M. Lamine Benzerga
Greater Philadelphia Area,PA
Summary
Renewables engineering manager with 11+ years of experience in power generation and electric utilities. Oversees fleet engineering programs for technical compliance, reliability, and outage response. Experience includes staff development, budget management, wind repowering, and engineering support for a 10 MW battery energy storage site since decommissioned.
Overview
11
11
years of professional experience
Work History
Manager Engineering
Constellation / Exelon Generation
09.2022 - Current
- Own the electrical engineering program and lead three senior engineers and outside contractors supporting approximately 1.4 GW of generation across 18 sites, primarily wind and solar.
- Manage the assigned engineering budget, staffing, employee development, and compensation. Participate in business planning, budget and performance reviews, and evaluate outside contractor performance.
- Oversee fleet programs for thermography, dissolved gas analysis, station batteries, arc flash, electrical QA/QC, and critical spares. Guide technical work for NERC PRC-019, PRC-028, PRC-029, MOD-025, MOD-026/027, and MOD-032.
- Standardized pre-outage planning for substation trip testing by developing a Level 1 procedure to verify proper isolation before testing. Standardized engineering specifications for balance-of-plant equipment.
- Provided electrical oversight for AVSR’s transition to a self-performed operations and maintenance model.
- Supported Missouri and Maryland wind repowering projects by addressing turbine electrical and medium-voltage collector system issues and coordinating high-voltage balance-of-plant design.
- Directed multidisciplinary engineering teams through 30%/60%/90% design reviews for high-voltage substation and repower projects, successfully freezing physical layouts, mitigating brownfield execution risks, and driving comment close-out to secure timely IFC issuance.
- Lead engineering support for substation maintenance and testing outages, including contractor scope and documentation of findings. Provide off-hours technical direction during inverter and balance-of-plant events to support safe restoration.
- Advanced the fleet’s SF6 phaseout strategy by working with Hitachi Energy to select and commission the fleet’s first 245 kV EconiQ SF6-free circuit breaker.
Senior Engineer
Constellation / Exelon Generation
10.2019 - 09.2022
- Led engineers supporting operations and compliance across solar, wind, and battery storage sites. Analyzed grid events, investigated equipment failures, and guided site crews during unplanned outages.
- Defined outage scopes and work packages, oversaw installation and acceptance testing, and worked with development teams to standardize electrical equipment for future projects.
- Reviewed and validated NERC compliance studies and documentation covering PRC-005, PRC-019, PRC-024, and FAC-008.
Senior Engineer
PPL Electric Utilities
05.2019 - 10.2019
- Owned the NERC PRC-005 System Protection Maintenance Program for devices protecting the Bulk Electric System.
- Recommended process improvements and preventive and detective controls to senior leadership. Trained and mentored new graduates and interns.
Reliability Assurance Specialist
PPL Electric Utilities
12.2017 - 03.2019
- Led a FERC/NERC Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) audit for substation devices and directed engineering support for capital projects, maintenance, and commissioning.
- Supervised and coached assigned staff, provided safety leadership and technical guidance, and resolved engineering and scheduling issues with contractors and other utilities.
Support Engineer
PPL Electric Utilities
07.2016 - 12.2017
- Designed communications diagrams for relays, PLCs, and remote terminal units. Verified settings and applicable NERC requirements before commissioning and helped develop commissioning and relay settings workflows.
Lead Responsible Engineer, NERC CIP Version 5 Project
PPL Electric Utilities
12.2015 - 07.2016
- Directed engineers and contractors in configuring and issuing thousands of field-device settings across PPL’s service territory for firmware upgrades and design changes supporting NERC CIP Version 5.
Protection & Control Engineer
PPL Electric Utilities
07.2015 - 12.2015
- Performed breaker duty and fault current analyses, updated relay and control documentation to reflect field conditions, and peer-reviewed relay settings for capital projects.
Education
Master of Science - Nuclear Engineering
Idaho State University
Pocatello, ID01.2015
Bachelor of Science - Nuclear Engineering
Idaho State University
Pocatello, ID12.2012
Skills
- Fleet engineering leadership across 21 sites and 14 GW
- Staff development and contractor oversight
- Engineering budget management and business planning
- NERC compliance (PRC and MOD) and technical QA/QC
- Engineering specifications and procedure standardization
- Multidisciplinary design reviews and brownfield risk mitigation
- Renewable asset reliability and outage response
- Wind repowering and electrical balance-of-plant engineering
- OEM coordination and high-voltage equipment commissioning
Research and Publication
- Graduate Researcher, AGN Reactor, Idaho State University | Aug 2013 – May 2015
- Contributed to a U.S. Department of Energy–funded study of open- and closed-loop reactivity oscillator techniques. Coauthored “Study of the Open Loop and Closed Loop Oscillator Techniques,” IEEE Xplore, May 2016.
Timeline
Manager Engineering
Constellation / Exelon Generation
09.2022 - Current
Senior Engineer
Constellation / Exelon Generation
10.2019 - 09.2022
Senior Engineer
PPL Electric Utilities
05.2019 - 10.2019
Reliability Assurance Specialist
PPL Electric Utilities
12.2017 - 03.2019
Support Engineer
PPL Electric Utilities
07.2016 - 12.2017
Lead Responsible Engineer, NERC CIP Version 5 Project
PPL Electric Utilities
12.2015 - 07.2016
Protection & Control Engineer
PPL Electric Utilities
07.2015 - 12.2015
Master of Science - Nuclear Engineering
Idaho State University
Bachelor of Science - Nuclear Engineering
Idaho State University