Mr. Mertz is Vice President, Data Center Power responsible for analysis and interconnection management for Penzance’s data center portfolio. 

Mr. Mertz has worked in the electric power industry since 2010. Prior to joining Penzance, Mr. Mertz was Senior Manager Transmission & Interconnection at Candela Renewables supporting development of Candela’s 10.5 GW portfolio of solar and battery energy storage projects from coast-to-coast encompassing PJM, MISO, LGE-KU, ERCOT, SPP, CAISO, and WECC markets. He spent his early career working at Dominion Energy in a variety of leadership and engineering roles spanning system protection engineering, operations engineering, electric distribution planning, and electric transmission planning. 

Mr. Mertz received his Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in Electrical Engineering from Virginia Tech and his MBA from Virginia Commonwealth University. He is a member of the CIGRE U.S. National Committee (USNC) and has been awarded CIGRE’s (a French professional organization) Next Generation Network Significant Contribution Award and the USNC’s Attwood Associate Award. He is a Senior Member in the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and a licensed Professional Engineer in Virginia.