Midhat Mafazy

Regulatory Program Engineer
Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC)

Midhat Mafazy, Regulatory Program Engineer for IREC, holds a BS in Physics from Illinois State University (Normal, IL) and a Master of Engineering from the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, MI). Midhat joins IREC with six years of experience in the utility industry. He began as an Intern for a Fortune 500 utility in 2014. There he performed cost-benefit analysis of energy storage systems used as investment deferrals at utility substations (NWA solutions). Midhat joined the utility full-time in 2015 and transitioned to primarily Distributed Energy Resources (DER) roles. For two years, he worked at the utility microgrid facility (Champaign, IL) where he was involved in numerous tests, facility upkeep, as well as providing public tours of the world-renowned utility-scale microgrid. Midhat continued to expand his portfolio and began to oversee DER Integration, Standards, Policies & Strategies, DER pilots, and the grid of the future projects. In his role as a DER Integration Engineer, Midhat was instrumental in specifying the Illinois Smart Inverter rebate, offering incentives to non-residential customers with Smart Inverters in the state. He maintained and updated the company's DER policies and standards, and quite often, served as a link between DER-related research and the company's DER pilot engagements. Midhat has partnered with peer utilities around the country and the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) on projects related to DER interconnection best practices and smart inverter field deployment. Before joining IREC, Midhat served as a technical lead in Illinois grid interconnection proceedings, responding to comments and data requests. Midhat lives in Normal, Illinois with his wife, Nazma, and daughter, Shani, and enjoys playing soccer with friends.