Eugene started a tradition hosting a golf tournament each year. The "BAT" team got together again this year to keep Eugene's memory alive by hosting the "Eugene Litvinov Memorial Golf Tournament" at East Mountain Country Club in Westfield.

Dr. Eugene Litvinov

On June 5, 1991, our "independence day", we came to this country. 31 years later, our oldest grandson Daniel graduated from high school. Zhenya would have been so proud!

Naming ceremony for Jacques, Eugene's youngest grandson, who was named after Eugene, whose Hebrew name was Nadav.
Jacques  was born to Sasha and Colin on June 12, 2021 and Sasha chose his Hebrew name to be Yaakov Nadav in honor of her dad.

I frequently think of Eugene. He was such an inspiration, a great teacher, mentor and friend. A brilliant man, confident in his own abilities and always willing to raise up his employees. I've seen many people in powerful positions that become egomaniacs wanting to squash the aspiration of others. But Eugene never engaged in such behavior. He was an optimist with an active imagination and a true leader in every sense of the word. Even after my retirement from ISO New England we remained close, mostly through email, but occasionally on the golf course with the other BAT team members. Even today I remain close to many of my BAT teammates. We all loved Eugene and that love was on display at his funeral; we were all present. I am deeply disappointed that I was not able to work for Eugene during my 14 years with ISO New England. Life was not the same for me working for others in ISO New England that never came close to matching Eugene's abilities to lead and inspire.
Eugene achieved what Warren Buffet said is the greatest achievement in life:
“If you get to my age in life and nobody thinks well of you, I don't care how big your bank account is, your life is a disaster.”
That's right, a self-made billionaire says that the amount you are loved — not your wealth or accomplishments — is the ultimate measure of success in life.

It took me a long time to decide whether or not I will even be able to speak today, but here I am and I hope not to get too emotional speaking about Eugene.


First of all, I would like to thank you for dedicating this panel to Eugene. It means a lot to me and our family. It warmed my heart to know that so many people remember him, his work and his contributions to the industry, to academia and to science.


I also would like to extend my gratitude to so many of you who came to his funeral at the time of covid, and who wrote on Eugene’s Forever missed website, which was created by his team right after his death. Thank you for your letters and cards, and thank you to everyone who reached out to me with kind words about him as a human, colleague and friend. Thank you for all your support and kindness, from the entire family and from me personally.


He left us so unexpectedly, so brutally and so untimely, that I am still struggling to understand it. I am struggling to accept why it happened the way it happened, and why my brilliant, vibrant , active, so full of life man was taken from us all. He could have lived so much longer and done so much more..


Many of you will speak today about his professional life and his contributions to the industry and academia, but I would like to tell you more about him as a person, husband, father, grandfather and friend.

Eugene was born and grew up in Kiev, in famously antisemitic Ukraine, in the former USSR, to an average jewish family. He was a very active little boy, mischievous, very bright, and very well-loved by his parents, grandparents, his brother and his friends. He was a very good student in school, but he also was known as a notorious hooligan, the beginning of a long career of troublemaking. He often recalled how he would put Beatles records on the school radio and got in so much troubles because of it, since of cause the Beatles were forbidden in the country we came from.

As a jewish boy, he faced his share of discrimination, humiliation and degrading treatment, which only worsened as he got older. He grew up knowing that he had to work harder, and to be better than most, in order to achieve what he wanted in life.

His favorite subjects in school were mathematics and Russian language and literature. But he also had a limitless curiosity about almost everything, which he carried throughout his life, which gave him an encyclopedic knowledge about many subjects he was interested in. All his life he was a phenomenal reader and book collector. We had a huge home library in Kiev, even though good books were not easy to come by in the Soviet Union. And we have a huge book library here too, with an eclectic collection of science fiction, art books, professional books, and of cause, novels.

He came to this country as a refugee with hardly more than the clothes on his back and his wits --thankfully considerable-- and he made a life for himself and his family that he could only dare imagine where he came from. His only regret was that he did not come here at least 10 years earlier, but then he would not have met me..

