At Accion Group we take pride in our consultants and employees; our diverse team of industry experts work collaboratively to provide the best value to our clients. With varied backgrounds in the energy industry and technology sector, our consultants understand the needs of utilities, stakeholders, consumer advocates, and regulators.
Harold T. Judd is President and co-founder of Accion Group, LLC. Harry’s background includes his work as a state consumer advocate, federal prosecutor, state’s counsel, and counsel for utilities and state regulators. Harry uses his decades of experience in regulated industries and emerging markets to lead Accion Group’s engagements across the country. He specializes in advising regulators and utilities on strategies for the electric utility post-deregulation era. Harry is actively involved in the design and management of competitive solicitations for power supply to meet wholesale energy needs, provides mediation services to the energy industry, and advises regulators and power plant owners in the area of nuclear decommissioning planning and funding.
Previously, Harry served in the White House as counsel to the Special Assistant to the President and later in the Solicitor’s Office for the U.S. Department of Energy and as Senior Assistant Attorney General for New Hampshire’s Office of the Attorney General. For over two years Harry lived Micronesia serving as economic development counsel to the Congress. Mr. Judd holds a J.D. from the University of New Hampshire School of Law (formerly Franklin Pierce Law Center) and a B.A. from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
Harris has been working in the power industry and related information technology fields for almost 40 years. His early work experiences aboard a nuclear ballistic missile submarine, as a technician on a mobile incinerator, and as an electrician at a small wood fired power plant, gave rise to his pursuit of a quieter, cleaner work environment, just as the personal computer became popular and affordable for business.
Initially a computer and network technician, Harris then shifted into to software and programming with the rise of the internet and the proliferation of web-based applications. Harris’ specialties include database design, implementation, and management, as well as programming for web-based project management and IT consulting services.
As a Senior Consultant at Accion Group, Marcus Jackson is an experienced engineer and utility executive with a background in electric and gas public utilities. He brings both international and domestic project management, engineering and operations experience to the Accion team.
As a utility executive, Marcus served as Chairman of the Board, Chief Executive Officer, and President of SEMCO Energy Company. Marcus also served as the Chief Operating Officer for Kansas City Power and Light (KCP&L), as well as the Chief Financial Officer (KCP&L) and President of KCP&L Power, the unregulated subsidiary of KCP&L. Marcus provides practical insights into corporate governance, utility finance, administration and regulatory affairs.
David brings to Accion Group his 35 years of experience working with Georgia Power Company, and specializes in economic evaluation of projects and marginal cost evaluations for customers and utilities. At Georgia Power Company, Dave led the company’s Profitability and Economic Analysis team with responsibilities for economic evaluations of beneficial electrification and energy efficiency programs, renewable energy programs, batteries and other distributed energy technologies. He also prepared and defended demand side management filings with the Georgia Public Service Commission (GPSC), including energy efficiency potential studies and integrated resource plans as well as preparing witnesses for testimony in regulatory hearings. Mr. Ball holds an MBA from The College of William and Mary and a B.S. in Economics and Geology from St. Lawrence University.
With more than thirty years of experience, Alan brings considerable knowledge of planning and operations analysis, financial and operational issues in restructuring energy markets, and fuels management to Accion Group as a Senior Consultant. Prior to joining Accion Group, Alan held management positions at two major U.S. public utilities and a state public utilities commission. Alan was also a partner at Deloitte Consulting and Ernst & Young, where he led the firms’ utility restructuring and reorganization practices. Alan has also represented clients on engagements relating to mergers and acquisitions, power supply management, regulatory litigations, and business reorganizations and restructurings, and specializes in advising clients on general corporate and regulatory strategy. He has participated in numerous regulatory proceedings, often providing expert testimony, and has also served as a trustee for the Federal Trade Commission in merger-related matters in the oil and gas industry. Mr. Kessler holds a J.D. from Capital University School of Law and a B.S. in Economics from The City College of New York.
Phil has more than thirty years of experience in electric transmission and distribution experience, and domestic and international transmission design and maintenance. Phil assists Accion Group in reviewing and analyzing issues relating to transmission and distribution operations, costs and planning assumptions, and determinations.
He has reviewed the transmission and distribution operations, cost and planning assumptions, and determinations in a number of states, including systems with significant transmission congestion constraints in the Pacific Northwest, Georgia, Florida, and Hawaii. Prior to his work at Accion Group and as an independent contractor, Mr. Layfield was employed by the Potomac Electric Power Company (PEPCO), where he directed the generation maintenance effort and was responsible for the planning, scheduling, and implementation of unit maintenance. He appeared as an expert witness on maintenance matters for PEPCO and has also presented expert testimony on utility matters in Connecticut, Guam, Kentucky, Nevada, Indiana, and Colorado. Mr. Layfield holds both an MBA and a B.S. in Business Administration from The George Washington University.
