Justin Vala, P.E. is Tenaska Development’s Senior Vice President of Engineering and Construction. He leads the team responsible for all technical aspects of new energy project origination and development including power grid transmission analysis and interconnection, project siting and surveys, environmental permitting, engineering design, technology evaluation and selection, preparation of cost and performance estimates, contracting for major equipment supply and project construction services and project management related to these activities. He is a member of Tenaska’s Executive Leadership Board.
Before assuming his current role in 2021, Mr. Vala served as Vice President of Engineering and led the development and construction of four utility-scale and wind power projects with a total nameplate capacity of approximately 800 megawatts. In previous roles, Mr. Vala has supported and led a broad range of other prospective commercial development efforts including natural gas peaker, combined cycle and cogeneration power plant development; technology selection, plant configuration and management of front-end engineering and design studies for clean coal project development efforts; liquified natural gas (LNG); and numerous technology evaluations.
Through Mr. Vala’s leadership, Tenaska has diversified its technical capabilities to renewables including wind, solar and batteries, hydrogen and carbon capture and storage verticals, which has enabled the origination of a large volume of attractive projects for Tenaska and its partners.
Before joining Tenaska in 2008, Mr. Vala worked for ExxonMobil Chemical, primarily in the Olefins Group, as a Technology Engineer, Plant Engineer and Energy Coordinator. His responsibilities included new technology evaluation, technical risk assessment, plant simulation, monitoring and optimization, capital improvement projects, management of change and general plant operations support.
Outside of Tenaska, Mr. Vala is a member of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Chemical Engineering Department advisory board and the American Institute of Chemical Engineers.
Mr. Vala has a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. He is a Registered Professional Engineer in the state of Nebraska.