He started his career with what’s now known as ISO NE in 1992 as an engineer and became -- as many of you mentioned in your posts and letters to me -- a “ true giant” in industry. You will talk about his achievements and contributions today, but I just wanted to mention that his brightest ideas and their solutions often came to him at night. They often came in his dreams, and he would wake up so excited in the morning trying to explain them to me, impatient to start working on them immediately. He loved mathematics for its elegance and its ability to bring his ideas to life, and he truly appreciated its beauty. His ideas were not always recognized at the time, but he always knew what would and what would not work in real life 5-10 years after. In this sense he was a visionary.

I was always amazed at his ability to generate new ideas, which were limitless. He was a generous man in everything, so he did not mind when people used his ideas as their own, even if it rubbed him the wrong way sometimes.

He never cared much about his titles , never bragged about his achievements , so that very few people outside of his closest family knew about them. He knew his worth and it was enough for him. But he was truly happy when he was recognized by the National Academy of Sciences and Engineering, just last year, especially because he had no idea whatsoever it might happen.

It is a tragedy that he did not live to serve there. As his daughter Sasha said during her beautiful eulogy, he would have inevitably turned the whole institution and, she had hoped, all of academia, upside-down. He was, on paper, a Power Systems Engineer. But we all know that title doesn’t even begin to tell his story. I think he could have engineered a whole new world, Sasha said, and in a way he did. “

Not only did he have a sharp mind and extensive knowledge, but he also had the courage of his convictions and the strength to stand for reason, in a world where reason is so often an afterthought, if not a downright nuisance. He had the fortitude, not only intellectually but spiritually, to see things differently.

He never cared much about in-house politics, and he always judged and promoted people by their merits and their human qualities, not anything else.

Eugene had a way of looking at ordinary things and making you see something extraordinary.

The same was true of how he looked at people.

He was easy to befriend, and he charmed everyone he didn't totally intimidate. He loved to be in “compania,” in the company of friends, and he knew how to have a good time and make sure everyone around him lit up like a spark. He savoured life, he knew how fleeting and how strange and unfair life could be, and so he filled every moment with his mishpuchah and his compania with the breath of life and laughter.

Anyone who ever met him would tell you that he radiated warmth and kindness. His eyes twinkled with humor and humanity. He told the most extraordinary stories, the most improbable jokes, gave the most useful of life lessons. He always loved that he was known as a practical joker, but he will also be remembered as a force to be reckoned with.

He also cherished the many friendships he had, but most of all his lifelong friends, who are now scattered around the globe and whom we met many times over the years in different countries. We were going to be in Monte Negro in summer of 2020 to celebrate his 70th anniversary, but covid happened and we spent 2 hours on Skype instead.

A little bit about us now.. We started our romance, our love story in 1986, the year of the Chernobyl disaster as you probably know. We loved each other deeply, unconditionally and unquestionably ever since, which was the envy of many.. Eugene would often say how lucky we were to find each other, to love each other, and to have a very joyful life together. He would often repeat how rare and precious it is. Our house has been a house full of joy, laughter, family and friends.

Of course as he often said, he wasn’t a perfect husband, as he couldn’t do much around the house, and often joked, that I should have picked up a handier guy!


But I know we had a rare gift and my heart is forever broken. Half of me died that day too and sometimes its unbearably difficult even to breathe.

There is not a minute of my day when I don’t think about him, about what he would have done, or said. But I also know that he is with me, if not physically, but in spirit, and he would have wanted me to be strong for the family. I live surrounded by his books, his music, his art collection, his multiple gadgets and of course my memories.

Eugene and I shared a life rich in adventures and travels to many parts of the world. We never put anything on a back burner. Eugene’s favorite cities we visited were Venice and Prague. But his favorite trip of all, was to South America, Chili and Argentina, perhaps because he was so happy to see and experience all those places we read about in Jules Verne’s books as kids.

All his life he has never lost the ability or desire to learn something new, to see new places, to learn a new language, to experience new cultures, to read a new book, to try new foods, even if they might seem weird and scary to other. He has never lost the quality of a little boy, who enjoyed his toys. Of course the toys changed over the years, but he did not. He lived a full life and enjoyed the smallest things he found interesting.


