Pepco Holdings Innovator of the Year Awards
This year we celebrated our first annual Innovator of the Year Awards, where we had the privilege of recognizing our top innovators across Atlantic City Electric, Delmarva Power and Pepco who have gone to great lengths to ensure safe and reliable energy service to our customers. Throughout 2023, they developed groundbreaking solutions to streamline our operations and innovated new and improved ways to deliver a more positive and personalized customer experience.
Please join us in congratulating our fellow team members who are driving the innovations that pave the way for a cleaner, brighter, and more equitable future!
Audience Favorite Edison Place – Pepco
Automating the Import of TSO’s Outside World to Model to ADMS Project
Brian Strojny, Manager Operations Support
Kushal Patel, Service Analyst IT
and John McGarrity, Section Engineer
At Pepco, we use a variety of tools to help operators maintain situational awareness to help match real-world conditions and provide accurate solutions. The “Automating the Import of TSO’s Outside World to Model to ADMS” improved our tools, seamlessly integrating an external network model to enhance Pepco’s state estimation and contingency analysis. The project was like completing a puzzle – stitching missing pieces from the broader network directly into our system. As a result, it helps to prepare operators for unexpected events, and the automation both minimizes errors and increases efficiency.
Audience Favorite – Delmarva Power
Centralized Regulatory Resource Center
Jeffery Shalaway, Senior Rate Analyst and William Brooks, Former
The “Centralized Regulatory Resource Center” is a one-stop shop for teams to find resources, track projects, and access important information. The system which also features a visual tracking system to showcase progress of goals, has improved employee engagement and helps Delmarva Power team members work better together.
Audience Favorite ARO – Atlantic City Electric
Intern Playbook Project
Shelly Weckerly, Manager Project Control
Ruda Nighot, Project Cost Analyst
Jordan Burgess, Project Cost Analyst
Gabriel Gaines, Associate Project Cost Analyst
Jamie Wilson, Manager Project Controls
Steve Hambleton, Manager Project Controls
Elizabeth Tewolde, Manager Project Controls
Matt Silberstein, Senior Project Cost Analyst
and Dawson Green, Senior Project Control Estimator
This innovative group of individuals created the “Intern Playbook” to give interns a real-world project, not just busywork. It helps interns, who we see as the future energy leaders, to understand the big picture of department goals, see how different parts of the team collaborate, and make work a fun and valuable experience. As a result, intern satisfaction was rated high, and all 2023 intern offers in this department were accepted. In addition to providing value to the next generation of energy workers, this system proved successful in helping current team members work efficiently and feel more included.
Innovation Lead Ambassador of the Year – Pepco Holdings
Mohammad Shariati, Manager Project Controls & Rabia Durrani, Senior Business Analyst
This year, we had such a strong group of innovation sponsors across the organization that we decided to award two Innovation Lead Ambassadors of the Year!
Mohammad Shariati: Passion is the first word that comes to mind with Mohammad. He truly exemplifies passion for innovation, building a team of innovation ambassadors, coaching others, creating informative flyers, and even developing his own system to track progress on new ideas – all in 2023! His dedication is admirable and played a big role in moving our company forward last year.
Rabia Durrani: Rabia is all about finding ways to work smarter, not harder. In 2023, she led an ideation session with 25 participants, generating 35 ideas to tackle challenges and find ways to streamline processes, utilize resources efficiently, and improve training for skill development.
With a keen focus on finding ways to improve workflows and services, Rabia leads by example and uses innovation to drive meaningful change throughout our organization.
Innovator of the Year – Pepco Holdings
Jeffrey Alex Shalaway, Senior Rate Analyst
Jeff is a true innovator, using his creativity to develop new ideas to improve our processes so that we can better serve our customers. Last year, he took the initiative to develop a comprehensive dashboard to track work and information for his teams. Since its inception, this dashboard has proven especially helpful for new employees, making it much easier for everyone to collaborate and ultimately helping us build a better, brighter future for the regions we serve.
Innovation Trailblazer – Pepco Holdings
Christopher Friel, Senior Business Program Manager
Chris is our 2023 Innovation Trailblazer because of his unwavering dedication to testing innovations that streamline our operations. Despite setbacks, he learns from failures, adapts, and adjusts accordingly to make sure we’re moving in the right direction. Notably, he assisted in an overhaul of our billing system for charging electric vehicles at company-owned stations. Thanks to his innovation, we’ve successfully streamlined billing processes and enabled accurate reporting for our teams.
Rising Star of Innovation – Pepco Holdings
Braden Hause, General Engineer
Braden fosters collaboration in the workplace to transform groundbreaking ideas into a reality. With a knack for strategic planning, Braden moves swiftly to gather the right stakeholders to ensure projects cross the finish line.
Innovation Visionary – Pepco Holdings
Brian W. Miles, Senior Methods Specialist
A longtime innovator, Brian made a big impact in 2023 by adding a layer of protection to a commonly used tool for our employees, preventing workplace injuries as a result. That’s not all – Brian also worked across Atlantic City Electric, Delmarva Power and Pepco to trial a new device for our substation equipment, making tasks safer, easier, and more accurate for our operations.
Innovation Maestro – Pepco Holdings
Scott Chubb, Senior Business Analyst
Scott didn’t hesitate when tasked with solving a decade-long challenge for another department. He gathered scattered data from multiple systems into a comprehensive dashboard, allowing teams to measure performance and track progress seamlessly. While technically a “side project”, his innovation played a huge role in boosting productivity, accountability, and efficiency in the workplace.
Innovation Excellence – Pepco Holdings
Fault Current Indicator Documentation App Project
Hafiz Osama, General Engineer
Cory Buxton, Manager Distribution Automation
Robert Spelman, Senior Manager Construction and Maintenance
Danielle Powell, Supervisor Underground
Cody Tran, Engineer
Adeel Khawaja, Associate Engineer
Joseph Zappacosta, Senior Data Scientist
John Beachell, Manager Data Analytics
The Innovation Excellence award goes to a team of out-of-the-box thinkers who recognized the need for a more digitized system. With this project, they replaced paper sheets and manual data entry with an app. Now, teams can scan device barcodes in the field and add necessary information seamlessly, reducing errors and saving time.
