Who We Are

RLC Engineering is an engineering consulting firm located in Maine, offering a full range of services in the electric utility and renewable generation engineering fields. We opened our corporate office in 2006 with just 6 employees! Since then we’ve grown our team to more than 110 technical professionals, with offices in Hallowell, South Portland, and Bangor, as well as satellite offices around the Northeast.

Our Mission

Our Mission

Our mission is to provide professional engineering consulting services and innovative solutions for our clients, while providing an enriching work environment that encourages personal development and job satisfaction for our employees.

Our Team

Our Team

Our team of technical professionals has extensive experience in the study, planning and design of complex power systems and infrastructure for the power and utility industries. We have the knowledge and experience to solve any engineering challenges that come our way and provide innovative engineering solutions tailored to fit our client's specific needs. We understand the need for efficiency, flexibility, resiliency, attention to detail and value of time and money invested. 

Our Clients

Our Clients

We seek to serve our clients with excellence as we deliver creative, cost-effective solutions. We are passionate about determining our client's exact needs and then delivering efficiently. Our clients range from electric utilities, regional grid operators, renewable energy developers and contractors of electric grid infrastructure projects across the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, Southeast and Eastern Canada.

Meet Our Leadership

Our leadership team seeks to set and maintain the highest standards of ethics while providing our clients the very best in service. Our core values represent our greatest priorities and are the foundation of our culture. Our dedicated and experienced leadership team guides our employees to work towards the same goals while supporting our company’s vision and shaping our culture.

Susan Allarie
Principal Electrical Engineer
Susan Allarie
Principal Electrical Engineer

Susan has over 25 years of experience as a consulting electrical engineer, specializing in the field of substation automation and integration. She has worked primarily on the development of SCADA and HMI systems, PLC programming, and the design and testing of automation and integration platforms, incorporating devices from numerous manufacturers and utilizing numerous protocols. In addition, she provides field support and commissioning services, and performs Factory Acceptance Testing.

Her work in protection and controls includes performing NERC PRC analyses, extensive experience with short circuit and relay coordination software, and programming microprocessor-based relays for utilities at the transmission and distribution level, and developers alike

Kwame Andoh
Principal Power System Engineer
Kwame Andoh
Principal Power System Engineer

With 20 years of industry experience, Kwame primarily supports ISO New England generator interconnection studies. In keeping with RLC’s goals, Kwame brings a perspective and approach to impact assessments for transmission planning and bulk grid interconnection that facilitate all aspects of product delivery. As a Principal Power System Engineer, Kwame provides the direction of technical studies from problem formulation to solution design. Kwame also mentors transmission planning engineers and serves as a technical advisor and subject matter expert.

Chris Bennett, PE
Principal Protection Engineer
Chris Bennett, PE
Principal Protection Engineer

As a Principal Protection Engineer for the protection and controls group, Chris leads a team of engineers and designers through a variety of Power Utility and Renewable Energy design projects. Design experience includes both greenfield and brownfield P&C projects with complex communication schemes ranging from 480V to 500kV. Chris also has hands-on experience with construction, commissioning, system planning studies, DERMS, ADMS, and Volt-Var optimization programs. Programming and design experience includes microprocessor and electromechanical relays, transformers, phase angle regulators, phase shift transformers, and other common substation equipment. Chris has a background in power generation, nuclear engineering, and control system analysis. Chris’ expertise is in logic manipulation and troubleshooting complex control systems. He is a licensed PE in CT, DE, MA, ME, NJ, NY, NH, RI, and VT.

Dave Conroy, PE
Principal Power System Engineer
Dave Conroy, PE
Principal Power System Engineer

As a Principal Power System Engineer, Dave provides significant experience in transmission reliability studies and DER integration. Dave has over 42 years’ experience in power system planning and operation and is an expert in transmission reliability and expansion studies utilizing load flow, stability, power–voltage and contingency analysis techniques. He has worked with utilities, generators, regulators, stakeholder groups, system operators, and the Northeast Power Coordinating Council (NPCC) throughout New England and New York. Dave has been responsible for coordination with the Joint Utilities of NY, and Distributed System Implementation Plans (DSIP), and has also been responsible for transmission system planning and design in Maine and New York, including compliance with regional and NERC reliability standards and requirements. Dave is a registered PE in Maine.

José Donnell, PE
Principal Electrical/Mechanical Engineer
José Donnell, PE
Principal Electrical/Mechanical Engineer

José has over 30 years of experience in manufacturing, heavy construction and engineering design supporting the manufacturing and utility industries. He is a CEM and Distributed Generation Certified Professional (DGCP) supporting both the Power Generation and Power Engineering departments. Given José’s unique background and experience, he provides our clients with exceptional support with interconnection applications, project review, and serving as Engineer of Record for DER pro­­jects. His Mechanical experience focuses on piping stress analysis, energy & mass balances, and  CHP project design and reliability. José is a registered PE in AL, CT, DE, FL, GA, IL, IN,  MA, ME, NC, NH, NJ, NY, OH, PA, RI, VA, VT.