Eugene loved and cherished his family, his children, grandchildren, his nieces, his brother, his whole family and me. Family has always been number one for him and he was an undeniable leader. He always served as a shoulder to cry on, to bring our problems, our questions, our doubts and uncertainties, but also our successes and joys. We could always rely on his careful and soft spoken advice and suggestions. He knew how to listen and to lift our spirits through the many storms we weathered together.

His children were his pride and joy. He was strict with them often, especially with Sasha, who was only 2 years old when we came to this country, but he was always fair. We did our best to give them the best education and opportunities and always respected their choices. We never tried to enforce what we thought was right for them, but let them choose and design their own future. The freedom to choose, which we never had growing up, has always been very important to us.

We raised a wonderful daughter together, Sasha. She was an apple of his eye, his favorite person with whom to discuss a new book, a new film, a new event, news in this country and around the world. They did not always agree with each other but tried very hard to understand and respect each others’ opinions. She is in so many ways so much like him and at the same time her own person, the one he called the smartest in the family, smart as a whip. The connections they shared, the closeness and love between them will stay with her and protect her forever.

Eugene’s kids grew up believing that as ugly as the world could be it didn’t matter; there was always another secret world just underneath the surface if you scratched a little: a world of beauty and adventure and wonder, and if they wanted it, something like freedom, that elusive and most precious thing.

He taught them to be strong but flexible, to be capable but patient, to hold themselves to their own standards and no one else's, except maybe his.


He taught them how to stand up for themselves, how to not take no for an answer, that no height is too high, or high enough. Never get complacent.Reach for the stars and don’t stop there. Be passionate about what you do and who you love. If there’s no passion, then what's the point?

He also was very fond of his team, the group he created at ISO-NE. He often spoke of them, especially the younger ones, as his “children”. I know he tried as with his children, to teach and help them not only professionally, but also with any other problems they sometimes had. I am sure that they will continue to make him proud.

Eugene was always ready to help in any way he could and he touched so many lives, helped so many people to become what they are now, without them even realizing it.

In our culture people like Eugene are called a mensch, a person of integrity and honor, kind and considerate.And he definitely was. He was also called one of the last “renaissance” men by our rabbi.

Eugene knew what was important in this life, so let’s all take one more lesson from him. That what gives you life in this life is for you to find the people that you love and you keep them close you. And you cherish them, and you marvel in them, and you live to make them happy. Surround yourself with people who you love and who fascinate you and laugh with them in the face of any darkness, and the darkness will turn to a speck of dust in the face of your love, and you will live a blessed life.

I know a lot of people count themselves lucky to have known him -his family, his friends, his students, his colleagues . He introduced us to and made us all gatekeepers of a world that was anything but pedestrian.A world with books that could transport you to another time and space, ideas that could enchant you, words that seemed like nonsense but felt more true and real than the regular ones.

We could stand here for hours listing all his achievements. Hours retelling his jokes and the impossible tongue twisters that he has made us recite, faster and faster each time. Because, he said, ***life is boring if there is no challenge. If there is no challenge, one must be invented immediately and immediately shared.

And so, true to form, he has presented us with his last and greatest challenge – how to live without him.
But like all of Eugene’s puzzles, this question of how we will go on without him is a trick question!

We will not be without him. He will be with us always.He left a deep footprint on this world before he left it. Let us remember him well, l’dor v’dor, from generation to generation, from now until forever.

In our hearts and our memory forever!
Just like this, larger than life

By Gordon Van Welie, ISO-NE

Eugene Litvinov – In Memoriam

1950-2020


I will say at the very outset that Dr. Eugene Litvinov, chief technologist for ISO New England Inc., lived life to the fullest, and his legacy will continue through his pioneering work in the electricity industry and the relationships he had with colleagues, peers, and friends.

First, a little background before I met Eugene. He was born in Kiev, Ukraine and received his PhD from Urals Polytechnic Institute in computer-based power system control in 1987. Prior to moving to the United States, he worked for two decades at Kiev’s Power Systems & Network Research Design Institute as a senior researcher and engineer. In 1991 at the age of 41, Eugene emigrated with his family as a refugee from the Soviet Union. He later became a U.S. citizen and volunteered to help other refugees establish fruitful lives in western Massachusetts through the Jewish Family Services organization. Shortly after emigrating, Eugene joined the New England Power Pool, the predecessor of ISO New England, as a senior engineer].


