Rob Wilhite
Senior Vice President
Kema
Excellence in Energy
In December 2007, President Bush signed The Energy Information and Security Act, which made it official policy of the United States to support the modernization of the Electric Grid. "We're seeing some fundamental changes in the utility industry that I've never witnessed before," says Rob Wilhite, senior vice president and global lead of Kema's Intelligent Networks and Communications practice. "These changes are most exciting to me because that's when opportunities emerge."
Kema recognized an emerging opportunity about four years ago when it asked Wilhite to put a business plan together around advanced metering and smart grid technologies. Wilhite's plan was so well received by Kema leadership that they asked him to start a practice area around it.
Today, it's a multi-million business and one of Kema's fastest growing practices. In fact, in year four the practice is already ahead of where its projected revenue growth was for year five. "Many of the clients that we engaged early on in the practice are still clients today. That's something we're very proud of."
Another thing Wilhite is proud of is Kema's leadership position in the GridWise Alliance, a consortium of public and private stakeholders aligned around a vision of a new energy system. The alliance has been successful in gaining recognition with the Obama Administration. Earlier this year, it presented a White Paper about the potential job opportunities that investment in smart grid could produce, and that information was presented in the House version of the stimulus bill that was passed in February.
"Since then, the level of demand for Kema services around smart grid has expanded considerably," Wilhite says. "It's those types of leadership positions that excite me."
Another way Kema is out ahead of the curve is with Utility of the Future, a 2008 book co-authored by Wilhite. "If we're going to meet some of our targets we have as a nation for renewable energy, we have to look at the way we invest in and design grid infrastructure in the future," he says.
—Joseph Kornik
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