About Us | Astrapé Consulting

About Astrapé

Press Release: PowerGEM Acquires Astrapé Consulting

The Story of Astrapé

Astrapé Consulting was founded in 2005 by Kevin Carden to assume development of SERVM from Southern Company.

Since then, Astrapé has continuously enhanced SERVM, which is unique in performing resource adequacy and economic analysis simultaneously, producing cost-effective expansion plans for seamlessly ramping up the use of clean energy.

Now Astrapé is part of PowerGEM, with approximately 40 employees working to serve the numerous customer segments responsible for meeting the rapidly evolving operational and planning needs of the North American power grid and related markets. Astrapé staff like to engage in intense games of pickleball and Texas Hold’em and enjoy the beautiful Alabama outdoors together.

Our expert staff can provide support on

Physical Reliability Studies

Variable Energy Resource ELCC Studies

Regulatory
Support

Our Consultants

Kevin Carden

President

Kevin Carden

President

Mr. Kevin Carden is the Founder and President of Astrapé Consulting, an energy consulting organization with a focus on resource planning. Under Kevin’s leadership for the past 19 years, Astrapé Consulting has provided consulting services to utilities, regulators, and ISOs worldwide. He also led the redevelopment of SERVM, a now industry-leading Resource Adequacy Planning tool, licensed by Astrapé. Additional responsibilities have included reliability and resource adequacy studies for clients across the U.S., project financial analysis, RFP independent evaluation, 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. Kevin holds a U.S. patent in Generation Reliability Modeling techniques (#7698233).

Nick Wintermantel

Chief Services Officer

Nick Wintermantel

Chief Services Officer

Mr. Nick Wintermantel is the Chief Services Officer at Astrapé Consulting. An engineer with an MBA, Nick has been active in the energy industry since 2000, holding various positions within the Southern Company before joining Astrapé Consulting. He has broad experience in integrated resource planning, system production cost modeling, reliability modeling, intermittent resource integration, generation development, contract structuring, and risk analysis. While at Astrapé Consulting, Nick has performed work for large utilities and organizations across the U.S. including the Southern Company, TVA, Duke Energy, Louisville Gas & Electric, ERCOT, FERC, EISPC, PGE, SCE, PNM, and the California Public Utility Commission. Nick’s most recent work has focused on system modeling engagements using the Strategic Energy Risk Valuation Model (SERVM) for clients.

Parth Patel

Director of Software Development

Parth Patel

Director of Software Development

Mr. Parth Patel is the director of software development at Astrapé Consulting. He is responsible for managing and enhancing the Strategic Energy Risk Valuation Model (SERVM). Parth holds a B.S. and M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He has experience in industrial controls, artificial intelligence algorithms, image processing, and designing software for autonomous robots.

Chase Winkler

Managing Consultant

Chase Winkler

Managing Consultant

Mr. Chase Winkler is a managing consultant at Astrapé Consulting. Chase holds a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Texas A&M University, and maintains a license as a Professional Engineer in the state of Texas. He has experience in integrated resource planning, RFP evaluation, reserve margin studies, and ELCC studies.

Alex Dombrowsky

Managing Consultant

Alex Dombrowsky

Managing Consultant

Mrs. Alex Dombrowsky is a managing consultant at Astrapé Consulting. She has worked on reserve margin studies, renewable integration studies, and ELCC studies for clients around North America. Alex holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Alabama.

Jen Canipe

Managing Consultant

Jen Canipe

Managing Consultant

Ms. Jennifer Canipe (Jen) is a managing consultant with Astrapé Consulting. She holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of South Carolina and is a Registered Professional Engineer in the state of North Carolina. She has over three decades of experience in the electric utility industry from her time at Duke Energy in integrated resource planning, regulatory strategy, economic analysis, and production cost modeling. She provides support on resource adequacy studies, ELCC studies, and reserve margin studies.

Cole Benson

Managing Consultant

Cole Benson

Managing Consultant

Mr. Cole Benson is a managing consultant at Astrapé Consulting. He provides support on resource adequacy studies, ELCC studies, and reserve margin studies and brings experience from his time as a graduate intern for the Energy Storage Systems department at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, NM. Mr. Benson holds a B.S. in Biochemistry and an MBA with an emphasis on Financial Management from the University of New Mexico.