In a career spanning 28 years in New England, Eugene led the technical effort at the ISO to enable the regional policy goal of restructuring the wholesale electric system. He was a visionary for the ISO, and the industry at large, transforming theoretical auction concepts and high-level regulatory tariffs into successful online market platforms for wholesale electricity. Eugene’s unique blend of skills in power system control, optimization and software design, as well as his technical leadership enabled the New England region to implement ‘best-in-class’ wholesale market design and power system control algorithms, thereby improving the efficiency and reliability of the region’s power system that serves 14.5 million people.



Eugene collaborated extensively with industry and the academic community around the world to seek optimal solutions to real-world power system problems. Perhaps his greatest accomplishment was the establishment of a leading R&D team at ISO New England that now carries on with his legacy. He worked with his team to solve our most complex engineering, operational and market design challenges. The optimization mathematics and designs developed by Eugene’s team have been recognized and adopted by other independent system operators, vendors that support wholesale power systems and markets, and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), effectively advancing the level of efficient market structures across the industry. Eugene and his team’s contributions were fundamental in ensuring a progressive and stable wholesale market, which has attracted more than $16 billion of investment in new generating resources into New England and $20 billion in transmission and distributed resources.



Just some of the remarkable accomplishments resulting from Eugene’s technical leadership included:

• The industry’s first nodal energy market that included losses and congestion
• The first co-optimized reserve markets in the real-time market, with operating reserve demand curves and a reserve deliverability guarantee
• Best practice enhancements to enable fast-start resources to set energy prices, as recognized by FERC
• State-of-art design of nested, locational, convex, capacity market demand curves that recognize the marginal reliability contribution of resources in adjacent capacity zones
• A pioneering robust optimization approach in unit commitment to consider uncertainties
• The first real world application of robust optimization technique in dispatching renewable generation
• New algorithms and applications designed for Phasor Measurement Unit (PMU) technology, including developing oscillation source location using a dissipating energy flow method and on-line voltage stability analysis
• The use of cloud computing for power system control and planning applications in the ISO environment
• A new regional market settlement system, one of the most successful settlement architectures in the industry, with the first implementation of semi-weekly and five minute settlements
• The creation of a mathematical framework to optimize the power flow between two regional systems, New England and New York, in relation to wholesale market prices, known as Coordinated Transaction Scheduling. Wholesale market monitors have recognized this implementation as being the most efficient in the industry
• Co-leader of a novel market design to address the energy scheduling and storage problems in an energy-constrained system and marketplace.

Eugene was also a well-published author and co-author of many academic papers and research articles for industry journals, winning several best paper awards from the IEEE Power and Energy Society (PES) and the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS). He was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 2020, an IEEE Fellow in 2013, a member of the IEEE PES Fellowship Committee, a CIGRE member, Chair of PSERC Industrial Advisory Board, Chair and member of ARPA projects, and an IEEE Transactions on Power Systems editor.


Eugene was a leader in every facet of his life, and among his numerous accomplishments were the friends he made all over the world. He was a visionary who pushed the envelope in the electricity industry, one who rallied his colleagues and staff to be the best they could be, both professionally and personally. His influence and imprint on the industry will endure and his legacy will be carried on by all who knew, admired, and loved him.

This is Mladen Kezunovic from Texas A&M University. I knew Eugene for over 15 years, and we met at Power Systems Engineering Research Center meetings, at various conferences and at several closed professional meetings.

I will share a few memories about Eugene that came to mind immediately when I heard of Eugene’s sudden departure. In my case, the interactions may have been brief, 3-4 times a year, but the memories are certainly vivid and lasting. This happens only when you remember someone who is personable, friendly and insightful, and Eugene was certainly all of that and more. Some people tend to touch you in some mysterious ways so that you are always excited when you meet them again, and Eugene will last in my memory as someone with whom I always was looking to interact at events where I knew he was attending too.

A few memory snippets relate to some personal moments that were also a part of broader professional interaction.

