YPE Los Angeles

Mr. Arash Saidi is an integral part of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s (LADWP) clean energy transformation and is guiding future power system developments for the City of Los Angeles, currently serving as Distributed Energy Resource Program Development Manager.  LADWP made a commitment to accelerate and determine the optimal business strategies and processes required to facilitate a broader renewable and distributed energy resource (DER) procurement that is beneficial to LADWP’s electric system infrastructure and its customers. As the Manager of the DER Program Development group under the Clean Grid LA – Strategy Division, Mr. Saidi oversees the development of customer-centric business solutions to address those LADWP commitments. During his 12-year tenure at LADWP, Arash has held various engineering and system planning roles related to bulk power system renewable energy development.

Most recently some of the primary accomplishments and objectives Arash Saidi has led are as follows:

1.Green Access Program – Enable large corporate entities to achieve renewable energy mandates through unique virtual energy metering agreements focused on obtaining renewable energy certificates.
2.DER Resiliency MOUs with City of LA Departments – Create partnerships to develop DER infrastructure (e.g., energy storage, PV solar, electric vehicles) on critical City of Los Angeles Departments facilities (i.e., Recreation and Parks) that also serve as resiliency, disaster relief and cooling centers.
3.Expansion of the LADWP Feed-in Tariff (FiT) Program – Authorize the development of 450 MW of local renewable resources between now and 2026 through long-term Power Purchase Agreements with LADWP – Resulting in LADWP having the largest FiT program in the nation.
4.Feed-in Tariff Plus Pilot Program – Promote the development of local PV solar and energy storage projects focused on exporting energy to LADWP’s grid during specific hours of the year to address distribution system needs.

During his downtime, Arash enjoys traveling and immersing himself with different cultures, snowboarding and shredding on fresh powder, and finding the best sushi spots throughout the world. Arash obtained his B.S. and M.S. in Electrical Engineering CSULB and USC and an MBA from USC’s Marshall School of Business. He also holds a Professional Engineering license in the State of California.

Kiran Srivastava is a renewable energy policy professional with over fifteen years of professional experience. Over the last ten years, she has focused on strategic development and management of federal energy efficiency and renewable energy programs. Her work has included research and analysis in order to develop reports and white papers on renewable energy technologies, market assessments and policy recommendations.  Ms. Srivastava’s notable contributions include extensive support to federal agencies such as the Department of Energy – Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Office (EERE) and the Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E).  Ms. Srivastava used her expertise to build a number of tools and resources to help Islands such as Hawaii and Islands in the Caribbean and Pacific in converting from fossil-based to renewable energy generation. She assisted in crafting a road map detailing how the State of California can convert it’s fossil-based hydrogen supply to a renewable supply for it’s transportation sector.  Kiran is a founding member of the Women in CleanTeach(WICT) diversity initiative at the Los Angeles CleanTech Incubator.

Jennifer is the Commercial Accounts Executive at Clean Power Alliance. Her experience includes customer account management, renewable energy project and program development and carbon mitigation strategies for the private and non-profit sectors. Jennifer has worked with project developers, building owners, finance partners and energy off-takers to evaluate and develop renewable energy projects. She worked with organizations including Intel, PepsiCo, The Rockefeller Foundation and Trust for Public Land to develop their renewable energy/carbon management strategies and provide solutions to achieve their sustainability and carbon reduction goals. Jennifer holds a M.S. in Environmental Economics and Policy from The London School of Economics and a B.A. from The American University in Washington D.C.

Former YPE LA President, Noah Perch-Ahern, is an environmental and energy attorney with the Los Angeles-based Greenberg Glusker law firm. Noah maintains a broad environmental law practice that includes major litigation and administrative proceedings, business transactions and regulatory matters. He has advised and represented clients with respect to liability for contaminated properties and industrial operations, compliance with environmental laws and regulations, the sale of Brownfield properties and businesses with environmentally sensitive operations, permitting and project development, and emerging focuses, such as California’s cap-and-trade program. Mr. Perch-Ahern has represented a range of clients, including real estate developers, banks, industrial concerns, waste management companies, water utilities, oil and gas companies and renewable energy project developers.