Katie Dumas, PE
Principal Civil Engineer
Katie Dumas, PE
Principal Civil Engineer

Katie has over a decade of experience in transmission and distribution line design, including structure analysis, fiber optic cable additions, reroutes, rerates, structure design, reconductoring, single pole replacements, rebuilds, asset management, maintenance, and project management. Katie works closely with clients and the T&D team to ensure positive project outcomes and is passionate about mentoring and training new transmission line engineers. Katie is a registered PE in CA, CT, MA, ME, and NH.

Dave Estey, PE
Principal Electrical Engineer
Dave Estey, PE
Principal Electrical Engineer

A 40-plus year veteran, Dave has brought his experience in the electric utility industry to his role as a Principal Electrical Engineer; combining superb engineering services with a solid understanding of power and control systems, Demand Side Management (DSM), generator interconnection systems, renewable energy resources, distributed generation, and electric service rates and issues. He is an expert with comprehensive power flow and short circuit analysis, arc flash hazard analysis, and system impact studies for high and medium-voltage electric power systems. Dave has also specified, designed and commissioned interconnection facilities along with Balance of Plant (BOP) power and control systems for utility-scale wind and photovoltaic power projects throughout the northeast and sites in the southwest. Dave is a registered PE in CT, FL, MA, ME, NH, NY, PA, and VT.

Tedd Gifford, PE
Principal Electrical Engineer
Tedd Gifford, PE
Principal Electrical Engineer

Tedd has over 40 years of combined experience in the energy, utilities, industrial, commercial and municipal markets, and in 3 years has developed a solar market for RLC of over $3M/year worth of engineering. He’s led our team to provide engineering services for more than 4 GWs of solar, wind, and energy storage throughout the northeast and mid-Atlantic states. Tedd and his team support developers from feasibility to fully commissioned renewable energy & storage systems. Tedd is a registered PE in CO, MA, MD, ME, NH, and VA.

Dave Green
Principal Power System Engineer
Dave Green
Principal Power System Engineer

Dave has more than 30 years of experience working in the electric utility industry. He has significant experience in transmission reliability studies utilizing load flow, stability, voltage, short circuit and contingency analysis techniques. Dave has a solid understanding of transmission outage studies, including an extensive background in outage coordination efforts, and is proficient in designing power system operational guides for the control area system operator. Dave’s background in operational studies using transmission network security analysis includes state estimation, load flow, optimal power flow and contingency analysis.

Craig Lakin, PE
Principal Protection Engineer
Craig Lakin, PE
Principal Protection Engineer

As a Principal Protection Engineer for the protection and controls group, Craig leads a team of engineers, designers, and drafters. He provides a unique skill set for control design and programming for utility and industrial grade projects.  Design experience includes both greenfield and brownfield P&C projects ranging from 4 kV to 345 kV. Programming and design experience includes simplified microcontroller applications, programmable logic controllers, and microprocessor-based relays, among others. Craig also has an in-depth knowledge of power system elements and applications. His expertise includes modeling and analyzing power systems as well as post event troubleshooting and diagnostics. Craig is a registered PE in CT, MA, ME, NH, PA, and VT.

Dan Lewis
Principal Power System Engineer
Dan Lewis
Principal Power System Engineer

Dan has over 30 years of experience with a New England-based investor-owned electric utility where he specialized in Distribution System Planning, Reliability, and DER impacts. Dan led a team that conducted power flow analysis and developed solutions that improved system capacity, reliability, and grid modernization. Dan also has expertise in developing and delivering engineering technical training for new engineers. Dan holds a Power System Management Graduate Certificate from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, a Master of Business Administration from the University of Massachusetts, and a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Lowell.

Chris Lyons, PE
Principal Civil Engineer
Chris Lyons, PE
Principal Civil Engineer

Chris is a Principal Civil Engineer with over 17 years of experience in Civil and Structural Engineering. Chris leverages his diverse consulting background of electric power, municipal, utility, and commercial project experience, including over 12 years working on electric substation, transmission, and generation projects ranging in size from 4 kV through 500 kV. In addition to his extensive knowledge of steel structure and concrete foundation design, he has backgrounds in specification writing, construction inspection, and team management. Chris is a registered PE in CT, DE, MA, ME, NH, NY, and VT.

Justin MacDonald, PE
Principal Electrical Engineer
Justin MacDonald, PE
Principal Electrical Engineer

Justin is a Principal Electrical Engineer with over 13 years of experience in Electrical and Substation Engineering. As Team Lead of the Power Delivery Substation group, Justin works with both the client and our in-house team from a project’s initial concept to completion. Justin has a diverse consulting background in electric power, municipal, utility, and commercial/industrial project experience, including over 10 years working on substation, transmission, and generation projects ranging in size from 4 kV through 345 kV. Justin is a registered PE in CT, DE, MA, ME, NH, NY, PA, and VT.

John Miller, PE
Principal Power System Engineer
John Miller, PE
Principal Power System Engineer

As Principal Power System Engineer, John has over 35 years of experience in the electric utility industry. John encompasses a diverse knowledge of power system planning, emphasizing system impact studies for proposed generation resources and transmission expansion projects. John offers experience with project technical specifications, design and technical performance reviews. He also has a comprehensive understanding of HVDC transmission systems, including commissioning, operations, and maintenance experience. John is a registered PE in Maine.

