John G. Kappenman is the Owner and Principal Consultant for Storm Analysis Consultants, located in Duluth MN.  Mr. Kappenman is a 1976 graduate in Electrical Engineering from South Dakota State University, after graduation he joined Minnesota Power (1977-1998) holding a number of senior management and technical positions. From 1998-2008, he was with  Metatech Corporation as the Manager of their Applied Power Solutions Division, which primarily focused on Space Weather and EMP impacts on electric power grids and other related technology and infrastructure systems. He has been an active researcher in power delivery technologies and his primary engineering contribution has been his research work on lightning and geomagnetic storms and their disruptive effects on electric power systems. His prior R&D activities include the principal investigator on EPRI projects for space weather/geomagnetic storm impacts to large electric power grids and mitigation of geomagnetic storm impacts, mitigation of lightning to transmission networks and on power electronics applications in high voltage transmission networks. He holds several US Patents.

He is a Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the Power Engineering Society, and is the Past Chairman of the Transmission and Distribution Committee (1994-1996).  He is also a member of a number of working groups and standards committees.  He is a member of the American Geophysics Union (AGU).  He is a member of the Editorial Advisory Committee to the AGU International Journal of Space Weather.  He is one of the founders and current Chairperson of the Commercial Space Weather Interest Group.  He has served as an adjunct faculty member at the University of Minnesota-Duluth Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.  He has published over 50 papers in a variety of subject areas. He is a recipient of the IEEE Walter Fee Outstanding Young Engineer Award, the IEEE Prize Paper Award, the Westinghouse Nikola Tesla Award and two EPRI Innovator Awards.   In February 1997, Mr. Kappenman provided presentations to the US Presidents’ Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection on the Potential Impact of Geomagnetic Storms on Electric Power System Reliability.   Mr. Kappenman was a Scientific Organizer and one of the Principal Lecturers at the NATO Advanced Science Institute on Space Storms and Space Weather Hazards held in June 2000.   He has also served on the Science Advisors Panel (July 2000) for the NOAA Space Environment Center (presently called the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center).  Mr. Kappenman was a key presenter and member of the Scientific Organizing Committee for the NATO Advanced Research Workshop on “Effects of Space Weather on Technology Infrastructure” in March 2003. 

Mr. Kappenman is one of the principle investigators under contract with the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP Commission).   Mr. Kappenman has presented testimony before the US House Science Committee in October 2003 on the importance of geomagnetic storm forecasting for the electric power industry.  He also was a principal investigator examining the “Vulnerability of the Electric Power Grid for Severe Geomagnetic Storms” for FEMA under US Presidential Executive Order 13407.  He was also one of the Principal Contributors to the 2008 US National Academy of Sciences Report on “Severe Space Weather Events—Understanding Societal and Economic Impacts Workshop Report Committee on the Societal and Economic Impacts of Severe Space Weather Events” He is a member of the IEC Standards Development Committee for all EMP and High Energy Electomagnetic Compatibility Requirements. 

More recently Mr. Kappenman has provided extensive background information and formal testimonial statements to the US House Committee on Homeland Security regarding proposed legislation dealing with cyber and EMP and geomagnetic storm threats to the US power grid infrastructure.  In addition Mr. Kappenman is a member of the Joint US Dept of Energy/NERC Steering Committee for developing and planning a conference on High Impact/Low Frequency (HILF) Threats to the US Electric Power Grid.