Stephen Craven receives TVA’s top engineer of the year award
Stephen Craven’s father and grandfather were both electrical engineers for the Tennessee Valley Authority, and Craven recalls thinking he didn’t want to work the demanding and unusual hours that were sometimes required to help keep the lights on at TVA.
“I swore I wouldn’t work for TVA when I was young,” Craven recalled during an interview Thursday.
But after earning his doctorate from Virginia Tech and working as a computer chip designer, security researcher and ultimately a professor at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, Craven decided to join TVA a decade ago as a transmission and power supply engineer.
“What I discovered at UTC — and (moreso) at TVA — is the sense of mission and purpose,” Craven said. “You’re working hard to see a real benefit.”
On Thursday, Craven’s efforts at TVA earned him the utility’s top engineer award and placed Craven as a candidate for this year’s Federal Engineer of the Year, which will be announced later this month.
TVA’s board of directors recognized Craven on Thursday by presenting him the annual Ike Zeringue Engineer of the Year award. The award is named for O.J. “Ike” Zeringue, a former TVA president, chief operating officer and chief nuclear officer.
“TVA is at its core an engineering organization, and we recognize the best in our organization with this award,” TVA President Jeff Lyash said during Thursday’s TVA board meeting, praising Craven for his work as the architect for much of TVA’s network for substations and power.
TVA has one of the largest power grids in the nation. Craven, an electrical engineer, is responsible for aspects of the agency’s cybersecurity efforts for substations. His design has been copied by other utilities through the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers to help modernize the nation’s power grid, improving resiliency while remaining safe from cybersecurity threats.
“Stephen’s innovative approach and leadership not only help secure our electric grid from cyber-threats but also gives our region a competitive advantage as we generate electricity to power the region’s growing economy — while keeping TVA’s power rates among the lowest in the nation,” Aaron Melda, TVA senior vice president of transmission and power supply, said in an announcement of the award.
Craven, 46, is a graduate of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.