About ten years ago we attended a PSerc Workshop at the Skamania Lodge in the wilderness of the State of Washington. A few of us, Shmuel Oren from Berkeley and Kory Hedman from Arizona State were also quite busy putting last touches on our proposal to DOE on the transmission switching. I decided to reach out to Eugene for a sanity check on come concepts we were proposing. I looked around that day and could not spot him in the crowd, so I walked out to the terrace to relax with a stunning view of the Columbia river and mountains surrounding the lodge. And then I sensed in the air aroma of a Cuban cigar smoke. Bingo, I knew it was Eugene since I knew of his fondness of the cigars. Sure enough, in a quiet corner, I found him at the bench thoroughly enjoying his cigar, and since non-smokers tend to stay away from smokers, we had a few private moments to exchange ideas on the topic I mentioned. As always, Eugene was extremely resourceful and encouraging. When we were awarded the project, he served as an advisor.As we spoke, the conversation drifted about our past (we both came from a foreign country), our families and grandkids. Eugene had two at the time, Daniel and Yenna, and talked about the change they made on him and Yelena, and I envied him since I did not have any at the time. Now, when I have three, two born during the COVID era, I was looking forward to seeing him again and talking about my experiences. It remains memorable how a smoke of cigar and grandkids can contribute to development of such memorable personal moments that one remembers them forever.

The other occasion Eugene and I worked closely was when he was a member of the IEEE Power and Energy Society Fellows Committee that I chaired at the time. This effort is quite demanding and it is not easy to recruit members due to a heavy time-consuming commitment of reviewing close to 100 applications in a short span of couple of months, and then coming to a full 2-day face-to-face meeting to collectively evaluate them all, which was the practice at the time. I knew how busy Eugene was but I called him and asked whether he would help, and sure enough, he agreed. One component of Eugene’s character struck me as particularly memorable through this experience: he read the applications very carefully, made insightful comments, and above all, was very transparent by saying whom he knew well, and whom he did not. His openness about the strengths and weaknesses of the candidates, and his fairness stood clear and impressed me tremendously since I really was seeking such opinions to make sure the process is thorough and unbiased. I relied on Eugene’s opinion strongly over the entire appointment of three years. And ever since, I knew I could rely on his honest feedback and strong integrity..

Last, but not least was a memorable boat trip during a conference in Porto, Portugal. We attended the meeting with our spouses, so we were on a day-trip together with many mutual friends. The trip was indeed extraordinary since it lasted hours as we were cruising up and down river Douro with stunning views of vineyards, river beaches and country side. I remember interacting frequently during that trip with relaxed conversations. I discovered that Eugene and Yelena loved to travel and experienced many wonders of the world. They came back from a trip to Patagonia and Antarctica and they were sharing with us the wonders and impressions. It was a long conversation as my wife Vesna and I are also world travelers and love to talk about such experiences. Eugene’s excitement was infectious: Vesna and I ended up going to Patagonia shortly thereafter and as we were traveling we mentioned Eugene’s and Yelena’s comments and observations as indeed being useful, and above all truly exciting. In my mind during our trip, I was thankful for this memorable and enticing conversation in Portugal. We had similar experiences at other conferences where we met after that, and each time we engaged in long conversations exchanging experiences from other recent trips. The joint excitement about world wonders brought us closer again.

A person that can captures your imagination, relates to you on a very personal level, and enlightens you professionally is a perfect storm for a great friendship.Eugene, we will miss you profoundly.

Prof. Antonio J. Conejo
The Ohio State University

I would like to start saying that I have been most fortunate to have the privilege to interact with Eugene since the late-1990. I visited him at ISO New England quite a few times, almost every time I was in the Boston area. He was always warmly welcoming and passionate about new technical ideas that he wanted to share and discuss. It was a pleasure discussing with him algorithms, methodologies and ideas in general. He created an extraordinary research group at ISO New England and supported researchers everywhere with discussions and encouragement. I was at the time far away from Massachusetts, in central Spain, but he was always willing to help.



I want just to briefly describe how my respect and admiration for Eugene developed. It has to do with the unit commitment problem, the heart of current power markets.

In the mid-1990, no one would consider mixed-integer linear programming as an appropriate technique to solve the unit commitment problem. Lagrangian Relaxation was the undisputed standard.

However, in the mid-2000 no one would consider Lagrangian Relaxation as an appropriate technique to solve the unit commitment problem. Mixed-integer linear programming was the undisputed standard.

We all know that important to this transition was that mixed-integer linear programming solvers were useless in the mid-1990, but very powerful in the mid-2000. But besides solvers, and above them, you need effective formulations.

Of course, many people contributed to these effective formulations, but Eugene’s passion and vision to creatively pursue unexplored paths was instrumental. He encouraged many young (and not that young) researchers to pursue that most fruitful path: the development of mixed-integer linear programming effective formulations for the unit commitment problem.


So, Eugene taught me that apparently useless ideas (like mixed-integer linear programming in the mid-1990) may become the undisputed standard, as it is the case today with mixed-integer linear programming for solving the unit commitment problem.



For this, Eugene’s ideas will always be with me and my students as long as I am around.

Thank you. I am honored to participate in this celebration of Eugene great achievements as a power engineer and as a human being!

There is one other thing I will share about Eugene. One thing that I have been saying for some time to others, particularly in a role I had as I worked for the US Department of Energy overseeing research projects, I would say that I have always learned more, and have grown more, from feedback from industry rather than academic peers. This is not meant to put one above another but I would use this to emphasize to other faculty the importance to seek out feedback from industry so that they can do a better job understanding the real world challenges such that their research makes a bigger impact. Without hesitation, Eugene was my primary source and reason for this comment. His vast knowledge and teachings to me had profound impacts.



I was shocked to hear the news last year. I had to take a moment to think on how I had lost that pathway to knowledge and what it would mean for me and the broader community. I am sure many people had a reflection like this. He will be missed but his impact stays with us. Thank you.
Kory Hedman

George Gross
Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Grainger College of Engineering
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

You have heard so far, the beautiful tribute of Yelena and the eloquent words of the small, representative sample of the many friends and acquaintances Eugene made during his brilliant career. Eugene’s and my paths crossed over two decades, and I wish to share some memories. But let me first register the tremendous loss I feel with the passing of Eugene. We lost a visionary leader, a superb engineer, a devoted family man, a great colleague and humanitarian.


From the time I met Eugene, I was struck by the fact that every discussion with Eugene was a learning experience for me. I was immensely impressed by his brilliant intellect, keen analytical mind and his deep understanding of and expertise in electricity grids. Our discussions were always captivating. I remember well the first time I met Eugene, which happened at a PSERC meeting. I was rather keen to make his acquaintance after he made some very cogent and insightful comments during the initial session of that meeting. I certainly have known about Eugene from his publications and was aware of the highly valued research group he built at ISO-NE. I walked over to meet him and complimented him on his well- reasoned remarks. During our brief discussion, Eugene revealed to me his broad interests and wide cultural background and knowledge. We touched on many issues from policy to music and from engineering to science and to the fine arts.


From then on, we continued to meet at PSERC get togethers, IEEE meetings and many other forums. I became well-aware of the solid training that Eugene had from the strong analytical Soviet school of Mathematics, his deep insights into the physics of the various problems of interest to both of us and his equally well-honed appreciation of the economics of markets. I remark that despite the Marxist Leninist foundations in his education, Eugene had developed an equally impressive understanding of real-world market operational matters. He was the rare engineer who was as comfortable to discuss the IT issues as well as those in electricity markets. Not too long thereafter, I was keen to make use of Eugene’s talents and sent to him an excellent doctoral student to intern at the Litvinov Academy at the ISO-NE. Eugene’s mentorship was exemplary and much of the work the student performed became part of his Ph.D. dissertation. Moreover, Eugene was kind enough to serve on that student’s doctoral committee. We produced a good number of journal publications, conference proceedings papers as well as training material as a result of this collaboration.


Eugene and I continued our frequent meetings over the years and in addition to the discussion of technical issues, we always talked about our families. Eugene and I both had two daughters so we compared notes on their progress and their careers. Eugene’s pride in the accomplishments of his daughters was clearly discernible on each occasion. We shared many meals together and I remember vividly that I had the pleasure to meet Yelena at a bistro in Portland, Maine during a PSERC event. Typically, at the smaller PSERC meetings, but also at some of the IEEE conferences, it was easy to find Eugene in the evenings since the odor of the cigars he would smoke always gave away the fact that Eugene was in the vicinity.



