About Elevate Energy Consulting
Our Story
Elevate Energy Consulting was founded to help take the electric energy sector to new heights. We believe in a reliable, resilient, secure, and affordable clean energy future for generations to come. That means we collectively must act now to effectively and efficiently overcome significant obstacles to achieve that vision. With deep technical expertise mixed with a strong knowledge of regulation and policy, our team is positioned to elevate industry and serve our clients across the electricity ecosystem. We specialize in a broad range of energy consulting services: renewables integration, modeling, and studies; transmission reliability assessments; regulatory compliance; technical management consulting; workforce development, education, and training; advocacy and policy development; and research and development.
Our Team
Ryan Quint, PhD, PE
Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Dr. Ryan Quint is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Elevate Energy Consulting. He founded Elevate with the vision of doing good across the electricity sector during the clean energy transition. Ryan is responsible for the strategic direction and execution of Elevate projects across all verticals and is focused on building a world-class team of experts that can partner with industry to tackle emerging challenges facing our grid today and into the future. Prior to launching Elevate, Ryan spent nearly 9 years at the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), most recently as the Director of Engineering and Security Integration, where he led numerous strategic initiatives focused on emerging reliability risk mitigation involving inverter-based resources, distributed energy resources, security integration, and leveraging emerging technologies. Ryan also has industry experience at Dominion Virginia Power and the Bonneville Power Administration. He received his PhD from Virginia Tech and is a registered professional engineer.
Kyle Thomas, PE
Vice President, Engineering and Compliance Services
Kyle leads Elevate's NERC and FERC regulatory compliance services division and also supports the strategic direction and execution of Elevate consulting services. He has extensive experience in protection and control systems, substation equipment, transmission planning, leading strategic initiatives, product development, and leading internal and external teams of subject matter experts. Kyle has a decade of experience working at Dominion Energy as well as experience leading product development at an innovative superconducting startup, VEIR. He is a licensed Professional Engineer in the Commonwealth of Virginia, received his M.S. from Virginia Tech, is a Senior Member of IEEE, and has held various leadership roles in a number of international working groups.
Farhad Yahyaie, PhD, PEng
Head of Power System Studies and Modeling
Dr. Farhad Yahyaie has a passion for engineering and problem solving, with over 14 years of industrial, research, and teaching experience in power systems. His expertise encompasses a wide range of power system studies, including dynamic stability assessment, electromagnetic transient studies, model development, and model validation for synchronous generators and renewables. Dr. Yahyaie has conducted numerous advanced system studies and taught training courses to engineers worldwide, drawing on his familiarity with regulatory frameworks and industry standards. Farhad has previously worked as the Technical Lead in the Power System Consulting team at Siemens PTI Canada and as a Senior Power Systems Engineer and Project Leader at Powertech Labs Inc. He received his PhD from University of Toronto and is a registered professional engineer in BC.
Goodarz Ghanavati, PhD, PE
Principal Engineer
Dr. Goodarz Ghanavati has extensive experience in power system modeling and analysis including steady state, short circuit, stability, and electromagnetic transient (EMT) analysis. He led one of the first large-scale EMT studies in New England to assess the impacts of distributed energy resources (DERs) on bulk power system stability. He also studied and performed control tuning of the state-of-the-art Cape Cod grid forming (GFM) battery energy storage system, which is among the first GFM BESS installations in North America. Goodarz is experienced in automation of power system software packages and has developed several Python tools to automate and efficiently process study results across multiple platforms. He received his PhD from University of Vermont and is a licensed professional engineer.
Ana Ospina, PhD
Senior Engineer
Dr. Ana Ospina holds M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Colorado, Boulder, earned in 2021 and 2023, respectively. During her academic career, she gained valuable experience as a Research Intern at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories in 2019 and 2022. In 2023, Ana transitioned to industry, joining Guidehouse as a Senior Consultant in the Energy, Sustainability, and Infrastructure division. Her work has centered on grid modernization and renewable energy integration, with a specific focus on distribution and transmission planning, optimization, control, and inverter-based resource interconnection. Ana is also an active member of IEEE and is working towards obtaining her Professional Engineer license in California.
Jiecheng "Jeff" Zhao, PhD, PE
Senior Engineer
Dr. Jiecheng “Jeff” Zhao has over 10 years of experience in transmission planning and modeling, protection and control, generator interconnection and due diligence, market forecast and nodal analysis, monitoring and system awareness, and NERC compliance. Before joining Elevate, Jeff worked with ICF Resources, Dominion Energy, and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). He received his PhD from University of Tennessee, Knoxville, is a Senior Member of IEEE, and a licensed professional engineer in Virginia.
Laura Thomas
Business Operations Specialist
Laura Thomas is a business professional with over a decade of experience in the insurance industry. She has built a reputation as a reliable and results-driven team player, and is recognized for her organizational skills and attention to detail. Throughout her career, she has honed her negotiation skills, which enabled her to secure favorable terms and build strong and lasting partnerships. Laura’s business acumen and strategic mindset have been instrumental in driving results and efficiency within her roles. Laura has a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from the University of Mary Washington and a Bachelor of Arts from Virginia Tech.
Kasun Samarasekera
Lead Engineer
Kasun has extensive experience developing models and tuning control algorithms for a wide range of inverter-based resources such as wind, solar, and energy storage. He played a key role in developing one of the world's largest dynamic equivalent AC systems on a 20-rack RTDS system consisting of 11 HVDC (VSC+LCC), 8 FACTS devices, and 200+ conventional generators. Kasun has in-depth knowledge navigating the renewable energy interconnection processes in North America performing Model Quality Tests, benchmarking, material modification, statewide injection, and insulation coordination studies. Kasun is proficient using multiple simulation tools including PSCAD, RTDS/RSCAD, PSS®E, TARA, and DSATools. He is passionate about streamlining processes through Python automation for efficient and accurate project delivery.
Hayley Quint
Head of Business Operations
Hayley Quint supports all facets of business operations including managing all systems and processes that keep Elevate technical team focused on what matters - tackling challenging energy transition challenges. Hayley previously had a successful sales career for software technology startups. She held Senior Account Executive roles at multiple tech companies at various growth stages. Hayley was often one of the founding members of the sales team, helping the organization develop a go to market strategy, executing all aspects of the sales cycle, informing engaging with internal and external executive teams, and helping train and educate other sales team members. She also has marketing and sales experience with large corporations such as Nike and Amazon. More recently, she "retired" from her sales career to focus her attention on raising her wonderful children and helping Elevate achieve its mission.
Amin Banaie, PhD
Senior Engineer
Dr. Amin Banaie has industry and academic experience in the fields of power systems protection, control, and integration of inverter-based resources (IBRs). He received his Ph.D. degree from University of Toronto, Canada, and was a research scientist at the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and GE Renewable Energy prior to joining Elevate. Amin has experience in EMT model development and studies, and testing systems with different types of IBRs and protection schemes. He led research investigating fault ride-through behavior of grid forming IBRs and their impact on protection systems and has developed expertise for hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) testing of systems with IBRs and various protective relays. Dr. Banaie is active in IEEE P2800.2 and IEEE PSRC Working Group C45 activities, and has been recognized as an exceptional reviewer of IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery twice in 2019 and 2020.
Join Us
Passionate about elevating the electricity sector through the clean energy transition and working on exciting challenges with a world-class team of experts? We are always seeking high caliber candidates from diverse backgrounds and areas of expertise to join our team. Connect with us below to learn more.
