Carl Wilkins Senior Vice President, Distribution

Carl L. Wilkins, PE, Executive Advisor, Senior Vice President, has extensive experience in the electric utility industry. He has served in various managerial, research, and consultative roles working with electric and gas utility companies. Combining engineering, sales, marketing, and project management expertise with applied technical skills, he brings many talents to the electric utility industry. His team performs grid interconnection studies for distributed generation projects and distribution area planning studies, including load forecasting and resilient grid design. His team also supports many projects: hosting capacity, reliability improvement, grid modernization, distribution operations, distributed energy resources (DER) system impacts, data analytics, and electric transportation. Carl’s team has led several projects related to transmission and distribution (T&D) storm-hardening assessments and emergency preparedness plans for large electric utilities. He has led benchmarking studies on distribution and transmission maintenance and construction practices.

Carl served as the Director of Utility Services at Advanced Energy, managing senior management relationships and delivering energy efficiency and renewable energy services to electric utilities. He has worked with utilities on smart grids, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, policies to address climate change, and environmental sustainability.

Carl was the chief architect in designing, coordinating, and developing North Carolina’s green power program, NC GreenPower, the first state-wide green-power program where all electric utilities in North Carolina agreed to collaborate and use one marketing campaign

Experience and Background

  • Years of experience in the electric power industry, 1976–Present
  • Senior Vice President, Quanta Technology, 2008–Present
  • Director, Utility Services, Advanced Energy Corporation, 2000–2008
  • Manager, Large Commercial Accounts, Duke Energy Progress, 1976–1999

Select Industry Accomplishments and Recognition

  • NC State Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Strategic Advisory Board, 2025
  • Advanced Energy Board of Directors, 2024
  • North Carolina Energy Policy Council, 2014
  • NC Governor’s Energy Advisory Team, 2013
  • NC Governor’s Scientific Advisory Panel on Offshore Energy & Energy Infrastructure, 2011
  • Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE) NC Task Force on Offshore Energy

Areas of Expertise

  • Distributed energy resource (DER) system integration
  • Modern distribution area planning
  • Distributed generation substation interconnection studies
  • Load, energy analysis, and forecasting

Education

  • BS, Electrical Engineering, North Carolina State University
  • Executive Education, Harvard Business School

Latest Thinking

  • Meet Carl Wilkins, Hall of Fame Inductee 2022

    Carl Wilkins, ECE Hall of Fame 2022 Inductee, sat down with us to discuss his unique success pathway and how NC State helped him achieve it. Since his time in the ECE Department, Wilkins held various technical, management and leadership positions while working at Carolina Power & Light Company for over 23 years.

Have a question for us?

We’d love to hear from you. Send us a message and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible.
We’d love to hear from you. Send us a message and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible.