Mr. Konidena has over two decades of experience in the utility industry, with fifteen years at Midcontinent ISO (MISO), including eight years in a management role. His areas of expertise include energy storage, demand response, and energy efficiency (i.e., clean technology options), specifically the role they play in wholesale grid-scale energy and ancillary market applications. He is a recognized expert on energy storage and distributed energy resources from an economic transmission planning perspective.  Konidena began his work with MISO in resource adequacy and transmission planning, where he and his team developed the demand side and clean technology options for generation in the 20-year transmission expansion planning process. Rao managed three iterations of Demand Response potential studies for MISO region-wide footprint. He led the development of a comprehensive approach towards implementing state and federal policy objectives around increased penetration of energy storage and renewables (DERs). He conducted an Energy Storage study, which was critical in understanding the needs of MISO's footprint for long-term grid-scale energy storage applications.