Ralph has thirty-five years of experience in the electric utility industry, which includes more than twenty years in various areas of generation planning and integrated resource planning within the Southern Company system. In addition, Ralph worked as a Transmission Planning Engineer for ten years. As a resource planner, Ralph developed generation expansion plans, evaluated near term generation options, and evaluated generation and system power proposals received during formal RFP’s. His experience includes working with the electric utility staffs of several Public Utility Commissions during their reviews of RFP solicitations and certifications of capacity additions. His expertise includes detailed modeling of supply-side electric generation proposals, using both vendor software and internally developed models. Mr. Monsalvatge has both a B.S. and M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Garey’s extensive career included significant responsibility in general management positions in Transmission Planning, Generation Planning, Resource Planning and Policy, Bulk Power Marketing, Joint Ownership, Power Procurement, and Generating Plant sales and purchases. Additionally, Garey managed numerous RFPs to secure capacity and energy from traditional central station power plants as well as renewables and system power. He has led negotiating teams in dozens of diverse ownership and purchase contracts securing power for retail electric service, and has served in leadership positions in the industry including as past Chair of the NERC Planning Committee and the EEI Transmission Committee. Garey has testified in numerous state PSC hearings involving Integrated Resource Planning, certifications of PPAs and power plants, and policy issues. He is an expert in System Planning, Power Contracts, and Reliability Analysis. His most recent experience has been in solicitations and contracting for utility scale solar power in Georgia. Mr. Rozier has a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from Auburn University and a M.B.A. in Finance from Georgia State University.
Sheri brings fifteen years of experience in the energy industry to Accion Group’s consulting engagements. Specializing in the design and maintenance of Accion Group’s competitive procurement websites for clients such as the Georgia Public Service Commission, Black Hills, Tucson Electric Power, and Portland General Electric, Sheri is critical to Accion Group’s competitive energy solicitation process management. As a consultant, Sheri functions as an advisor and project manager for Accion’s role in wholesale energy procurements, and also offers our clients in-depth tutorials of Accion’s RFP website functions, ensuring clarity and ease of use during the procurement process.
As a consultant for Accion Group, John operates primarily in the field of nuclear power. John’s 40 plus years of experience in licensing and engineering encompasses all phases of a nuclear power plant’s life cycle including initial licensing, construction, operations, power uprates, life extension, and decommissioning. As a former Manager of Nuclear Operations and Safety at an architect-engineering firm and Nuclear Licensing Manager at several sites, he has extensive experience working constructively with the NRC on difficult and sensitive licensing issues. He has also been the point person for interface with the EPA and regulators at the state level. His work as a consultant over the past 15 years has included clients such as Exelon, NextEra, Areva, and a number of public utility commissions.
Nick is and engineer with an MBA and has more than 20 years in the electric utility industry with a focus on integrated resource planning and resource adequacy. Since 2009, he has been consulting for large utilities and organizations across the U.S. and internationally. In this time, he has conducted an array of analysis and studies including resource selection studies, resource adequacy studies, effective load carrying capability (ELCC) studies, and renewable integration studies. For Accion Group, Nick uses this experience to provide valuable insights in evaluating resource procurements for its clients. Through his experience he has developed an expertise in the evaluation of emerging technologies including battery storage, solar, and wind.
With a background in production cost simulations for risk analysis and reliability planning for power supply options, coupled with twenty years of diverse utility management experience, Kevin possesses the technical background needed to successfully execute a wide range of resource adequacy studies. In addition to his work with Accion Group, Kevin operates as the director of Astrapé Consulting, which has provided consulting services to utilities nation-wide including the Southern Company, TVA, SCE, EON-US, PGE, SMUD, APS, CLECO, and LCRA. For the Southern Company, he led the redevelopment of SERVM, an industry leading Resource Planning tool which is currently managed and licensed by Astrapé. Additional responsibilities have included project financial analysis, RFP independent evaluation, target reserve margin studies, renewable capacity valuation, demand side management program development and contract management for many large capital projects. Kevin holds a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from the University of Alabama
An engineer with more than forty years of experience, George provides expertise in utility-scale renewable energy projects and public energy sector cost reduction. During his nine years at Southern California Edison and one year at CCA startup Peninsula Clean Energy, George created and managed large renewable energy procurement programs in California that have produced 2,000 megawatts of PPAs.
Accion supported George’s teams in most of these procurements as Independent Evaluator and website provider. Then, in 2017 George founded a consulting firm and has served as an Accion consultant, specializing in technical evaluation of proposals to determine the eligibility and probability of success of proposed projects.
Hilary joined the Accion Group in 2018 as a consultant with a focus in customer experience and communication. Hilary works closely with Accion’s clients to provide website tutorials, data collection support, and help manage the interfacing of confidential information between bidder and company. Hilary also develops written deliverables for utilities and regulators detailing the oversight and due diligence provided by Accion Group.
With almost fifteen years of experience in Chemical Patent Technology, Usha specializes in electronic database searching, training to patent examiner, customer service, and website customization. As an analyst Usha works closely with Accion’s clients to develop customized RFP websites, from content development through contract signing.
Usha holds a MIP (Master in Intellectual Property) degree from University of New Hampshire School of Law (formerly Franklin Pierce Law Center), and a M.Sc. (Master in ICED) degree from Southern New Hampshire University (formerly New Hampshire College).
Chapin studied at Washington and Lee University and specializes in technical analysis. He works closely with Accion’s consultants to provide both technical and data-driven support across various projects and websites.