Technical Committee

Tom is the Owner, Founder, and Chief Engineer for TAC1 Engineering Services PLLC, supporting the maintenance, operations, testing, NERC compliance, and replacement of standby, stationary battery systems. As a consultant, he brings decades of experience in the electrical power industry, primarily focused on power generation and NERC compliance.

Tom has a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Mississippi State University, is a Licensed Professional Electrical Engineer, is a Licensed Electrician, and recently retired from a long, illustrious career that concluded with his last 10+ years as a NERC compliance expert for a large electrical utility

Tom was inducted into the Battcon Hall of Fame in 2024 for his longstanding service and commitment to the stationary battery industry.

Dr. Alyssa McQuilling serves as the Research and Innovation Manager at the Consortium for Battery Innovation (CBI), and she has 10+ years of research experience in energy storage, air quality, and advanced agriculture. Her scientific record includes peer-reviewed publications and presentations on a wide range of topics including energy system performance and use cases. At CBI, Alyssa is focused on supporting industry partners in their pursuit of federal research funding as well as building strong research partnerships to advance lead battery technology. Prior to joining CBI, Dr. McQuilling oversaw the operation and commissioning of two energy storage systems at Southern Research in Birmingham, AL. McQuilling received her doctorate and master’s degrees from Carnegie Mellon University in Civil and Environmental Engineering and a bachelor’s degree in environmental engineering from North Carolina State University.

Brian has 21 years of engineering experience at East Penn Manufacturing and currently manages the application engineering group in the Reserve Power Division.  He holds a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Pennsylvania State University.  He has attended Battcon since 2013 and been on the technical committee since 2018.  He also participates on the IEEE ESSB committee.

Curtis Ashton is a degreed electrical engineer and a Master/Journeyman electrician (licensed in 3 states).  He works as a Training Director for American Power Systems LLC, which is a DC power services company and distributor owned by East Penn Mfg.  Curtis has over 35 years experience working for electric utility, telecom, and data center companies as a power and grounding SME.  He is a past chair of the IEEE PES ESSB, and still heavily involved with its battery standards.  Mr. Ashton is also the primary author of several ANSI ATIS standards on telecom power, grounding, and electrical protection.  He has had many peer-reviewed papers published, is a co-author of a patent on telecom line-powering, and has presented at conferences around the world.  Curtis is also a principal member of NFPA standards 800 and 855, and chairs several task groups therein.  He is the chair of the Battcon technical committee.  In his spare time, he enjoys speaking Spanish with others who do, and refereeing high school basketball and soccer.

Jim McDowall is an IEEE Life Fellow, cited for leadership in stationary battery standards and the energy storage industry. Currently an independent consultant working mostly in energy storage safety, Jim was a director of the Energy Storage Association (now American Clean Power Association) for 14 years, including two years as Chairman. Jim is a former Chair of the IEEE Energy Storage and Stationary Battery Committee, has led numerous standards projects, and is currently serving as the committee’s Standards Coordinator.

Dan Lambert has over 40 years of commercial and industrial electrical experience and has worked with AC and DC power systems, with a primary focus on mission-critical power systems. Working with stationary battery systems since 1985, he has worked with many battery chemistries and has contributed to large scale energy storage analysis projects, as well as testing other storage systems. Dan is currently a member of the IEEE Power and Energy Society serving as the vice-chair for the IEEE Energy Storage and Stationary Battery (ESSB) Committee’s IEEE 1679.4 Alkaline Chemistries Working Group and as a member of the ESSB Codes and Standards Task Group. He is also a member of the Battcon conference Technical Committee.

Jeff is an electrical engineer and licensed Professional Engineer, with more than 40 years’ experience in design, applications, plant engineering, and project management. He has a broad range of proficiencies, primarily in electrical power and controls. Jeff is the fleet expert and designated technical authority for stationary batteries and dc systems for Duke Energy Generation, and has responsibility for compliance with several NERC Standards.

Siu-yee Ching has a B.S. in Chemical Engineering and an M.S. in Engineering and Technology Management. She has worked at Philadelphia Scientific for 6 years and is heavily involved in software product development for the management, maintenance, and monitoring of motive power lead-acid batteries. Siu-yee is the vice-chair of the IEEE ESSB Energy Storage subcommittee and the chair of the IEEE 1679.1 Characterization of Lithium-Based Batteries working group.

Mike Nispel is Senior Principal Engineer for Energy Storage with Comcast Cable’s Critical Infrastructure group. He has been working in the industrial battery field for over 30 years for several of the major industrial battery manufacturers in the US. He is experienced in the manufacture, use and maintenance of lead-acid and lithium batteries as well as the related fields of grid storage, renewables and battery monitoring. He has a BS and an MS in Chemical Engineering and is an active member of SCTE, the IEEE Energy Storage and Stationary Battery committee and the Battcon Technical committee.

Matthew Raiford earned his B. Sc. in Chemistry from Texas A&M University in 2009 and his Ph. D. in Chemistry from University of Texas at Austin in 2014. Afterward he started as process engineer at RSR Technologies. Matt has spent the last five years working on materials development in active materials for lead batteries. He is focused on improving dynamic charge acceptance and cycle life in lead batteries and has pursued this goal by working with national labs, universities, and the lead battery industry.

William Cantor holds both a B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering and an M.S. degree in electrical engineering. He has over 30 years’ experience in the stationary battery industry and has been an active participant in the development of related IEEE standards and an active member of IEEE PES ESSB committee. In addition, Mr. Cantor represents IEEE PES/IAS on various NFPA committees and is an Assistant Teaching Professor at the Pennsylvania State University.

Allen is one of the founders of Battcon and chaired the conference for 17 years and was an original member of the Battcon Technical Committee. For over 50 years he has been involved with the design, installation and maintenance of battery backed power systems across all industries, contributing to Bicsi, NFPA, IEEE, ATIS and other national codes and standards. He was an invited speaker at many industry events and for many years was a Contributing Editor for  Power Quality Assurance magazine. Allen is a Senior Member of the IEEE and honoured to have been  inducted into the Battcon Hall of Fame.