Govind Mittal — Grid & Energy Storage Controls Engineer

What I Do

Expertise

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Grid Controls

At SunPower I was co-owner of the SunPower Grid Controller (SGC), a product for controlling utility-scale solar + storage plants. I did hands-on coding of this product, deployed on projects from 500 kW to 679 MW across the USA, Chile, South Africa, Australia, and Vietnam.

I've designed controls for volt/Q/PF regulation, generation control, frequency response, and cap banks. Several of my algorithms were marked Trade Secret by SunPower. Read more ↗

As SGC product owner, I led vendor qualification for solar/battery inverters and capacitor-bank systems.

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Energy Storage

Won the PRISM award at SunPower (2013) for developing an energy storage controller for flow batteries.

Designed (hands-on coding) an Energy/Power Management System at CE+T to cut customers' energy bills while providing microgrid support using Lithium, flow batteries, and flywheel storage. Read more ↗

Built control algorithms for Energy Arbitrage, Peak Shave, Non-Export, Microgrids & PV smoothing — plus a phase-balancing algorithm for data centers.

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Operations & Management

7 years troubleshooting complex control issues on site. At SunPower I regularly trained the Remote Operations Control Center (ROCC) and O&M engineers in Austin on plant controls.

Developed smart-alarming code to notify operators ahead of potential failures, and tools to track storage warranty and uptime. Won the BrightSpot award for this work. Read more ↗

Career

Experience

April 2025 – Present

Director of Controls Merit Controls

Utility-Scale Solar + Storage

Leading development of a Power Plant Controller (PPC) platform that coordinates co-located solar PV and battery energy storage at utility-scale sites.
Architecting three coordinated controllers — the Master Plant Controller (MPC), which computes all plant setpoints and interfaces with the utility/QSE; the PV Plant Controller (PVPC); and the Energy Management System (EMS) for the battery blocks.
Delivering control solutions for solar + storage projects across grid compliance, plant-level power/reactive-power regulation, and setpoint coordination between PV and BESS.

March 2023 – April 2025

Director, Control Systems EnerVenue

Nickel-Hydrogen Battery

Product owner of the Energy Block Controller (EBC) for Nickel-Hydrogen batteries — selected off-the-shelf hardware and hand-coded the EBC, which performs both master-BMS and EMS functions.
Designed a panel with backup power, integrated managed switch, and remote-access gateway; owns the SunSpec Modbus certification process.
Leads a team building an advanced BMS from the ground up — safety, monitoring, predictive maintenance analytics, and cell/vessel balancing, including charging from a fully dead state without an external charger.
Supports UL 991, UL 1998, and UL 9540 certification for the firmware.
Co-developed an innovative battery-activation controller and process that cut battery cost and streamlined manufacturing (patent filed Aug 2024).

Feb 2020 – March 2023

Director, Grid Edge Software CE+T America

Microgrid Controls & Power Management

Product owner of Microgrid Controls and the Power Management System (PMS) — full ownership from coding to panel design, documentation, and pricing. Features: peak shaving, load shedding, energy arbitrage, solar smoothing, microgrid (systems up to 500 kW). Still sold today. Press release ↗
Selected battery vendors to pair with the PMS and CE+T converters; negotiated pricing agreements.
Product owner of a 240 kW Battery Combiner and Islanding Switchgear — led and achieved UL 1741 certification single-handedly.
Designed islanding switchgear for seamless grid-to-backup-to-grid transition using CE+T Stabiliti inverters.
Designed a highly efficient phase-balancing control algorithm for data centers and streamlined the battery supply chain.

2012 – 2020

Senior EE / SCADA Controls Engineer → Manager, Grid Controls SunPower

Utility-Scale Solar + Storage

Co-owner of the SunPower Grid Controller for utility-scale solar + storage — developed real-power/generation control, curtailment, non-export/min-import, solar smoothing, reactive power, PF and voltage regulation on 12.5 kV–235 kV transmission systems, compliant with grid codes in the US, South Africa, Chile, Vietnam, and Australia.
Several algorithms logged as Trade Secret and later used for patent filings.
Product owner of the Capacitor Bank Controller, Energy Storage Controller, and Solar Tracker Controller — designed an in-house cap-bank controller eliminating reliance on GE and NEPSI, and a tracker controller for a 650 MW plant (one of the world's largest at the time).
Performed vendor qualification, factory/site acceptance tests, and on-site commissioning; trained ROCC operators, commissioning managers, and operations managers.
Won the "Innovate Relentlessly" PRISM award; submitted three invention-disclosure forms. Key projects: 28 MW PV + storage DERMS microgrid (SDG&E, NREL, NRG); military sites (Vandenberg AFB, Redstone Arsenal, Nellis AFB, China Lake); Apple projects.

2010 – 2012

Electrical Project Manager WindTronics

Developed, enhanced, and maintained the firmware of a wind-turbine controller; led R&D projects and added new products to the company's offering.

2006 – 2007

Intern Printronix

Developed simulated target-shooting equipment for military training.

Portfolio

Projects

Over the years I've worked directly with customers and utilities on a diverse range of complex interconnection and PV-plant-controller requirements — Voltage/PF/VAR/kW regulation via intelligent control of PV inverters, capacitor banks, load-tap changers, and energy storage. On each project I was co-owner or sole owner of the control-systems design and coding, authored the test documentation, and trained on-site and O&M engineers.

650 MW

Solar Star 1 & 2

USA

Co-owner · Plant Controller

One of the world's largest solar sites. Designed control logic for PV inverters, capacitor banks, and load-tap changer to regulate voltage, PF, and real/reactive power. Also built a new vendor-agnostic PV Tracker Controller that stows trackers based on local wind speed.

55 & 19 MW

Bonny Brooke & Churchill

Apple · USA

Sole owner · Control System

Two Apple renewable projects where I was lead and sole owner of the control system. Worked closely with the utility and customer to develop unique plant-control solutions.

Up to 27 MW

Military Sites

Redstone · Vandenberg · Nellis · China Lake

Owner · Control Systems

Redstone Arsenal (11 MW PV + 1 MW storage), Vandenberg AFB (27 MW), Nellis AFB (20 MW), China Lake (12 MW). Primary scheme was Non-Export Control. At Redstone I built a controller managing storage, PV, and cap banks together to regulate real power, PF, and voltage.

Vandenberg Redstone

27 MW + Storage

SDG&E Microgrid

USA

Control Scheme Design

Worked closely with SDG&E to develop smart PV control schemes supporting microgrid mode using 27 MW PV, a 1 MW diesel genset, ultracapacitor banks, and 1 MW of energy storage.

Read report

84 MW

Mulilo — Prieska

South Africa

Co-owner · Control System

Co-owner of the control system, working with local utility and testing bodies Eskom and RETEC. Interconnection requirements were notably stricter than in the USA.

2.7 MW

Uterne II — Alice Springs

Australia

Sole owner · Control System

The largest PV project in Australia at the time. Sole owner of the control system.

100 & 50 MW

Boulder 1 & 2

USA

Owner · Control System

Owner of control-system design. Developed a new vendor-agnostic Capacitor Bank Controller that intelligently manages both symmetrical and asymmetrical cap-bank stages.

250 & 28 MW

Cal Valley Solar Ranch & Borrego Springs

USA

Co-owner · Control Systems

Co-owner of the control systems for California Valley Solar Ranch (250 MW) and Borrego Springs (28 MW).

Integration

Energy Storage Project

JCI Partnership

Controls Integration

Interfaced closely with JCI engineers to seamlessly integrate SunPower PV controls with JCI storage controls.

Hi, I'm Govind