Veterans in Advanced Energy Profile: David Tancabel

david tancabel, 2020-2021 Veterans advanced energy fellow. click the button below to learn more about the fellowship.

David Tancabel, a 2020-2021 Veterans Advanced Energy Fellow, leveraged his experience as a nuclear engineer in the US Navy to start a career in energy. After working at various levels of government, he’s most excited about utility reform and most concerned about having the transmission lines needed to deliver electricity. His advice to other veterans leaving the military is to have a plan and work in energy for a sense of service. As told to Leah Emanuel.

Why did you join the military and what was your role?

My brother was kind of a problem child, so my parents sent him to a military high school. Because they liked it, they decided to send me there too. I went to an all-male, all-military high school in Minnesota where they instill a sense of service in you. On top of that, I really fit the discipline world. It clicked for me that I had this sense of service through my high school and from being a boy scout. They make it very easy to apply for scholarships and service academies, and I applied for a Navy ROTC scholarship to Boston College. I received 100% tuition for four years which was amazing help financially. I thought to myself, “what do I have to lose?” So I did it, and I loved it more and more each year. 

As a Navy ROTC graduate, you have to pick an unrestricted line of duty—you can be a pilot, work in the submarine force or on surface ships, join the US Marine Corps or Navy SEALS. You spend one week with each group over the summer, and as soon as I stepped off my first submarine I knew that was what I wanted to do. I was assigned to the fast attack submarine USS Asheville in San Diego, California. I did a couple of deployments on some really fun missions—I saw Japan, Guam, Saipan, and Hong Kong—it was a really cool experience. 

Tancabel on the bridge of the uss asheville (SSN-758) with the commanding officer, capt brody berkout, in guam (2009) for his last time standing officer of the deck

How did the military influence your career trajectory into energy?

Every submarine officer goes through the Navy’s nuclear training program. I was a finance and economics major, so I had very limited engineering experience. I was admitted to the program and showed up for “pre-school,” an eight week crash course in college engineering for all the non-technical majors. I thought I was going to hate it, but I actually loved it. It was really hard, but I enjoyed the engineering. Fast forward to when the submarine was in dry dock, and I was selected to be the dual-media discharge coordinator responsible for the engineering on one of the most radioactive procedures we do—second only to refueling the nuclear reactor.

My next tour was with the Defense Intelligence Agency. They had a job specifically for a submarine junior officer to analyze foreign energy policy and foreign energy infrastructure. I was the subject matter expert on nuclear power based on my engineering background. I got to do a lot of different work and specifically a lot of work on electric power. I loved it, and after that job I knew that’s what I wanted. 

I’ve now held three different positions since I left active duty which have all been very different but all very cool. I was unemployed for a little bit before working as a contractor on a team supporting the Department of Defense Siting Clearinghouse. It was a very small, brand new team at the time. Our job was to deconflict energy and transmission systems with Department of Defense testing, training, and operations. We mostly deconflicted wind turbines and DOD radar systems. Wind turbines can cause problems with NORAD’s North American Defense Radar Systems because the radar system sees the turbine blades moving at 200 miles per hour, 500 feet above the ground—it thinks it’s an airplane. We also deconflicted new transmission lines. For example, one transmission line went through a missile test range in New Mexico. It was a unique position doing interesting work.    

I then worked for the State of Maryland as the Director of Maryland’s Power Plant Research Program. I did state regulation and environmental assessments of new power plants and transmission lines, representing state agencies in front of the public utility commission. I now work for the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) within the State and Local Climate and Energy Program of the Climate Protection Partnership Division. We’re a non-regulatory part of the EPA providing state and local governments with the data and tools needed to create and implement their own energy programs. 

What are you most excited about in advanced energy developments and what are you most concerned about?

I’m most excited about the changing business model of utilities—the potential is great. The original model was built on the notion that utilities make money by building large capital investments, such as power plants and power lines, and the more volume they sell the more money they make. That business model has never changed—it stuck around for decades because utilities and regulators are so ingrained in our society. That’s finally changing. Instead of tying the compensation of each utility to how much electricity they sell, we tie it to something we care about: how much they lower their carbon intensity, how their customer service is rated, or how fast you can interconnect a new solar facility. Utilities should be acting in the interest of the public because they provide a public good and should be compensated accordingly. There are a few states doing this now, and it’s really exciting to see. It’s brand new, so those of us who are working on it are kind of setting the standards and making it up as we go, but the potential is really big. It’s a new paradigm shift for utilities.

Most concerning is the inability to build transmission—it’s going to hold us back. I was part of this as someone who worked for a state government. PJM was trying to build a new market efficiency transmission line spanning multiple states, and we were fighting certain areas as a representative of the state. A lot of people wanted to end the project, but we ended up with a pretty good negotiation to let it go through. The idea that one state can stop a critical power line across five other states is very concerning. We need transmission to unleash the potential of our system and our renewable energy. I hope there will be some statutes to increase FERC’s authority similar to the authority it has for pipelines to trump a state’s authority. I think that’s where we need to go because it is holding us back. 

Why is energy important to U.S. national security?

How could it not be? Energy is ingrained in our economy. Energy is lock-step with national security. You cannot separate energy from our economy, nor can you separate it from our military. They go hand-in-hand. We can also see how important energy is within foreign policy and what we have to offer. We are able to offer natural gas and alternatives now, but it’s scary to think that in fifteen years we won’t be able to offer the investments that other countries, such as China, are making into renewables and battery storage.

Do you have advice you would like to share with other veterans?

Have a plan before you leave active duty. I didn’t have one and it set me back years—both in personal and professional growth. I was unemployed for about a year and a half, and it sent me multiple steps backward. It was other veterans that ultimately helped me put things back in order and get my life back on a normal track moving forward, but it was really hard. I would also say that if you’re looking for something that interests you and a sense of service, then the energy industry is your place to be. It really is—you can do anything in this industry and maintain that sense of service.

What is your greatest take-away from the Veterans Advanced Energy Fellowship? 

There are some amazing veterans doing amazing things all over the place. The fellowship really helped open my eyes to that. The fellowship motivated me to seek out veterans in other areas that I haven’t worked in. It renewed that longing for a sense of comradery and for wanting to help others. It’s now in my mind to connect and reach out to other veterans—not just in this program but all over. That’s something I’m very grateful for.