Steam Turbine and Generator User Group 2024

Ian Rowntree: Steam Turbine Team Leader, Uniper-Energy

Steven Pedder: Technical Director, GE Vernova Consulting Services

Marco Cioffi: Steam Turbine and Generator Product Manager, Ansaldo Energia

Marco Cioffi is working at Sales and Marketing Unit in Ansaldo Energia as Product Manager for the Steam Turbines and Generators lines. He is focused on energy markets analysis, strategic planning, and business development. He holds a PhD in Aerospace Engineering and a Master's Degree with honors in Aeronautical Engineering, both from University of Naples (Italy). He has a long experience in turbo-machinery Product Development and Project Management. During his previous academic activity, he developed dynamic and non-linear models of power plants and evolutionary optimization codes. He is the author of 18 scientific papers published in international peer-reviewed journals and books and he presented 12 scientific works during international conferences

Tarek Ismail: Director, Electric Markets and Power Systems Consulting (EMPS)

Roy Beardshaw: Engineering Lead, BRUSH Power Generation

Roy Beardshaw studied Mechanical Engineering at Nottingham University and received his MEng degree in 1998, following which he started his career with Brush. His roles have included the design and development of 2-pole generators and variable speed motors, led the Engineering team for the Service division and being the Engineering Manager for the UK. He is now the Engineering Lead for Brush Power Generation, responsible for customer solutions, product development and the service engineering teams.

Phil Arnold: Engineer, Arnold Group

Phil Arnold is part of the Arnold Group's Marketing & Sales team. He is responsible for sales in Europe and the Middle East. With his years of experience and involvement in various areas of the company, he has extensive product and service knowledge of Arnold's product and service areas. As a specialist for high-quality insulation systems and trace heating systems for gas and steam turbines as well as mobile on-site processing, the Arnold Group is positioned on the global market.

Keith Gallant: RMS Reliability Engineer, Quartzelec Ltd

James M. Stagnitti: Engineering Leader, Combined Cycle Steam Turbine and Heat Recovery Steam Generator Services, GE Vernova Consulting Services

James M. Stagnitti has 34 years of experience in Power Generation engineering. He currently leads the GE Vernova Combined Cycle Steam Turbine and Heat Recovery Steam Generator Services engineering team which develops solutions to enhance and improve power plants. Previously, James was Senior Engineering Manager of Steam Turbine Design, responsible for combined cycle, fossil and nuclear steam turbine power generation and industrial applications. James has a BS and MS in Mechanical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY, USA.

Gabriele Porta: Steam Turbine Service Engineering, Ansaldo Energia

Born in Genova (Italy) on February 2, 1989. Master Degree in Mechanical Engineering - Design and Production cum laude in 2014. Qualification of International and European Welding Engineer (IWE/EWE) from 2015. Welding Simulation Engineer at ESI Italia from 04/2014 to 05/2017. Working in Ansaldo Energia from 05/2017 as steam turbine service engineer and welding coordinator. Support for scheduled and non-scheduled maintenance activities for OEM and non-OEM steam turbine technology from the offer phase till the work execution with roles of BID Engineering & Service / Field Engineering as main activities.

Luca Corso: Head of Service Engineering and Field Execution, Steam Turbines, Ansaldo Energia

Born in Savona (Italy) on December 7, 1977. Master Degree in Mechanical Engineering cum laude in 2003. Working in Ansaldo Energia for more than 18 years since 2004. Experience in assessment, troubleshooting and root cause analysis (as team coordinator). Leading the steam turbine service engineering team since 2012 and field execution since 2020.

Ben Adams: Principal Associate, Hawkins

Ben is an electrical engineer and started in the power industry over 20 years ago at Drax Power Station and has since worked for RWE and ENGIE. After being made redundant from ENGIE 7 years ago, Ben is now a principal associate at Hawkins where he provides consultancy and forensic failure analysis on (mostly) generators around the world.