Eugene also had a finely tuned sense of humor. We were both amazed how the great Eastern European jokes disappeared soon after the fall of the Berlin wall. Nevertheless, we often had the chance to laugh at some of the wonderful jokes from earlier years.


I am grateful that I had the privilege to know Eugene for two decades. The loss I feel is vast, but not only is it a personal loss but it is one also for all of us in the many communities in which he participated. As we say in the Jewish religion, “May his memory be for a blessing”.

... Sadly, today is one full year since Eugene left us.. I still go from time to time to this site and watch the gallery... As my induction into NAE next week (remote!) approaches, I cant help but think hw wonderful it would have been to have this in person with Yelena and Eugene there, and many other friends....  As I am thinking of all of this, again, I share with all of you  my memories I presented earlier this summer at the IEEE session that celebrated Eugene..  May he rest in peace. I miss him so much. Yelena,  I am thinking of you today.
Love Marija

IEEE celebration of Eugene's life-- my  presentation
I took some high quality time this morning to talk to myself and think about what to say about Eugene. This beautiful summer day in NE helped me think of the early 1990’s when I met Eugene at MIT. This was shortly after he arrived from Kiev, and was trying to jump-start his career in this country. After connecting with some NEPOOL folks, he ended up there, although, deep down, I worried about this him as a deep academician fitting into industry and whether I sent him a wrong way. It is well known by now that my worries were idle.

During those early years we crossed paths at the MIT E-Lab brainstorming workshops, and then more regularly at different IEEE conferences. Over the years, we served together at several panels, and I always admired Eugene’s far reaching thoughts. Very quickly he became one of industry folks to whom I would go for ``sanity checking” about ideas I was about to pursue at university with our graduate students. He served a t several PHD committees of our doctoral students. Much started changing in the industry, and Eugene, together with people like Dale Osborn and Ralph Masiello, were there to answer our never ending questions about both very specific difficult technical problems as well as about what needs rethinking, why and what would improve if we were to solve some technical problems. I recall once going to Eugene to ``ask a quick question” and him telling me that my questions usually have 1-2 hour answers. He was generous with his time. I am not sure if I ever told him how invaluable this was to me as I was trying to somehow rebuild power systems research at MIT under quite difficult conditions after Fred Schweppe suddenly passed. Notably, it was necessary to reconcile vastly different answers and advices from various smart people, including Charles Concordia advising us by saying ``If it is not broken, don’t try to fix it”. At the same time, my good friend and colleague at MIT George Verghese was asking why power grid does not rely more on data-enabled automation and control. The official answer I received from the NPCC director was that this was ``the NPCC policy” at the time. It really was hard to move forward. Looking back, academia and many industry leaders were ahead of its time, and Eugene was always there to catalyze innovation.

I finally gave up and realized that it was too hard to build a program at MIT, and I took CMU’s very generous package and invitation to start power systems program there. As I was transitioning to CMU, another great visionary, no longer with us, NYISO VP for Markets Charles King, came and said ``You always talk about these hierarchical systems and their coordination. Is there a way to quickly show that the electricity markets in the Northeast can still optimize themselves/preserve their decision making autonomy and, at the same time, have minimal coordination for enhanced regional efficiency?” This was the beginning of my start-up NETSS when NYISO gave us $150k to study this emerging ``seams” problem. Very quickly, after Phase 1 we were asked to demonstrate the proposed solution using homegrown software on full blown system model, and ISO NE joined this phase 2 study. This was very exciting time, since we discovered that the roadblocks to efficient trading in the Northeast was not only regulatory, but also we needed software to manage voltage constraints better. The flow gates were mainly voltage limited, and NETSS developed an AC OPF to demonstrate this potential. The study shows that one can exchange much more using data-enabled scheduling as operating conditions vary if most of the controllable equipment participates. We were pursuing the idea of corrective dispatch, which could have resulted in major reliability reserve savings, in particular. Once again, I was puzzled why, after demonstrating all this, there was no interest to use NETSS seams solution, or AC OPF. One evening, after aPSERC meeting at ASU, Eugene explained to me while enjoying his cigar that there was ``no money on the table to save” ! Market charges what it costs, and this is it, and there was no incentive to implement such software. This was a huge eye opener for me, and at NETSS even todayI  refer to what he said.

