Visiting Eversource
Aftab Khan is Senior Vice President, Engineering, Electric Operations, at Eversource.
Jen Schilling is the Director of Grid Modernization at Eversource.
PUF: Aftab, what is your role?
Aftab Khan: It may be different than how some other utilities have organized, but what Eversource has done is consolidate all the transmission and distribution system engineering into one function.
I have the responsibility for transmission and distribution engineering across three states — New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. Eversource has come together over the years, transitioning from multiple legacy companies. It's allowed us to drive consistency and standardization across the company because with a lot of utilities that are built up from different legacy histories, there's some momentum to try to maintain legacy standards and practices.
With this organization structure in engineering, we were able to drive standardization. It's been a long process for us, but with common organization, we're able to drive things more consistently.
Jennifer is our director of grid modernization for all three states. As we begin implementation in Massachusetts of the grid modernization order approved last year, Jennifer is in a position to leverage lessons learned and use common approaches to provide similar benefits in New Hampshire and Connecticut while meeting the specific needs and objectives of customers in those states.