Amam Onwuachumba, PhD, PE
Principal Power System Engineer
Amam Onwuachumba, PhD, PE
Principal Power System Engineer

Amam has over 8 years of experience in the electric utility industry with an in-depth knowledge of bulk power system operations, including operating procedures, generation dispatch and transmission security, power flow and contingency analysis. His planning experience includes feasibility and system impact studies for generation interconnection. As a Principal Power System Engineer, Amam specializes in conventional and renewable generation modeling using a variety of software, and holds a PhD in electrical and computer engineering. Amam is a registered PE in Maine.

Leigh Paine
Principal Power System Engineer
Leigh Paine
Principal Power System Engineer

Leigh is a Principal Power System Engineer with more than 13 years of experience in power system studies. He is proficient at performing transmission system studies that include system impact studies, operational studies, bulk power supply studies, NERC assessments and CIP-014 assessments. Throughout his career in the electric power industry, Leigh has served large investor-owned utilities and independent system operators and understands the impact of facility additions to the power gird.

Craig Perreault, PE
Principal Civil Engineer
Craig Perreault, PE
Principal Civil Engineer

As the Principal Civil Engineer for the transmission and distribution group, Craig leads a team of highly innovative engineers and designers. With over 15 years of experience in the electric utility industry, Craig has extensive knowledge of transmission line design and is responsible for developing a strong team culture with a focus on outstanding engineering deliverables that meet our clients’ needs, resulting in long-lasting relationships with our clients. Craig works directly with our transmission line design team to help manage the success of all projects from the conceptual level through design for construction on lines ranging from 4 kV to 345 kV. Craig is a registered PE in CT, MA, MD, ME, NH, NY, PA, and VT.

Mike Poulin
Principal Power System Engineer
Mike Poulin
Principal Power System Engineer

Mike has over 15 years of experience in power system studies including stability analysis, system impact studies, out-of-step relay settings, transmission operations studies and transient switching studies. As a Principal Power System Engineer, Mike guides a team of power system engineers to perform system impact, proposed plan application and operational studies. Mike has performed stability analysis supporting over $3 billion worth of expansions in Maine and New England and developed reports documenting results for the ISO-NE. Mike’s communication with our clients assures that RLC is meeting our client’s quality standards and expectations.

Heather Roberts, PE
Principal Power System Engineer
Heather Roberts, PE
Principal Power System Engineer

Heather has more than 20 years of experience in power system studies. She is extremely knowledgeable in performing system impact studies to determine generation and transmission project requirements and reliability enhancements. As a Principal Power System Engineer, Heather manages the engineering and review of system impact studies within New England. Her expertise in the areas of study are steady state, transfer, stability and short circuit analysis as well as capacitor switching studies. Heather is a registered PE in Maine.

Tammy Roberts, PE
Principal Power System Engineer
Tammy Roberts, PE
Principal Power System Engineer

Tammy has more than 30 years of experience in power system planning and operation. She has significant experience in transmission reliability and expansion studies utilizing load flow stability, power–voltage and contingency analysis techniques. As a Principal Power System Engineer, Tammy has an extensive background in operational studies using transmission network security analysis programs that include state estimation, load flow, optimal power flow and contingency analysis, and is proficient in designing power system operational guides for the control area system operator. Tammy is a registered PE in Maine.

Bob Russo
Bob Russo, PE
Principal Power System Engineer
Bob Russo
Bob Russo, PE
Principal Power System Engineer

As a Principal Power System Engineer, Bob offers utility providers and developers a strong background in power system engineering with a focus on transmission system planning, system operations, and protection and controls. Bob is responsible for the coordination and maintenance of the ISO-NE aspen short-circuit database as well as supports the process development associated with the database updates. With over 30 years’ experience in the electric utility industry, Bob’s experience allows him to provide clients with unique solutions because he has “planned it, built it, and operated it”. Bob is a registered PE in Connecticut.

Asa Sproul, PE
Principal Power System Engineer
Asa Sproul, PE
Principal Power System Engineer

Asa has over 8 years of experience in power system studies and is a team lead in the Distribution Planning group, where he guides a team of talented engineers. He has managed, conducted, and provided technical guidance for hundreds of distribution-related studies, many of which he developed the templates, QA/QC processes, and automation techniques for. As a Principal Power System Engineer, Asa is a subject matter expert in distribution studies, with a special focus on the integration of renewable resources on the distribution grid. His contributions extend to participation in multiple technical working groups and authorship in various whitepaper publications. Asa holds a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering (MSEE) and is a registered PE in ME, NH, MA, CT, VT, and RI.

Waine Whittier, PE
Principal Power System Engineer
Waine Whittier, PE
Principal Power System Engineer

With 47 years of utility management, planning and engineering experience, Waine is expert at power system planning, project planning and financial analysis. Waine is responsible for power system economic analyses including congestion analysis. He has provided expert testimony before FERC and state regulatory agencies. Waine is an accomplished engineer with 25 years of consulting experience in the U.S. and Europe. Waine is a registered PE in Maine.