In my own research and teaching, we have to deal with this ``money on the table” big way.So many years later, we have managed to show that money actually comes in different flavors, like ice cream. Reducing the need for excessive generation adequacy build up as decarbonization is being pursued, like in CA-ISO, can indeed be achieved to a large extent by data-enabled flexible resource scheduling. Being myself, I recently discussed this with CA-ISO friends, and the answer was ``Yes, and it will happen, but it will take about 20 years for change to take place; engineers must be comfortable that these new ideas are not disruptive, but helpful and needed right now !” Closer to home, the same methods could enable higher power transfers from HQ for environmental reasons, and help assess somewhat controversial issues about building new HV lines. Adopting minimal coordination of tie line flows to manage seams in the Northeast could help NE during very cold spells, or help import power into SW CT. More recently, we have shown when MIT Lincoln Lab performed a study for DHS that in Puerto Rico one could provide resilient service even during (N-k) k>>2 outages. Texas crisis probably had to do much with lack of data-enabled flexible software for managing resources across large areas. I wonder how this innovation can be catalyzed..

There are many more examples of potential benefits and ``money on the table” that could be obtained from some of the systems thinking and next generation data-enabled software for flexible utilization of available resources. It has been close to 30 years of me turning to Eugene and bouncing these ideas with him. As a tribute to Eugene, he has left this legacy to myself, and has generously shared his knowledge and ideas with many other university folks. Many of now obvious potential benefits would have never been studied nor written about, hadn’t it been for him. It goes without saying that it hasn’t been easy to pursue these ideas ahead of time, the seminal university problem: Innovate, but tech transfer would come later. I believe that Eugene has taught us that this is worthwhile doing, and that close ties with industry leaders are essential. I speak for Leigh Tesfatsion when I say that Eugene was working closely to establishing concepts for incentives needed and plowing the way for economics to extract these somewhat hidden values. As a matter of fact, given the on-going industry changes, and ambitious societal objectives ,pursuing system thinking and explaining benefits where they are not so obvious is somewhat urgent. At the same time, it must be done with rigor and confidence that it would provide working solutions. This is a giant challenge to the community, and Eugene has led the way in this direction. We owe him to keep it going.

I would like to close with two more recent personal memories. It should not come as a surprise that over the years Eugene and I became more than just professional colleagues. Jeff, my husband and I, had a privilege to visit his home and to discover how he and Yelena were real foodies. We planned to repeat our get together at our home after sightseeing in Boston one day. That day never happened, and in a hindsight it is with deep regret. Also, more recently, March 2019,the last in person conference I attended at NSF with Eugene, he shared his vision for ML applications to power systems, again leading the way. We ended up being delayed at Reagan airport and spending 2-3 hours over beer. This is one travel delay I treasure now. Eugene was excited about his recent election into NAE, and talked about itby reflecting on what happened since his Kiev days. He was very proud of his group at ISO-NE and was telling me about how much money got saved as a result of this group’s work. I didn’t have the heart to bring up the ``money on the table” issue again, but was extremely happy listening to him. His eyes were unusually shiny as he was telling me this. There was some closure in this almost monologue, and I could tell Eugene was content with what has happened over the years. He also was very excited to tell me his and Yelena’s plans to spend vacation in Monte Negro with close family friends, regretfully this never happened either, due to pandemics.

This was the last time I saw Eugene and I will always remember him when I ask myself whether I am spending my time working too much, whether I am working on right problems, and whether my mentoring of young generation is in a right direction. This is a huge responsibility and one can miss a lot if it is not done right.I feel that Eugene has helped my work move in the right direction, and has helped me tremendously as he always was someone I could turn to for a thoughtful advice. He taught me yet another life lesson, that ``what goes around comes around”. There was so much that came my way from Eugene from the day I shared a little advice to him to contact NEPOOL folks. I am infinitely grateful for having had him as a friend, colleague and mentor .He will be missed very much and ISO-NE would do really well to help nurture his legacy over the years to come. I am positive that it would come back in a big gratifying way.