About us
ModBESS makes energy storage work
ModBESS optimises operation of electric subnetworks that contain energy storage of any sort, within the conflicting constraints of reliability and economy. A source of storage, in itself, is not optimal. Its operation must be carefully coordinated with the other operations of the subnetwork and any exchanges with other grids.
ModBESS’s proprietary Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions, developed by experts in the field, work on existing systems as is, but also suggest further design modifications to new or existing systems to improve economy and reliability despite uncertainty in weather, wind, rainfall, sunshine, component reliability, client energy demand and water requirements.
Meet Our Team
Fernando L. Alvarado, PhD
Fernando Alvarado is a Professor Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin ECE Department. From 1972 to 2003 he was a defining member of one the best power programs in the nation. His specialty was the development of tools for the analysis of large, interconnected grids. He is a Fellow of IEEE and has hundreds of publications on a variety of related topics and a couple of patents. He was a consultant at Christensen Associates, a co-founder of ARB Energy and, most recently, ModBESS, a company addressing the use of all forms of storage to improve grid performance.
John A. C. Woodley
John Woodley has a BS in Elec Eng. In South Africa, he ran 2 units in a 6 unit 3600 MW coal fired plant. Moved to the US in 1984 and earned an MBA from Valdosta State University and then an MS in Finance at Georgia State University whilst working full-time at Georgia Power. After various positions at the Southern Company focused on finance and emerging electric markets, he was hired to start the first electricity trading desk on Wall Street at Morgan Stanley. He stepped down as Managing Director in 2009 but remained a Senior Advisor to the Commodities desk at Morgan Stanley till April 2021.
Fabrizio Sossan, PhD
Fabrizio Sossan is a university researcher and professor. He is an expert in applied optimization and predictive control of distributed energy storage, flexible demand, and renewable generation.
Rajesh Rajaraman, PhD
Rajesh Rajaraman (Raj) has a Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering. He worked at Christensen Associates on economics and engineering consulting from 1995. He retired as vice-president in 2017 to start ARB Energy and ModBESS. He has developed sophisticated optimization models for use in electricity markets.
Boonsiew Yeoh
Boonsiew Yeoh (Boon) has degrees in Applied Economics and Finance from St. Cloud State University. He is a CFA charterholder and is experienced in asset valuation and portfolio construction. He worked for Christensen Associates as a Senior Analyst before he joined ModBESS.
Quentin Ford
Quentin Ford graduated from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 2021 with degrees in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering. He has developed predictive machine learning models and has experience in full-stack software development.
Elmar Niewerth
Elmar Niewerth has a Master’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Applied Sciences Aachen, Germany and has held German Contractor Licenses for Solar Electric, Solar Thermal, Natural Gas and HVAC Systems. After his Engineering degree in 1994, he dedicated his professional life to renewable energy and worked as an engineer and manager in multiple European countries and since 2004 in the US.
