Nelson Bacalao
Siemens PTI
Senior Manager, Consulting
Dr. Bacalao is the Senior Consulting Manager of Siemens PTI Houston Office. He has over 30 years of extensive experience in providing technical and strategic consulting services to utilities, independent system operators, governments, regulators, independent project developers, and the financial community, in domestic as well as international assignments for the energy industry. He combines a rigorous academic training in engineering and business with utility, government and consulting experience in the technical, economic, and regulatory aspects of utility systems. Dr. Bacalao core competencies are in the area of Transmission and Distribution, with recent year’s emphasis in the integration of renewable generation. Experience Dr. Bacalao regularly provides consulting advice on short and long term Transmission and Distribution planning, integration of renewable generation, generation interconnections, due diligence evaluation and/or assessment of transmission and distribution utilities for banks, investors and utility management for more than 30 transmission and distribution companies in 11 countries. His assignments typically include ore or more of the following tasks: (a)system studies including load flow, stability and reliability, (b) inventory and condition assessment of T&D assets, (c) estimation of production costs and impact of new generation (usually renewable) and/or new transmission facilities, (d) formulation of expansion options and selection of optimal Capital Expenditures (CapEx) plan , (e) estimation of operating and maintenance costs (OpEx), (f) Revenue estimation, evaluation of rate structure and assessment on return on investments, and (g) formulation of medium and long-term strategic plans. Given the difficulty of transmission planning in deregulated electric sectors and the special intermittent nature of renewable generation, Dr. Bacalao has developed strong transmission planning experience under uncertainty. He has performed or supervised over 10 of these studies for systems including voltages up to 765 kV. In these studies Dr. Bacalao conducted or managed the system evaluations including the formulation of transmission expansion options, load flow and stability studies, and, most importantly, the risk evaluations to determine minimum “regret option” and hedging strategies to be followed by the interested parties. Dr. Bacalao has managed or participated in feasibility evaluations and technical due diligence analyses of numerous electric generation projects including open and combined cycle plants, hydroelectric projects, wind turbine generation, photovoltaic and large diesel plants. These studies have included: (a) definition of optimal plant size, (b) system impact studies and feasibility (transmission interconnection definition), (c) estimation of capital expenditures and construction time, (d) definition of project financing strategy, (e) projection of fuel and non fuel costs, and (f) production of projected financial pro forma statements. Dr. Bacalao has solid experience in regulation for the energy industry, with emphasis on grid codes reviews, transmission tariff formulation and periodic reviews. He has provided these types of services to regulators, investors and utilities in countries as diverse as the USA, Puerto Rico, Guyana, Mexico, Turkey, Malawi, Belize, Venezuela and South Africa.
• 2006 – Present Siemens PTI: Senior Manager Consulting: Network Services.
• 2005 TRC Management Solutions, Executive Consultant
• 1999 – 2004 Stone & Webster Management Consultants, Inc., Executive Consultant
• 1996 – 1999 Placer Dome, Inc., Business Analyst, Corporate Development Group