Bob Anderson, principal, Competitive Power Resources Corp
Bob Anderson joined CPS in 2005, following a 33-year career at Florida Power Corp/Progress Energy (now Duke Energy). The independent consulting firm, based in Palmetto, Fla, focuses on heat-recovery steam generators and their related auxiliaries for combined-cycle and cogen plants.
Recognized globally as an HRSG expert, Anderson has deep experience in powerplant design, operation, and maintenance. His positions at Progress included boiler engineer, steam-turbine engineer, plant manager, and director of gas-turbine major maintenance. As manager of PE’s combined-cycle services section, he was involved in the procurement, design, and O&M of the utility’s CC fleet.
Over the years, Anderson has participated in the installation of thousands of tube-temperature thermocouples in a variety of HRSGs and analysis of the resulting data. His expertise includes the optimization of boiler drain systems and attemperation systems. Plus, he has contributed to the development of startup/shutdown procedures for more than 70 combined-cycle and cogen plants around the globe. Results of his work have been published in many conference papers and the CCJ.
Anderson, chairman of the HRSG Forum (www.HRSGforum.com), is a skilled discussion leader well known both for his technical leadership in combined-cycle seminars and conferences and willingness to share his knowledge with users worldwide.
Nick Bohl, plant manager, St. Charles Energy Center
Nick Bohl as been plant manager at St. Charles, a 2 × 1 7F.05-powered combined cycle, since July 2018. Earlier, he was GM at Cogentrix Energy’s Effingham County Power and held various leadership positions at CAMS from June 2007 to June 2015. He began his career in the energy industry as a technician for Mirant in 2001, migrating to Progress Energy in June 2005 as a production team leader. Bohl’s journey began in the US Marine Corps, where he served as an avionics technician for five years before going to Mirant.
Bohl and his present and former colleagues at St. Charles Energy and Effingham County Power continue share many of their valuable O&M experiences with the industry through CCJ’s ongoing Best Practices program. The two plants have received more Best of the Best awards than any other facility since the program’s inception 20 years ago.
Dr Barry Dooley, senior associate, Structural Integrity Associates (UK)
Barry Dooley, respected worldwide for his encyclopedic knowledge of powerplant materials and chemistry, has served the electric power industry for more than five decades. During that time, he has authored or co-authored more than 300 technical papers.
Dooley organizes and chairs boiler/HRSG and chemistry forums worldwide—including the Australasian Boiler and HRSG Users Group, European HRSG Users Group, Film Forming Substances conferences, and several others.
Prior to joining Structural Integrity, he was a technical executive at EPRI, specializing in cycle chemistry, materials, boilers, HRSGs, and steam turbines. Management of the research organization’s boiler/HRSG tube-failure reduction/cycle-chemistry improvement and FAC programs was one of his responsibilities.
Earlier in his career, Dooley provided cycle chemistry and materials services for Ontario Hydro’s fossil fleet and conducted oxidation research at the UK’s Central Electricity Research Laboratories.
Dooley is well known today for his ongoing work as executive secretary at the International Association for the Properties of Water and Steam where he chairs the development of IAPWS Technical Guidance Documents so valuable to powerplant personnel, among others. Access the TGDs at no cost on www.iapws.org.
Sam Graham, plant manager, Tenaska Virginia Generating Station
Sam Graham was promoted from maintenance manager to plant manager at TVGS in fall 2017 with nearly two decades of experience in the power industry. His current responsibilities include facility operations, maintenance, and overall performance to ensure optimal efficiency and compliance with industry standards.
Graham came to Tenaska Virginia Partners in July 2005 after nearly a decade with Edison Mission Energy where his focus was instrumentation and controls. Responsibilities at Edison included maintaining and troubleshooting control systems, ensuring the accurate operation of instrumentation, and contributing to the overall efficiency of the power-generation process.
Graham has been stalwart in advancing and expanding the reach of industry user groups and championing the cause of owner/operators as long-time 7F Users Group steering committee member and instrumental in the development of many of the Power Users Group conferences like the Steam Turbine Users Group and Frame 5 Users Group.
