Janet Lonneker
Janet Lonneker is currently the Assistant General Manager of Electric Services for Anaheim Public Utilities (APU), a municipal-owned utility providing both electric and water services to business and residents within the City of Anaheim. The Utility serves a population of 360,000 and is home to major public venues including the Disneyland Resort, Angels Stadium, and the Honda Center, with 25 million visitors per year. Ms. Lonneker manages the Electric Division including Transmission and Distribution Engineering, Substation Engineering, Planning and Automation and Electric Field Services including System Operations, Line Crews, Inspection and Meter Services. She has been with APU since 2014 just when system expansion accelerated in preparation for the opening of Disney Star Wars.
Ms. Lonneker has been in the electric utility industry for over 30 years beginning her career with the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power with various positions in distribution and substation engineering. She likes driving by one of her favorite projects, the substation serving the Getty Center Museum, even when sitting in major L.A. traffic. She moved to Portland, Oregon with her husband Mark and began working for PacifiCorp, now known as Mid-American Energy, a subsidiary of Berkshire-Hathaway Energy, serving multiple Northwestern states. From MidAmerican, she went on to serve as General Manager for a municipal owned utility just west of Portland, Oregon and served on the Public Power Council Board as a Bonneville Power Authority preference utility to federal power. She also served on the American Public Power Association DEED Board for several years during that time whose mission is providing funding to further research in operations, technology, education and energy efficiency.
She returned to sunny California with her family in 2010. Her interest in using automated technology to operate the electric grid led her to work for San Diego Gas and Electric (SDG&E) in the Smart Grid and Distributed Resources group which designed and built a utility scale microgrid used in an area subject to major storms and long duration power outages. The microgrid is still in use today and lays a foundation for future applications for reliability and resiliency in wildfire mitigation.
Ms. Lonneker played Division 1 basketball for the University of Pacific in Stockton, California and earned her Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering. She has her M.S.E.E. from the University of Southern California. Although basketball is now a faint memory, she enjoys competitive tennis, playing piano and spending time at her kids basketball and tennis games. Her 19 year old son Max is now 7 feet tall and plays college basketball.