Roger Clarke-Johnson

Roger has contributed to the body of knowledge of the Renewable Energy industry for 45 years. For the last 38 years he has specialized in hydroelectric governors. A graduate of the University of Illinois with a bachelor’s degree in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering (yes, he is a rocket scientist), Roger understands the design and operational principles of mechanical, analog, and digital hydro governors. A skilled trainer, he makes complex governor theory understandable to technicians, engineers and consultants alike. He has given governor training classes in the US, Canada, Ireland, and the Philippines. The arc of his career ranges from small to large hydro governor companies: he began his hydro career in 1987, working for a small controls company called Digitek, who invented and patented the Integrated Generation Controllertm, one of the earliest digital governor systems. Roger would eventually serve as President before moving on to Woodward Governor Company in 1996. Four years later General Electric acquired the hydro assets of Woodward, so Roger became a GE employee. He left in 2002 to help three former Woodward colleagues get their start-up company off the ground. That company was American Governor Company (AGC) and Roger was Employee #4. In the ensuing 18 years, Roger helped grow AGC from an upstart legacy governor parts and services company to the preeminent manufacturer of digital governors in North America. After AGC was quixotically acquired by Emerson, he stayed on for a couple years, then retired … to start over again. Since 1991 he has been actively involved in hydropower technical committees, working first on the ASME PTC-29 committee that revised the Power Test Code for hydro governors. He currently serves on the IEEE 125 / 1207 working group that is responsible for revising and updating the "Recommended Practice for Preparation of [Governor] Equipment Specifications..." He is also co-chair of the ASME Hydropower Technical Committee that is developing an updated version of their book Guide to Hydropower Mechanical Design.