Max Thompson

About Max Thompson

Max is a lead energy meteorologist for Duke Energy\'s Meteorology Team, where he leverages his 15 years of experience and CCM credential to provide accurate and timely weather forecasts and alerts that support load demand forecasting, unit commitment planning, and optimizing an efficient generation stack. His focus is on the Florida Service Area that includes major cities like St. Petersburg, Orlando, and Gainesville, and also provides support for our Midwest and Carolinas Service Areas. Core focus areas include: load forecasting; tailored weather forecasts for multiple lines of business; major storm support and outage forecasting.Relevant skills and experiences:• Assisted in the creation of internal weather-driven outage & damage models used in major storm planning• Routinely speak to multiple business units, including executive leadership, using PowerPoint and Teams; extremely comfortable speaking to large audiences and thrive in high-pressure environments • Knowledge in Python, R Studio, C++, Linux, HTML, as well as meteorological data files such as Grib, NetCDF• Volunteer at local career days present on meteorology to elementary, middle, and high schools• Work extensively with Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Word, Fireworks, and Visual Basic Macros• Successfully completed 2024 Charlotte Harvard Business/Management Development Program

Experience

1. Lead Energy Meteorologist

   Duke Energy Corporation

   Mar 2014 — Present · Charlotte, NC, US

   Provide daily system average forecasts, including hourly temperatures, dew points, brightnesses, and precipitation for Duke Energy Florida (DEF) that includes Gainesville, Orlando and Saint Petersburg.• Support load forecasting and dispatching, distribution and transmission with personal consultation and tailored weather forecasts/alerts that will impact intra-day and short to long-term load demand forecasts, and system operations.• Monitor severe, tropical and winter weather events, send special weather alert emails, and participate in briefings/conference calls with Distribution, Transmission and Customer Call Centers, among many other business units, and coordinate safe and efficient customer power restoration. Other daily responsibilities include: • Brief power traders, real-time dispatchers and unit commitment managers daily on short and long-range weather patterns, as well as discuss forecast risks and biases that direct those to make informed financial and economical generation decisions.• Issue daily weather products: MISO and PJM wind forecasts, National Weather Briefing, Cold Air/Heat Watches, American Model (GFS) updates.• Forecast multiple MISO and PJM cities issued to traders including Chicago, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, and St. Louis, as well as provide weather alerts and intraday updates that reflect locational market price changes.• Produce monthly and seasonal temperature/precipitation outlooks using long-range forecasting techniques such as analogs, teleconnections, and regression models.• Annually produce an internal Atlantic hurricane seasonal forecast using analogs and regression models (created and launched in 2011).• Compose monthly, quarterly and yearly climate summaries for Duke Service Areas to be used for quarterly reports, legal filings, and market/customer research. • Provide forecasting and consultation assistance for Duke Energy’s Carolinas and Midwest Service Areas as needed.

Education

• Harvard Business School Club of Charlotte

  Management Development Program

• Penn State University

  Meteorology, Forecasting, Weather Risk, Energy Business and Finance

  2006 — 2010