Energy Services Manager, Delaware Municipal Electric Company (DEMEC)
Keri Knorr currently serves as the Energy Services Manager at Delaware Municipal Electric Corporation (DEMEC) which serves nine member communities within the state of Delaware. Keri joined DEMEC after four years with the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control, where she advanced from Energy Planner II to Green Energy Program Manager. In her role she is responsible for the administration of new and expanded projects and programs in support of energy efficiency and climate goals. She will serve as a representative on external committees, working groups, and task forces, as well as serve as DEMEC’s lead on customer contact and member support relating to the Energy Efficiency program. In addition, she will assist members with development, implementation, and operations of customized projects and programs to meet the community goals as they relate to green energy, energy efficiency and emerging technologies.
So, how did she start her career? It started with a high school guest speaker. Like many high school students, Keri Knorr wasn’t sure what she wanted to do as a future career. She knew that she cared about the environment but didn’t know what programs fit her interests. Luckily, in Keri’s senior year of high school, Jennifer Clemons, Instructor and Department Chair for the Energy Technologies program at Delaware Technical Community College, spoke in her environmental science class. Jennifer’s visit led Keri to her taking community college classes in her senior year and then enrolling as a full-time student in the Energy Management program at Delaware Tech. She really enjoyed her time there as it involved doing many hands-on projects, included courses that made her work ready, and culminated with a capstone project that had her working on the energy management of one of the buildings at Delaware Tech. Although she felt all her teachers helped her, Keri said that having a female instructor was especially helpful as a role model and as someone to talk to about future plans.
One of the most valuable opportunities she had as a student was at the Delaware Energy Conference, where she volunteered to help with registration and time keeping. She traveled to another part of the State with her instructor, Jennifer Clemons. She remembers telling her instructor that she would love to do an internship with Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) and when they also had a booth at the energy event, her instructor encouraged her to approach them about the internship, saying, “the worst they could say is no”. Keri went over to them and they were interested and she was able to get an internship. After the internship at DNREC and an energy auditing internship at Delaware Tech, she was able to get a casual/seasonal part-time job with DNRC and, when a full-time position opened, she had experience to show to get the full-time job she has now. Each time an opportunity occurred she took the initiative and her career path could be a model for other students.
Keri was a very motivated student, especially considering how young she was when she started in the program. She first enrolled at DTCC as a dual enrollment student her senior year of high school. One of the reasons why Keri was so successful was because she took advantage of all opportunities that came her way, including volunteering at events for the college and participating in a study abroad course.
Keri continued her education after her May 2020 graduation with an Associate’s degree in Energy Management from Delaware Technical Community College and she completed her online University of Southern New Hampshire Bachelors degree in Environmental Science and she notes that while her associates degree in an energy field helped her to get her current job, the bachelors degree will help her advance. Keri also was able to return to her alma mater (DTCC) and adjunct for a few semesters in the Intro to Energy Management course. Keri observed that for the foreseeable future there will be many energy jobs to be filled. She encourages students to explore community college energy programs to help them find their career path in this exciting and dynamic field.
You can hear this message directly form Keri in our Voices in Energy series here.