Joy Langford has over 15 years of experience as a public private partnership liaison assisting corporations, with environmental practices at the local state and federal government levels. She has had much success and garners intricate knowledge of compliance issues for corporations as they relate to governmental agencies such as OSHA, CEQA, SCAQMD, and CARB. Joy also assists companies that are trying to become better corporate citizens through environmental and corporate responsibility initiatives.

Joy’s recent projects include implementing LED street lighting projects in several Southern California Cities, consulting on light rail and energy efficient trucking solutions for Air Quality Management District and Siemens, and implementing Electric Vehicle (EV) charging stations units in several California Municipalities. She has done M&A work and project management and financing for utility grade renewable energy projects both domestically and internationally. She successfully assisted an international food processor (Nongshim USA) negotiate emissions and compliance fines with SCAQMD. Joy’s negotiations allowed the company to continue with its American operations instead of having to shutter due to hefty fines and fees. Currently Joy is assisting Farmer John, a division of Hormel Foods, Coast Packing and Baker Commodities negotiate with South Coast Air Quality Management District to fight state legislation regarding PR 415, which will call for heavy fines for odor emissions in the state of California. So far Joy has successfully negotiated Farmer John’s fine and compliance fees down from a potential $7million to just under $50K. Joy has a proven track record of assisting Corporations with government/environmental compliance.

Born and raised in Los Angeles, Joy has a bachelors of science in Economics and a Bachelors of Arts in Urban planning from the University of California at Santa Barbara. Joy sat on the advisory board for Air Quality Management District (AQMD), and currently sits on the boards of Young Professionals in Energy (YPE) (Los Angeles and Orange County chapters), as well as the regional board for 85 Broads. Joy currently lives in Los Angeles, California.

Sara Neff (MBA, LEED AP BD+C, ID+C, EB: O&M, ND) is the Vice President of Sustainability at Kilroy Realty Corporation. In her first four years, she took Kilroy from having no sustainability program to being named the #1 real estate company across all asset classes on sustainability in North America by GRESB, and in 2015 they won that honor for the second year in a row. At Kilroy, she oversees all sustainability initiatives such as the implementation of energy and water efficiency projects throughout the portfolio, the recycling and green cleaning program, all LEED certifications, electric vehicle charging station installations, and the greening of building and construction standards. She also serves as Chair of the Board of Directors of USGBC Los Angeles, Education Co-Chair of the USGBC-LA Westside Branch, Board of Directors of Young Professionals in Energy Los Angeles, and a member of the BOMA Los Angeles Sustainability Committee. Prior to joining Kilroy, Sara worked at Google and in solar at Idealab, participated in irrigation and soil erosion work in India, and led green consulting projects in Brazil and Argentina. Her awards include: USGBC Orange County 2014 Individual Achievement Award; 2013 Northern California Real Estate Women of Influence Rising Star; USGBC-LA 2012 Exceptional Volunteer Award, Greenspeak category; and Generation BOMA 2011 Professional of the Year. She holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and a BS from Stanford University.

Geoff Danker is the Senior Environmental Policy Advisor at the Southern California Gas Company.  In this role, Mr. Danker develops and recommends environmental policy for SoCalGas in response to proposed regulations, legislation or emerging environmental policy issues.  He manages business unit teams to assess the impact of regulation and legislation and sets SoCalGas position or appropriate response to environmental and public policy issues.  Prior to SoCalGas, Geoff worked as an environmental consultant providing planning, permitting and policy expertise for a variety of energy and infrastructure projects.  He is currently the Vice President of Programs for the Association of Environmental Professionals and the Vice Director of Programs for the American Planning Association.  Geoff holds a B.S. in Environmental Economics from the University of California, Berkeley.