Obed Santos has served as Plant Manager at AES Ilumina since the plant’s inauguration in 2012. In this role he oversees the plant’s operations, maintenance, budget, permit process and commercial agreements with the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority.

AES Ilumina, 20 MW, was the first solar utility scale project in Puerto Rico and Obed was directly involved in overcoming the technical challenges associated with the project’s development. He has also maximized profitability at the plant through the development of two significant projects that, combined, have resulted in recurring annual savings of $0.5MM. The two projects involved the reconfiguration of the inverters control system to efficiently handle frequency response and the disconnection of medium voltage loops during the night to reduce heat losses in transformers.

Obed has worked at AES since 2008. Prior to being named Plant Manager he served as a Plant Engineer where he was responsible for improving the overall performance of the 454 MW CFB coal power plant, with a focus on heat rate reduction. He also led the inspection program for high energy piping and provided engineering support to the team leaders of various plant functions including hands-on inspections, testing and work supervision. Obed has served as Champion of the Asset Management Framework program, and in 2017, following Hurricane Maria, he served as project manager for the reconstruction of damages in the plant that reached $1.2MM.

Obed received his BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez with a minor in Economics. He began his career as a Manufacturing Engineer working with Stryker Corporation and then Guidant Corporation, followed by four years at Caribe General Electric.