A licensed Professional Engineer with over 22 years of utility experience, Zeus Xioco is a technical leader and subject matter expert specializing in power systems automation, substation and grid modernization, and the evaluation, testing, and deployment of advanced energy technologies. Zeus joined Tesco Automation in April 2026, following an extensive career with Southern California Edison, where he held engineering and management roles leading multidisciplinary teams across substation automation, advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), and energy storage.

Throughout his career, he has focused on developing and deploying standards-based utility architectures that improve safety, reliability, cybersecurity, and operational efficiency across transmission and distribution systems. At Southern California Edison, he served as a technical authority for IEC 61850-based substation automation, leading the transition from legacy, vendor-specific protection and control systems to a modern, interoperable substation platform. His work included system architecture definition, laboratory validation, and initial field deployment, helping position SCE as one of the first U.S. utilities to standardize on IEC 61850 at scale.

His responsibilities encompassed defining automation architectures, developing engineering standards and specifications, and establishing best practices for logical node and data modeling, GOOSE messaging, MMS communications, and system redundancy. He led cross-functional teams to ensure successful integration of IEC 61850 systems with substation networks, protection devices, and operational systems.

He placed strong emphasis on system validation and interoperability testing, utilizing Real Time Digital Simulator (RTDS) platforms to perform closed loop testing of protection, automation, and control schemes, reducing commissioning risk and improving system reliability.

He also played a key role in advancing virtualized and software-defined protection and control systems and was an active participant in the VPAC Alliance, contributing to industry collaboration on flexible, scalable IEC 61850-based architectures. His leadership combines deep protocol-level expertise, systems level thinking, and disciplined technical governance, enabling the successful translation of emerging standards into reliable, production-ready utility solutions.

Jir Dara is a Business Administrator currently completing his studies in Economics and Public Policy at the University of Ottawa. He previously studied Economics at Dalhousie University. Prior to his current role, Jir spent 7 years managing operations at a family-owned e-commerce business, overseeing supply chain management, logistics, pricing strategy, market analysis, and customer relations. With a strong analytical foundation in economics and practical business experience, Jir brings a results-oriented and process-driven approach to every role he takes on.

Alex Machado has over a decade of engineering experience across utility and vendor environments, with expertise in substation automation, grid modernization, IEC 61850 communications, operational technology (OT) networks, Python-based engineering automation, and cybersecurity. His utility background comes from Southern California Edison (SCE), while his vendor experience comes from Siemens, where he configured, tested, and validated substation automation systems using IEC 61850 communication services, including MMS, GOOSE messaging, and Sampled Values.

Alex spent more than six years at SCE, beginning his career as a Grid Data Analyst analyzing data from smart meters, protective relays, fault recorders, and data concentrators to support grid operations and improve system visibility. He later moved into a Substation Automation Engineer role, designing resilient substation network architectures, validating IEC 61850 interoperability among multi-vendor intelligent electronic devices (IEDs), and commissioning advanced automation systems for next-generation grid infrastructure. He also contributed to proof-of-concept work on virtualized protection relay systems and built expertise in substation cybersecurity through penetration testing initiatives.

Following SCE, Alex joined Siemens as a Systems/Cybersecurity Engineer within the Customer Solutions and Innovations group, evaluating and testing emerging substation hardware, software, and cloud-based technologies for utility and industrial customers. His work included using the Siemens SICAM A8000 as a remote terminal unit to validate multi-vendor integration for cloud-based applications leveraging IEC 61850 to aggregate data from IEDs. He also commissioned power plant controller projects, led OT penetration testing in collaboration with universities, and tested encrypted MMS communications using certificates within a public key infrastructure.

At Tesco Automation, Alex applies his multidisciplinary experience in substation automation, networks, cybersecurity, and software development to design secure, reliable, and innovative solutions that address complex power system challenges and support grid modernization.