The New Distribution Frontier: Storage for Grid Relief and Local Reliability

Formado em Administração de Empresas pela Universidade Federal de Pernambuco e Pós graduado em Gestão da Produção pela mesma instituição. Possui MBA em Negócios no Setor Elétrico pela FGV e há 15 anos trabalha no Grupo Moura, onde já liderou a área de desenvolvimento de novos negócios, gerenciou o Instituto de Tecnologia Edson Mororó Moura - ITEMM, único instituto de pesquisa, desenvolvimento e engenharia do Brasil focado em soluções de baterias, e atualmente lidera o negócio de Armazenamento de Energia do grupo. É o atual vice-presidente da Absae, Associação Brasileira de Armazenamento de Energia.

Joel Prata is an engineering executive with over 20 years' experience in the Australian Energy and Industrial Markets. As Head of Grid at ACEnergy, he has achieved connection approval for over 1.3 gigawatts of transmission-scale energy storage projects and a working pipeline of over 2.7 gigawatts.

Michele dos Reis holds a degree in Electrical Engineering from the Pontifical Catholic University of Minas Gerais, and is a specialist and master in Power Electrical Systems from the Federal University of Minas Gerais. At Cemig, she has worked in Power Plant Operations, Electrical Maintenance, and Quality, Health, Safety, and Environmental Management within the Energy Generation sector. In the Transmission and Distribution areas, she has been involved in network expansion planning, generator and consumer access to the electrical system, and has also collaborated in sectoral planning studies coordinated by EPE (Energy Research Company) and ONS (National System Operator). She actively contributed to the development of a multi-criteria methodology for distribution system planning and investment portfolio prioritization, involving studies on expansion, operation, maintenance, and electrical losses. Currently, she is the Innovation Manager for Batteries and Storage, responsible for developing research, development, and innovation projects in this field. She also promotes and coordinates the application of storage systems in the company's generation, transmission, distribution, and energy trading businesses.

Since November 2022, Sergio Jacobsen has been the CEO of Micropower Energy, a company belonging to the Comerc Energia, Siemens and Equinor Groups, which operates in the energy storage solutions segment and whose mission is to bring solutions capable of contributing to Brazil's energy transition towards a more sustainable model for the economy, the environment and society. He previously worked at Siemens for 22 years. In the organization, Sergio held the positions of Sales Manager, Smart Grids Manager and Director until becoming Vice President of Siemens Smart Infrastructure. With a degree in Electrical Engineering from Mackenzie University and an Executive MBA from ESMT Berlin, Sergio joined Micropower at a time of transformation in the electricity sector, which is demanding modernization and adaptation to new digital solutions for business evolution, with a focus on smart grids that enable the addition of more and more renewable energy sources in Brazil and around the world.

Guilherme Susteras is an electrical engineer with a master's degree in electrical engineering from the Polytechnic School of the University of São Paulo. He holds a postgraduate degree in economics from the London School of Economics, a PhD in Business Administration from Fundação Getúlio Vargas, and is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the Energy Systems Innovation Center at the University of São Paulo. He has over 25 years of experience in the electricity sector and, since 2016, has been a managing partner at Sun Mobi. Guilherme has been a board member of ABSOLAR since 2020, where he also coordinates the Distributed Generation Working Group.