KNOXVILLE — The Tennessee Valley Authority announced Monday that Tim Fritch, a Transmission & Power Supply engineer with 19 years of service, has received the agency’s highest engineering honor — the Ike Zeringue Engineer of the Year award.
TVA has one of the largest power grids in the nation. Fritch, an electrical engineer, serves as a TVA and industry lead on advancing synchrophasor technology for utilizing time-series data for diagnostics, analytics, and real-time event awareness to better understand and predict grid responses for local and wide area system disturbances. His accomplishments include several TVA cross-organizational teams to develop plans for implementation of synchrophasor devices, configuration standards, and applications for data utilization. He worked with universities, NERC, and DOE to analyze data from the Eastern Interconnection to understand natural and forced oscillation modes that exist across the grid which could jeopardize system reliability.
“TVA is recognized around the world as a great engineering organization, and we and our engineers’ have a rich history of solving some of the most complex challenges like power reliability and resiliency,” said TVA President and CEO Jeff Lyash. “This year we recognize Tim, who exemplifies excellence in the engineering field. Tim’s leadership is critical to protecting our power grid as TVA delivers electricity to 10 million people across seven states.”
“Tim’s innovative approach and leadership not only help ensure a stable power grid from oscillations, but also gives our region a competitive advantage as we generate electricity to power the region’s growing economy — while keeping TVA’s power rates among the lowest in the nation,” said Aaron Melda, TVA senior vice president, Transmission & Power Supply. The award is named for O.J. “Ike” Zeringue, a former TVA president, chief operating officer, and chief nuclear officer. Fritch is also one of the top 10 finalists for the Federal Engineer of the Year Award, which will be presented Feb. 23 at a ceremony in Washington, D.C.
Fritch is a graduate of the Tennessee Technological University. He also served as Chair, NERC Synchronized Measurement Working Group, and Vice-Chair, Synchronized Measurement Subcommittee, and led the NERC investigation for the 2022 Eastern Interconnection wide-area oscillation event and the efforts establishing consistent industry methodologies for analyzing events.
The Tennessee Valley Authority is a corporate agency of the United States that provides electricity for business customers and local power companies serving nearly 10 million people in parts of seven southeastern states. TVA receives no taxpayer funding, deriving virtually all of its revenues from sales of electricity. In addition to operating and investing its revenues in its electric system, TVA provides flood control, navigation and land management for the Tennessee River system and assists local power companies and state and local governments with economic development and job creation.
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