAI will also unveil the Top 25 Thought Leaders in Utility Analytics

Three prestigious awards with a multi-phase judging process that are presented at the 2022 UA Week event are the Best Innovative Utility Analytics Team, Best Utility Analytics Leader, and Best Utility Analytics Professional, all specifically dedicated to the analytics segment of utilities.

Best Innovative Utility Analytics Team recognizes teams that have set and achieved the highest standards of excellence in utility analytics for problem solving in innovative ways and take the time to instill that culture in their employees. The 2022 finalists are:

Consolidated Edison, Customer Data Analytics Program
El Paso Electric, Enterprise Advanced Analytics
San Diego Gas & Electric, Digital Innovation

Best Utility Analytics Leader acknowledges and honors a utility analytics leader who has excelled at supporting any or all analytics work within their utility and who most clearly demonstrates the ability to serve and advance analytics within the utility industry. The 2022 finalists are:

Ankush Agarwal, Director, Advanced Analytics – Exelon
Kelly Laurie, Director, Information Technology – City Utilities of Springfield
Rob Malowney, Manager, Asset Data Systems & Records – San Diego Gas & Electric

Best Utility Analytics Professional recognizes the utility analytics industry’s top professional who possess the knowledge, skills, experience, passion, and business acumen required to provide consistent, quality, and innovative effort that is directly relevant to the utility analytics industry. The 2022 finalists are:

Al Torres, Data Technology Administrator – Orlando Utilities Commission
Haley Saul, Strategy and Performance Management Manager – Tacoma Power
Phi Nguyen, Senior Data Scientist – San Diego Gas & Electric

A blue-ribbon panel of judges engaged in a rigorous selection process to identify the most deserving finalists for the three aforementioned award categories. These award finalists will now step into phase two judging for a personal interview with our judges who will then select the winner in each award category. Comprised of utility analytics professionals and long-time industry experts, phase one and phase two judges are tasked with selecting leading individuals, teams, and organizations.

“We want to thank our volunteer judges for their time and support, as well as their commitment to this process,” says Leslie Cook, UAI Membership, Engagement, & Training Manager. “A peer review is an important part of the judging process within the UAI Excellence Awards. It serves to uphold the integrity of the process and allows for candidates to be examined by others who are experts in the same field. Peer accolades ring the truest and resonate throughout the community, so we can all celebrate the candidates together.”

2022 UAI Excellence Volunteer Award Judges:

Ankush Agarwal, Director, Infrastructure and Safety Analytics - Exelon
Christine Wisniewski, Vice President, Operations Performance – Consumers Energy
Eddy Halter, Sr. Director, Enterprise Analytics – Evergy
Gary Rector, Data Scientist – Salt River Project
Neelanjan Patri, Operations Technology, Data & Analytics, Strategic Operations Solutions, COO – Tennessee Valley Authority
Norv Clontz, Director, Data Science Innovation – Duke Energy
Pavel Ozhogin, Director, Data Science – National Grid
Phil Teng, Manager of Information Services – Rochester Public Utilities
·Vanessa Barbarisi, Director, Utility Transformation Strategy – AES

“We want to congratulate all of the UAI award finalists for their commitment to excellence through innovation and elevating the utility analytics profession,” says Gina Weber, UAI Managing Director. “The UAI awards provide the industry’s finest with a sense of prominence and accomplishment—and this year’s exemplary crop of finalists leaves our judges with much to deliberate before announcing the winners at our UA Week event in San Diego.”

To learn more about the UAI Excellence Awards visit https://utilityanalytics.com/awards and to see the exciting announcement of our 2022 UAI Excellence Awards winners, register for UA Week 2022 at https://www.utilityanalyticsweek.com/.