John Knofczynski received his B.S. degree in electrical engineering from South Dakota State University in 1987. Upon graduation, he accepted a position as a planning engineer at Burns and McDonnell in Kansas City, Missouri. During his 13 years at Burns and McDonnell, he also held positions as a dubstation design engineer, project manager and associate working with electric utilities across the U.S.
In 2000, John joined Ulteig Engineers in Minneapolis, Minnesota, as a project manager for substation and transmission line projects. In 2002, he moved back to South Dakota to become manager of engineering for Heartland Consumers Power District in Madison. At Heartland, he was responsible for all aspects of Heartland’s engineering and electric operations, eventually becoming Heartland’s chief operations officer.
John left Heartland in 2014 and accepted a temporary position at Basin Electric Power Cooperative in Bismarck, North Dakota, to assist with Basin’s transition to the Southwest Power Pool, organized energy market. In February 2015, he joined East River Electric Power Cooperative in Madison, South Dakota, as their Compliance and RTO Manager. At East River, John has been coordinating East River’s integration into the Southwest Power Pool and managing the development of East River’s North American Electric Reliability Corporation compliance program.
John is a registered Professional Engineer in Kansas, South Dakota, North Dakota and Minnesota.
John is a native of Brookings, and currently lives in Madison with his wife and one daughter. He has two other children in college with one attending ³ÉÈËÊÓƵ and majoring in mechanical engineering.