Jim McDowall is an IEEE Fellow, cited for leadership in stationary battery standards and the energy storage industry. Currently working as an independent consultant, Jim was with Saft for 45 years, most recently in the position of Senior Technical Advisor. He is a former Chair of the IEEE Energy Storage and Stationary Battery Committee, has led numerous standards projects, and is currently serving as the committee’s Standards Coordinator.
A chemist by training, Jim is an expert in lithium-ion, nickel-cadmium, and lead-acid batteries, as well as having a broad understanding of other existing and emerging energy storage technologies. He has spent many years working on the issues of lithium-ion safety and the optimized operation of batteries in energy storage applications.
Jim played a seminal role in the development and commissioning of one of the first megawatt-scale battery energy storage system in the world. Starting in 1998 as a project leader for Saft, he was instrumental in the design, engineering and commissioning of the 46 MW system in Fairbanks, Alaska, which went online in 2003 and is still in operation today. The Golden Valley Electric Association Battery Energy Storage System (GVEA BESS) was at the time the largest battery storage system in the world. The project won a Guinness World Record for Most Powerful Battery (46 MW for 5 minutes), and had the world’s highest battery voltage (operating up to 5200 V). He had a major role in system design, developing concepts in packaging and engineering. This work led Jim to become actively involved in the Energy Storage Association (ESA, now American Clean Power Association), quickly adopting a leadership role through election to the board of directors in 2000. Serving as an ESA director until 2014, he was Chair from 2005 to 2006, helping to guide ESA from a small volunteer-run group to a large multinational organization with global prominence in grid energy storage development. In 2008, ESA presented Jim with the Phil Symons Energy Storage Award for contributions to the advancement of energy storage.