James G Miller: Engineer, MD&A Performance Services

James Miller received his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Florida. He is a registered Professional Engineer in Florida. His expertise lies in thermodynamics and performance analysis. Mr. Miller is employed as a Consulting Engineer at Mechanical Dynamics & Analysis, with corporate headquarters located in Latham, New York. He provides fossil, industrial, and nuclear engineers with consultation on power plant performance, steam path audits, steam turbine performance analyses, power plant testing, and heat balance analyses. Jim has 21 years of experience working at different sites in the areas of thermal performance and performance testing for fossil, combined cycle, cogeneration and nuclear power generating facilities. Prior to working in the commercial power generation industry, Jim served in the military as a Machinist Mate on submarines. Mr. Miller has a wealth of experience gained from his work at a major utility in the southeast. In addition to his Performance Engineering work, he has worked briefly as a Turbine Planner, Maintenance Manager and Nuclear System/Program Engineer to broaden his knowledge base and skills. With extensive experience in performance monitoring, performance testing, thermal modeling, causal analysis and identification of cycle losses, Jim can identify performance deficiencies and determine the necessary actions required to recover losses. Mr. Miller routinely provides on-site steam path audit services that have saved many utilities operating costs by providing audit information used to make repair decisions that resulted in a reduction in heat rate and a decrease in annual fuel costs. Jim has been involved in numerous performance tests on equipment from many different manufacturers. Testing experience includes gas turbines, steam turbines in a Rankine and combined cycle, industrial steam turbines, nuclear steam turbines, cycle components and overall plant performance testing. Jim is passionate about improving plant performance and can help you reduce operating costs, improve reliability, and increase output.

Chris Collis Kerr: Engineering Team Leader, EDF

Owen Crew: Graduate Electrical Engineer, EES Ltd

Owen is an Electrical Engineer working at Excitation & Engineering Services Ltd (EES) with a Masters degree in Electronic and Electrical Engineering from Loughborough University. At EES Owen has been involved in the design and testing of excitation control systems for nuclear power stations and the commissioning of excitation systems for synchronous motors and generators. He is very interested in the future of UK and worldwide power systems and the challenges involved in integrating distributed generation into a power grid.

Russell Chetwynd: Engineer, National Electric Coil

Nigel Raj: Engineering Manager, Moove Lubricants Limited

Nigel’s is a Mechanical Engineer, having worked in industries ranging from tungsten carbide manufacturing, to metal-working fluid monitoring. He then started working as a Sales Engineer for a major Oil & Gas distributor 12 years ago, where he identified the importance of machinery lubrication, so he conducted on-the-job engineering training in machinery lubrication, from tribology, to used oil analysis, and has been working as a Lubrication Field Engineer for the last 9 years, being responsible for a team of UK Field Engineers, providing customers with engineering solutions for the lubrication of their machinery, from borescoping, to conducting thermal imaging studies.

Sam Atkin: Steam Turbine Engineer, Uniper

Dennis Elands: Electrical Engineer, RWE

Richard DesJardins: EtaPRO LLC , Toshiba Machinery

Mr. DesJardins has 38+ years’ global experience in performance and reliability improvement of power plants using real-time digital technologies. He has been deeply involved in all aspects of engineering and commercial development of the EtaPRO platform since its inception in 1992 and as Chief Operating Officer, he is responsible for global deployment of EtaPRO Systems. Rich earned his BS in Mechanical Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and is a Registered Professional Engineer in New York State, USA.

Mash Mistry: Plant Performance Engineer, Uniper

Paul Goldsworth: Lead Mechanical Engineer - Rotating Plant, VPI Power Ltd

Howard Sedding: Engineer, Iris Power – Qualitrol

Howard graduated in electrical and electronic engineering at the University of Strathclyde and then acquired MSc and PhD degrees. Prior to joining Qualitrol-Iris Power in January 2015, Dr. Sedding worked at the Research Division of Ontario Hydro for 28 years. He has contributed to many IEEE and IEC standards concerned with electrical insulation, rotating machines and high voltage testing. Howard has authored and co-authored more than 150 technical papers and is a co-author of the book “Condition Monitoring of Rotating Electrical Machines” published by the Institution of Engineering and Technology in 2008.

