PJM Vice President of Planning Ken Seiler completed a nearly 23-year career with the RTO on March 29 before retiring and handing leadership of the Planning Division to Paul McGlynn, previously the executive director of system operations. 

Seiler was joined by colleagues at PJM and across its membership for a going-away celebration following the March 20 Members Committee meeting, where McGlynn said he has benefited from the work Seiler has put into transforming the RTO’s interconnection process to run more smoothly and generally putting the planning division in a strong position. (See PJM Initiates Transitional Interconnection Queue.) 

PJM Executive Vice President of Market Services and Strategy Stu Bresler also praised Seiler’s leadership. 

“You’re leaving this organization better than you found it — you made it a better place,” Bresler said. 

Seiler will continue to be the RTO representative on the ReliabilityFirst Board of Directors through 2024. He also served on the board of PJM Environmental Information Services (EIS) through Jan. 1, when Vice President of Market Design and Economics Adam Keech assumed his position.  

Prior to heading the Planning Division, Seiler worked in the information technology and operations departments at PJM and was integral in the development of its backup control center. 

McGlynn was named Seiler’s successor in November, shifting him over from the Operations Division, where he oversaw real-time dispatch operations, near-term reliability studies, load forecasting, and the coordination of generation and transmission outages. (See PJM Restructuring Executive Team.)

This won’t be McGlynn’s first time in the Planning Division. Before his time heading operations, he was the RTO’s senior director of system planning, a role involving administering the development of the Regional Transmission Expansion Plan (RTEP).

McGlynn earned his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Pennsylvania State University and a master’s in electrical engineering from Drexel University. Prior to his time at PJM, he worked for Exelon in its engineering and operations departments. 

Aftab Khan Fills New VP Position

PJM has filled its newly created position of executive vice president of operations, planning and security with the appointment of Aftab Khan, former senior vice president of engineering at Eversource Energy. He began in March after his hiring in February. 

“I am eager to help PJM take on the many challenges presented by the energy transition. PJM’s creation of this new role shows the company’s commitment to seeking comprehensive solutions that emphasize reliability and security as the system evolves,” Khan said in a February announcement of his appointment. 

Khan’s role was created in November to “have overall responsibility for grid operations, transmission planning, cybersecurity and physical security, and business continuity.”  

Khan holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Alaska, an MBA in operations and finance from Carnegie Mellon University and a master’s degree in electric power engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the announcement says. 

He spent 24 years working at ABB, including as president of the Power Systems Division, Saudi Arabia; senior vice president of power transformers, North America; and senior vice president of grid systems, North America. 

“We welcome the experience, expertise and leadership Aftab brings to this important new role, which was created to support grid reliability during this increasingly complex energy transition,” PJM CEO Manu Asthana said in the announcement of Khan’s appointment.