Paul Ahrens has over 25 years of experience in the electric power industry including extensive experience in wholesale power purchasing and sales, power plant development, merger and acquisitions, regulatory activities, renewable power, project economic analysis and modeling, and commercialization of new power technology.

Mr. Ahrens is currently a Partner with Ridge Energy Storage & Grid Services, Inc. in Houston, Texas. Ridge Energy is a developer of energy storage facilities in both domestic and international markets and Mr. Ahrens is responsible for marketing origination, economic analysis, regulatory activities, strategy development and developing new business initiatives.

As Director of Business Development for Coral Power Generation, Mr. Ahrens successfully negotiated Coral's acquisition of equity interests and power purchase agreements for approximately 1,300 MW of power generation.

Prior to Coral, Mr. Ahrens spent 5 years with Destec Energy, Inc. As Planning Manager, he was a member of a Senior Management task force responsible for evaluating and implementing legislative and regulatory strategies for developing the future power market in Texas. His responsibilities included, coordinating all regulatory and legislative activities, lobbyist education, regulatory interventions, writing testimony and performing economic analyses. During this time he also provided utility and regulatory expertise in evaluating competitive utility power pricing, customers supply options, technology and regulatory requirements. As Manager of ERCOT Marketing for Destec, Mr. Ahrens successfully bid, negotiated and executed a 5-year 250 Mw, full requirement power contract with an ERCOT utility

Mr. Ahrens began his career with Houston Lighting & Power Company (now Reliant Energy) where he spent 15 years working in Resource Planning, Rates & Forecasting and Regulatory Activities. Mr. Ahrens developed and evaluated the economics for over 4,000 Mw of new power generation. He coordinated the rate case activities for inclusion of the 2500 Mw South Texas Nuclear Plant and the 1400 Mw Limestone Lignite Plant.

Mr. Ahrens holds a Bachelor of Business Administration in Management Information Systems from the University of Houston and a Master of Business Administration in Finance from the University of St. Thomas.

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