Gabriele Cresta: Engineer, Ansaldo Energia

Gabriele Cresta was born in Naples (Italy) on June 6th, 1973. He obtained a master’s degree in Electrical Engineering at “Università di Genova”, Italy. He is head of the “Generators Testing Facilities” of Ansaldo Energia. He is also managing the “Electrical instruments calibration center” and the “Electronic Lab for generators diagnostic instruments”. Gabriele has more than 20 years experience in testing hydro and turbogenerators in the Ansaldo factory (type tests, running tests, balancing, etc.) and in commissioning activities in the power plants during erection and service overhauls. He is specialized in diagnostic electrical measures on generators and wrote several technical papers on this topic. Gabriele is active as representative of Ansaldo (collective member) for the italian WG TC2 of IEC for rotating electrical machines.

Alessandro Oldrati: Engineer, Ansaldo Energia

Belal Ahmed: Lead Portfolio Electrical Engineer, RWE

Robert Stancombe: Business Development Manager, Mobile Water Solutions

Robert has accumulated a wide range of engineering skills and experience through his long career in different engineering fields. Following the completion of his apprenticeship, he worked as a project engineer for complex turnkey solutions in the automotive industry before transitioning to business development providing technical solutions to the water, process, and oil and gas industries. Rob makes use of his expertise with mobile water treatment equipment to provide complex solutions for planned large-scale projects or emergency requirements.

Michal Hoznedl: Research and Development department, Doosan Skoda Power Ltd

Michal Hoznedl studied Thermal energy systems in University of West Bohemia, Czech Republic. His Ph.d. thesis concerned with diffuser flow research. From 2007 he worked as R&D specialist in Doosan Škoda Power and from 2009 as a Head of Experimental research department. His main interest are steam turbines, low pressure parts design, diffuser flow, wet steam, low load regimes, experiments, noise reduction, troubleshooting, data analysis and comparison measured data with CFD results. Michal became associated professor in University of West Bohemia in 2017.

Neil Weskin: Engineer, Miba

Scott McLean: General Manager, Osborne Engineering Limited

Scott Mclean is the General Manager for Osborne Engineering Limited responsible for operations in the UK and the USA. Before being made General Manager in February 2021, Scott was Turbo Power Services Operations Manager a division of Osborne Engineering Group. Responsible for all operations playing an important part in delivering the group's strategic goals. Before joining Osborne Engineering Group in 2016, Scott served in the Royal Air Force for 12 years as an Aircraft Engineer supporting operations worldwide.

Lorenzo Di Grigoli: Service Generator Specialist, Ansaldo Energia

Lorenzo Di Grigoli was born in Genova (Italy) on December 29, 1992. He received the master’s degree in electrical engineering at “Scuola Politecnica - Università di Genova” in 2017. He has been working in Eng. Office of generator service dept. of Ansaldo Energia since 2017. He is involved in fact finder activities, robotic inspections, trouble shooting, preparation of Scope of Work, Inspection and Test Plan and Technical notes.

Stephan Faulhaber: Technical Manager, Miba Industrial Bearings

Dipl.-Ing. Stephan Faulhaber, Technical Manager at Miba Industrial Bearings Germany, a company based in Osterode, Germany that manufactures tilting pad journal bearings including the Miba Eddy Groove technology. He worked more than 20 years in the turbomachinery industry prior to joining Miba in 2017.