Joel Dison

Technical Manager

Joel Dison

Technical Manager

Mr. Joel Dison is a technical manager at Astrapé Consulting. He works on numerous types of projects, including resource adequacy studies, renewable resource integration cost studies, and others. Mr. Dison has over 35 years of experience in the electric power industry working in areas such as plant operations, plant engineering, energy marketing and trading, energy policy, transmission planning, and generation planning. Mr. Dison holds B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Alabama at Birmingham and a Masters of Divinity from the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.

Rajaz Amitava

Managing Consultant

Rajaz Amitava

Managing Consultant

Rajaz Amitava is a managing consultant at Astrapé Consulting. He brings experience from his time as a graduate research assistant at Iowa State University working on capacity expansion and production costing in bulk energy systems. He has also worked at PJM Interconnection in the Advanced Analytics division setting up co-optimized expansion planning tools. He has a Bachelor’s in Electrical Engineering and an MS in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Iowa State University.

Jenny Davis

Executive Assistant

Jenny Davis

Executive Assistant

Mrs. Jenny Davis is the executive assistant at Astrapé Consulting. She provides support to both the Astrapé team and their clients. Mrs. Davis has experience in client support services and account management and oversees billing and daily operations.

Justin Brooks

Managing Consultant

Justin Brooks

Managing Consultant

Mr. Justin Brooks is a managing consultant with Astrapé Consulting. He holds a B.S. in Nuclear Engineering from North Carolina State University and an M.S. in Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering from Virginia Commonwealth University. He maintains a license as a Professional Engineer in the state of North Carolina. He has experience in integrated resource planning, capacity expansion, resource adequacy and capacity valuation studies, and engineering solutions to complex problems from his time at Duke Energy and various entities supporting the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program.

Jake Blizman

Consultant

Jake Blizman

Consultant

Mr. Jake Blizman is a consultant at Astrapé Consulting. Jake holds a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Texas A&M University. He provides support on reserve margin and ELCC studies for many clients across the United States.

Nick Simmons

Consultant

Nick Simmons

Consultant

Mr. Nick Simmons is a consultant at Astrapé Consulting. He brings technical experience from his time as a graduate assistant in Lean Manufacturing and undergraduate work in simulations. Additionally, Mr. Simmons brings communication and personal skills from his time working in college ministry. Mr. Simmons holds a Bachelor of Industrial and Systems Engineering and is pursuing an MBA with a certificate in Management Information Systems from Auburn University.

Tobe Anyaezu

Optimization Engineer

Tobe Anyaezu

Optimization Engineer

Mr. Tobe Anyaezu is an optimization engineer at Astrapé Consulting. He provides support on both software development and engineering analysis. Mr. Anyaezu holds dual Master’s Degrees in Data Science and Petroleum Engineering from the University of Oklahoma.

Aditya Nathan

Consultant

Aditya Nathan

Consultant

Mr. Aditya Nathan is a consultant at Astrapé Consulting. He supports clients with resource adequacy studies, energy life cycle costing (ELCC) studies, and reserve margin studies. He brings a strong foundation in energy systems to this role, holding a Bachelor of Technology in Mechanical Engineering and a Master of Engineering in Energy Systems Engineering from the University of Michigan. He leverages his expertise in optimization, honed through his research assistant position, to tackle complex energy challenges and deliver efficient solutions for clients.

Donald Webster

Software Engineer

Donald Webster

Software Engineer

Mr. Donald Webster is a Software Engineer with Astrapé Consulting. His current work focuses on adding new GUI displays of unit & study data and in refactoring current query logic. Mr. Webster graduated with a BS & MS in Management Information Systems from the University of Alabama.

Adela Wasserbauerova

Software Engineer

Adela Wasserbauerova

Software Engineer

Ms. Adela Wasserbauerova is a consultant at Astrapé Consulting. Adela holds a B.S. in Engineering from the University of Alabama at Birmingham in Electrical Engineering.

Stepan Vancurik, Ph.D.

Software Engineer

Stepan Vancurik, Ph.D.

Software Engineer

Dr. Stepan Vancurik is a software engineer at Astrapé Consulting. Stepan holds a Ph.D. in Computer Engineering from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Stepan also holds M.S. and B.S. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, as well as an MBA from the University of Economics and Management in Prague. Stepan has multiple publications in IEEE Transactions and other journals, and he has presented several research papers at various IEEE conferences.

About Astrapé

The Story of Astrapé