Christopher L. Brooks, P.E.

Speaker Bios

Company/Organization:	ESC Engineering Inc.
Position:	Principal and the Manager of Utility Planning Department

Mr. Brooks is a Principal and the Manager of Utility Planning Department with ESC Engineering Inc. in Fort Collins, Colorado.  He is a sought-after expert on the National Electric Safety Code (NESC), arc flash, distribution line design and protection, and many other topics in distribution power engineering. 

He has over 25 years in the electrical power industry and has a rich background of experience in T&D management, engineering, research, planning, design, consulting, and training, both domestic and international.  He also has experience in transformer design and manufacturing.  Most recently he was with Power System Services Division of S&C Electric Company as a Senior Consultant where he led and instructed in the S&C technical seminar program.  At S&C he was also the Responsible Engineer for many power engineering projects, including wind power plants, power distribution systems, and substation designs.  His career also includes over 15 years working for Westinghouse Electric Corporation and ABB performing and managing engineering and design projects for major US and international utilities and research organizations.  His background also includes experience as the Engineering Manager for a rural electric cooperative utility and the Director of Engineering for a consulting firm supporting cooperative and municipal utilities as clients.

His past and present research efforts include work for Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), US Department of Energy (DOE), Bonneville Power Authority (BPA), Canadian Electric Association (CEA) and Cooperative Research Network (CRN).  Among his research projects with EPRI was the pivotal work that produced the now common reliability indexes, such as SAIDI, SAIFI, etc.  He has a Bachelors and a Masters degree in Electrical Engineering from Purdue University and an MBA from Indiana University-Bloomington.  Having strong presentation skills and proficiency in writing he has develop numerous lectures and seminars, and has over 30 publications, including two books.  He is a Senior Member of IEEE and is the 2013 Chairman of the IEEE-REPC.  He is also CPQ certified and is a registered Professional Engineer in twenty-nine states.