Sudipta Das: Fact Finder & Electrical Engineer, Ansaldo Energia

Sudipta Das was born in FARAKKA (INDIA) on February 27, 1991. He received the Bachelor’s degree(B.Tech) in Electrical Engineering at “Meghnad Saha Institute of Technology under West Bengal University of Technology, Calcutta” in 2012. He has been working as Fact Finder & Electrical Engineer of generator service dept. of Ansaldo Energia since 2017. He is mostly involved in fact finder activities, trouble shooting of Generator related problems and on-site co-ordination with the customers.

Andrew Robson: Technical Expert, Siemens Energy

Ciara Doyle: Operation & Maintenance (O&M) Engineer, Siemens Energy

Ciara Doyle is based in the UK, supporting internal and external customers in Power Plant mobilisation and day-to-day O&M activities. Background in Mechanical and Electrical Power Engineering, training at University College Dublin, Chalmers Gothenburg and University of Cape Town. Experience of Power plant construction, commissioning, operation and maintenance. Current role involves leveraging available and new services and digital tools to improve the performance and efficiency of both plant and personnel and also drive more informed operational and maintenance decisions.

Chris Gilroy: Condition Monitoring and Dynamics Engineer, EDF Energy

Chris’ 27-year career initiated with an apprenticeship at Rolls-Royce Parsons (later Siemens Power Generation). Following his apprenticeship he moved into the field of Machine Dynamics, working on steam and gas turbine generation units across the UK and worldwide. Chris later joint RWE npower, moving to expand his knowledge on auxiliary plant dynamics as well as into renewable generation, wind turbines and pump storage / hydro. His current role for the last 13 years has been at EDF Energy as a Machine Dynamics and Condition Monitoring Engineer, supporting the UK Nuclear Power Station fleet’s major rotating plant, as well as being the fleet lead for offline condition monitoring.

Matthias Heue: Senior Expert Steam Turbine Operations, Siemens Energy

1996 degree as Dipl.-Ing. (master of engineering) at the university of Dortmund (Germany)
Till 1998 the University built and operated an experimental plant using a screw type machine in a water-steam cycle. Matthias developed and programmed the I&C system for this demonstration plant.
Since 1998 he has been working Siemens in steam-turbine.
From 2002 to 2003 he was part of Siemens Parsons in Newcastle.
Since 2003 up to now he is working on developing new operational concepts for steam turbines.
Since Feb 2015 Matthias is Senior Key Expert for steam turbine operation.

Rafal Maniara: Technical Director Chief Engineer, EthosEnergy

Dr Eng. Rafal Maniara is the Technical Director and Chief Engineer of Generators and Transformers division at EthosEnergy - leading provider of services for critical rotating equipment. Previously, Rafal was the manager of R&D department, responsible for new electrical machine development projects. During his 19 years of experience in engineering, project management, and various management positions, he was the research engineer at NSERC/Ford-NEMAK IRC and later continued in the automotive and power energy businesses of SINTEF, Fiat-Avio, Energoserwis, Fiat-Avio, Energoserwis, and TurboCare. From the beginning of his career, Rafal was responsible for application of new products in the nuclear business.

Dr David Smith: Principal AI Engineer, AVEVA

Dr. Smith is a Chartered Mechanical Engineer and holds a Ph.D. in Fluid Mechanics from Imperial College London. Spending the first half of his career in industry mainly with EPC companies, he lead design, development, and commissioning of Power Plant processes and combustion systems. Moving to AVEVA, Dr. Smith joined the AI Center of Excellence where his main activities are the integration of AI technologies with AVEVA’s first principles simulation products for asset management and autonomous operations.

Max Bastiaansen: European BD Manager, Nord-Lock Group

Max Bastiaansen is a qualified mechanical engineer with expertise in bolted joint calculations, joint enhancement, and on-site installations. Max commenced his career with Nord-Lock Group in 2011, where he actively contributes to on-site installations, provides customer training, and plays a pivotal role in bridging the gap between engineering and commercial aspects within the tensioning business.