Garry Grimwade, utilities generation technician, Riverside Public Utilities
Garry Grimwade is a seasoned powerplant operator and the only member of the Editorial Advisory Board with extensive aeroderivative O&M experience. He currently volunteers as vice president of the Western Turbine Users Inc, the world’s largest organization of aeroderivative owner/operators, where he holds tremendous responsibility for organizing and managing its extensive technical program.
Grimwade has been with Riverside since May 2011 with responsibilities for an LM2500-powered combined cycle, four LM6000s, and four GE10 engines that include safely starting up and shutting down units, ensuring environmental compliance, maintaining logs and readings, adjusting plant water chemistry, providing safety training, and managing the plant’s self-reporting ORAP® program.
Earlier, Grimwade was a CRO for GE Energy, attached to two 7H-powered single-shaft combined cycles. From August 2007 to January 2010 he was a powerplant operator for Dynegy at a 700-MW merchant facility with natural-gas-fired boilers and steam turbine/generators. His role included ensuring emissions compliance, performing and writing switching orders and LOTO, and troubleshooting faulty equipment.
From July 2003 to August 2007, Grimwade was at Duke Energy and Diamond Generating Corp. After mustering out of the US Navy in March 1999 with four years of experience as an engine mechanic, Grimwade joined the Pacific Gas Turbine Center as a rotor-balance team leader, supervising the overhaul of JT8-D engines.
Jason Makansi, president, Pearl Street
Jason Makansi, chairman of CCJ’s Editorial Advisory Board, founded Pearl Street, an independent consulting firm, in 2001 and continues to serve as the firm’s president. A chemical engineer by education, Makansi has spent the last four decades evaluating the global engineering, business, and regulatory issues governing advanced energy technologies, with a special focus on electricity production and delivery—including energy sources, electricity production, transmission, and distribution, customer-side energy services, and energy storage.
Earlier, he was employed as a process engineer for Heywood Robinson and as a chemical engineer for TVA.
Makansi is recognized worldwide as a thought leader in energy storage, clean-coal utilization technologies; environmental management; emissions control processes and carbon-footprint reduction; diagnostics, automation and information technologies, and knowledge management; powerplant asset optimization, gas-turbine and combined-cycle technologies, sustainable development, and industrial ecology.
A highly skilled communicator in energy technologies—verbal and written—Makansi has authored several books, including two for John Wiley, and hundreds of magazine articles on power generation technologies for CCJ and Power magazine, among others. Other credits include executive director of the Energy Storage Council and Coalition to Advance Renewable Energy through Bulk Storage, founder of Pearl Street Capital, and principal, Pearl Street Liquidity Advisors.
Bobby Noble, senior program manager for gas-turbine R&D, EPRI
Bobby Noble and his research team work on topics involving all aspects of the gas-turbine system, with a focus on combustion dynamics, high-hydrogen and other alternative fuels, next-generation low-NOₓ combustion architectures, and engine health and performance analytics—including digital twins.
Noble, an ASME Fellow with more than 20 years of GT experience, was awarded the 2024 Westinghouse Silver Medal for his work on behalf of the power industry. He holds five patents and has authored/co-authored/edited/co-edited more than 15 journal publications and more than 60 conference publications.
Peter So, project development/management director, Calpine Corp
Pete So currently manages technical development for Calpine projects in the West—including those involving carbon capture. He has been involved in powerplant development, operations, and maintenance for three decades and has a wealth of experience at facilities relying on traditional fossil fuels as well as leading-edge resources and technologies.
So’s efforts have been rewarded with patents in the following areas:
- Inlet bleed heat and power augmentation.
- A method for providing off-gas to a combustion system.
- GT engine controls for minimizing combustion dynamics and emissions.
Among his many professional accomplishments, So led the software development of the first PSM LEC III retrofit on a 501D5 engine. Plus, he was the lead controls engineer for the company’s Humid Air Injection project.
User-group credits include development of user-to-user discussion forums, serving on founding committees of Power Plant Controls User Group and Low Carbon Peer Group, as well as more than a dozen years on the steering committee for the 7F Users Group, where he contributed significantly to the group’s growth and its transition to Power Users (www.powerusers.org), a 501c(6) organization. So remains involved with the not-for-profit organization as treasurer.
