2024 One Avangrid Accelerators Recognized for Powering Up Innovative Ideas
Imagine a workplace where every idea, no matter how big or small, has the potential to transform the way we do business. That’s the spirit behind the One Avangrid Accelerators Program, which has just wrapped up its third successful year. This program is all about empowering employees to bring their innovative ideas to the table and turn them into reality. Every employee – whether brand new or experienced, working in the field or in the office – can contribute.
At the beginning of 2024, employees proposed project ideas to improve business operations and processes of all types. Employees dedicated around 10 percent of their work time in six months to turning their ideas into tangible results. Ultimately, 26 participants completed 17 projects, ranging from developing a product roadmap for an interconnection AI tool to enhancing the current operational strategy for repairing onshore wind turbine bedframes.
Earlier this week, the Accelerators attended their final meeting of the program during which the CEO Office celebrated the group’s outstanding achievements and expressed gratitude to the participants for their dedication. They also honored the “Most Innovative,” “Most Impactful,” and “Most Collaborative” projects, which are recognized below.
“As a proud member of the Iberdrola Group, we are part of a company with a mission that positively impacts the world today and for generations to come,” said Pedro Azagra, CEO. “The hard work, dedication, and commitment of the Accelerators will enable us to better serve our customers, colleagues, and communities. I am very proud of their work over the past several months and congratulate them on the successful completion of this program.”
Recognizing 2024 Accelerator Program Projects:
Most Innovative
Tejas Saberwal
Project: ixAI – Interconnection Proof of Concept
Objective: Developing product roadmap for an interconnection AI tool to enhance POI selection and forecast network upgrade cost based on probability of competing projects.
Samantha Curnyn and Liam Griese
Project: Repurposing End-of-life Wind Turbine Blades as Transmission Poles
Objective: Repurposing end-of-life wind turbine blades as transmission poles to maximize the circularity of renewable energy infrastructure.
Jen Rowe
Project: Restructuring Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) Alarms of Interest
Objective: Restructuring SCADA alarm data to pair alarms with their corresponding normal, providing a holistic way to view and work with breaker alarm data.
Most Collaborative
Mariana Martins Franco and Madelena Tucci
Project: Outage Recurrences
Objective: Developing a tool for operations to identify areas with frequent outages and implement outage mitigations.
Most Impactful
Ricardo Cortes
Project: Improving Master MID List
Objective: Improving the Master MID List by linking technical specification sheets on the list to avoid selection of incorrect materials.
Vitor Siqueira, Manuel Alvarez, Luiz Machado, and Kamil Tyszkiewicz
Project: Enhancing Compliance Metrics Visibility and Accountability for Avangrid Gas Operations and Engineering
Objective: Implementing a centralized and structured approach to improve the visibility and accountability of Gas Operations and Engineering key compliance metrics.
Nate Doody
Project: Structural Repair of Onshore Wind Turbine Bedframes
Objective: Enhancing current operational strategy to repair onshore wind turbine bedframes.
The CEO Office would like to thank all the Accelerators for their efforts in delivering their projects:
Gabriela Sibel: Digitalizing General Services Non-Financial Information Data
Jamar Paris and Asia Constantine: Automated Planner Reporting
Kelsey Ouellette: Measuring Biodiversity Impacts Using AI
Bridget Franklin: Networks Contractor Compliance Automation Project
David Martins: Ecological Compact Sustainable Smart Substations
Kevin White, Nadiya Rudak, Jeffrey Hatton and Mark Fisher: PUC Complaints App & Automation
Julio Soares Fonseca: Distribution Automation Reliability Assessment
Keith Anderson: Capitalizing on Subsurface Utility Locates
Krystal Alba: M.A.P. Managing Avangrid Projects
Bianca Acebron Peco: Optimizing Project Dynamics
