Simon Todd

Experience

• 

  Woodward Governor Company

  May 1998 - Dec 1998

  Generation Control Engineer

  - Generation governor control development and maintenance at various New Zealand power stations.- Development of governor maintenance plans for North Island generator companies- Liaising with generator client maintenance staff and management.

• 

  ABB

  Jan 1999 - Nov 1999

  Engineering Consultant

  - HVDC control studies and designs for Argentina/Brazil back-to-back HVDC connection. - Worked with ABB staff to develop control system analysis tools and implementation of control systems into hardware.

• 

  Transpower New Zealand

  Feb 2000 - Oct 2001

  Grid Planning Engineer

  - Network planning and developmental engineering.- Analysis of transmission network regional plans, - Generator compliance, transmission and generator modelling, and regulatory reporting. - Generator connection studies and generator control system analysis and testing.

• 

  DIgSILENT GmbH

  Oct 2001 - May 2002

  Power Systems Engineer

  - Transmission planning analysis for consulting and software model development

• 

  IPSA Power Ltd

  Jun 2002 - Dec 2004

  Principal Consultant

  - Transmission planning analysis for various utilities in the UK including United Utilities and Eirgrid in Ireland. - Carried out numerous analysis studies for UK government; research into wind generation development. - Wind farm studies for EIRGRID and United Utilities in UK. - Participated in development of bids for UK government grants for renewables integration into UK power grid.

• 

  Electricity Commission

  Jan 2005 - Mar 2010

  Transmission Advisor

  - Technical and regulatory analysis of Transpower major capital expenditure proposals totaling upwards of $1.5b. - Technical assessment of North Island Grid Upgrade, Otahuhu Substation Diversity Project, HVDC Pole 3.- Technical reporting to Board on technical aspects of Transpower upgrade proposals ensuring regulatory compliance for approvals. - Managed external consultants to provide analysis and consulting reports in support of regulatory decisions.

• 

  Transpower New Zealand

  Apr 2010 - Sept 2015

  - Assisted in setting the technical path of aspects of transmission asset planning and economic analysis. - Developed High Impact Low Probability (HILP) and risk analysis framework to value HILP mitigations and transmission diversity. - Expertise in power system planning, dynamics, reliability and infrastructure economics. - Network studies for network capacity issues, generation connections and dynamics. - Performed high level technical transmission planning and economic analysis for the Lower North Island region for wind farm connections.- Transmission planning input into aspects of economic analysis.

  • Principal Engineer

    Oct 2012 - Sept 2015

  • Senior Grid Planning Engineer

    Apr 2010 - Oct 2012
• 

  Kahu Consulting

  Sept 2015 - Jun 2016

  Consultant

  - Independent infrastructure industry consultant focusing on economic analysis, risk analysis and insurance studies. - Power industry expertise in network planning and economics. - Principal client Commerce Commission - provided consulting services to Commerce Commission Price-Quality Regulation team. Involved in 2016 Input Methodology review - CPP verifier IM requirements

• 

  Commerce Commission

  Jun 2016 - now

  - Transpower Capex IM investment rules review- Electricity and gas sector stakeholder relationship management- Provide technical and strategic sector leadership- EDB performance analysis and asset management - Technical lead in the Gas DPP3 Reset- Aurora customised price path setting in 2019. - Involved in all aspects of EDB performance analysis.- Transpower 2020-2025 price path reset in 2019.- Powerco customised price path setting in 2018.- Gas industry price path reset in 2017. - Input Methodology review in 2016, - Driving change in regulatory consideration of network risk and resilience.- Providing expert engineering and technical advice for regulation branch.

  • Chief Advisor

    Sept 2020 - now

  • Senior Analyst

    Jun 2016 - Sept 2020