Board of Advisors
GridLab’s Board of Advisors reflects our commitment to collaboration and is comprised of a diverse group of experts from advocacy organizations, policy institutes, utilities, and regulatory bodies.
Mark Ahlstrom
Mark Ahlstrom
BOARD PRESIDENT, ENERGY SYSTEMS INTEGRATION GROUP, NEXTERA ENERGY RESOURCES, UTILITY VARIABLE-GENERATION INTEGRATION GROUP
Mark Ahlstrom is Vice President of Renewable Energy Policy for NextEra Energy Resources and WindLogics, NextEra’s subsidiary known for meteorology, energy analytics and renewable energy integration. NextEra is North America’s largest generator of renewable energy from the wind and sun. Mark is particularly interested in the integration of variable generation into power systems and electricity markets. He is actively involved at the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), the Utility Variable-Generation Integration Group (UVIG), and many other activities across North America to support the economic and reliable use of higher levels of clean energy. Mark is currently the President of the UVIG Board of Directors.
Sara Baldwin
Sara Baldwin
DIRECTOR OF ELECTRIFICATION POLICY, ENERGY INNOVATION
Sara is the Director of Electrification Policy for Energy Innovation – a nonpartisan energy and climate policy firm – where she leads efforts to develop and advance policies to enable economy-wide electrification. Sara provides assistance to state and federal U.S. policymakers and other stakeholders on pathways to support the electrification and decarbonization of buildings, vehicles, industry and other sectors of the economy. Prior to joining Energy Innovation, Sara served as Vice President of Regulatory for the Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC), where she led IREC’s engagement on distributed energy resource regulatory policies in states across the country and supported organizational development, planning and strategy. Sara serves on the Advisory Board of Grid Lab, is the former host of the Grid Geeks podcast and the current host of Energy Innovation’s podcast, Electrify This!.
Lorenzo Kristov, PhD
Lorenzo Kristov, PhD
PRINCIPAL, MARKET AND INFRASTRUCTURE POLICY, CALIFORNIA INDEPENDENT SYSTEM OPERATOR (CAISO)
Lorenzo develops CAISO policy in the areas of market design, transmission planning, new generator interconnection, and integration of distributed energy resources. During the industry restructuring of the 1990s he worked at the California Energy Commission developing the rules for retail direct access, and before that he was a Fulbright Scholar in Indonesia working on a commercial and regulatory framework for direct foreign investment in power generation.
Mark Dyson
Mark Dyson
PRINCIPAL, ROCKY MOUNTAIN INSTITUTE
Mark is a principal with the Electricity Practice at Rocky Mountain Institute, where he has worked since 2008 and currently leads RMI research and collaboration efforts around the roles that distributed energy resources can play in grid planning and investment. At RMI, Mark has led cutting-edge research projects on the value that renewable energy, demand flexibility, and storage offer customers and the grid, and has advised clients including large utilities, regulatory commissions, oil majors, and clean-tech companies on distributed energy topics.
Ronny Sandoval
Ronny Sandoval
PRINCIPAL, REGULATORY ASSISTANCE PROJECT
Dr. Carl Linvill is a Principal with Regulatory Assistance Project (RAP) based in Davis, California. Carl focuses on power sector planning, procurement, market and regulatory reforms that facilitate low carbon futures. His current projects address renewable and distributed energy resource integration strategies, grid modernization and wholesale and retail tariff reforms. Prior to joining RAP, he was Economic/Energy Advisor to Nevada Governor Kenny Guinn, a Public Utilities Commissioner, and an academic and consulting economist. Carl received his BA in Mathematics from UC Davis, and his PhD in Economics from the UNC – Chapel Hill. Carl’s activities outside of RAP include serving on the California ISO Energy Imbalance Market Governing Body.
John Moore
John Moore
DIRECTOR, SUSTAINABLE FERC PROJECT, ENERGY & TRANSPORTATION PROGRAM, NRDC
John Moore focuses on developing a modern, flexible, and efficient high-power electrical grid that will help accelerate renewable and clean energy use. He advocates on behalf of the Sustainable FERC Project and other environmental groups before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and regional transmission organizations. Prior to joining NRDC, Moore was a senior attorney at the Environmental Law & Policy Center in Chicago, where he coordinated clean transmission initiatives and managed ELPC’s clean energy development program.
Lisa Schwartz
Lisa Schwartz
DEPUTY LEADER OF THE ELECTRICITY MARKETS AND POLICY GROUP, LAWRENCE BERKELEY NATIONAL LABORATORY
Lisa Schwartz is deputy leader of the Electricity Markets and Policy Group at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. She manages the energy efficiency team, utility regulation projects, and training for public utility commissions on distribution systems and planning. Previously, she was director of the Oregon Department of Energy, where earlier in her career she was a senior policy analyst. At the Oregon Public Utility Commission, she led staff work on resource planning and procurement, demand response, and distributed and renewable resources. She also was a senior associate with the Regulatory Assistance Project, providing assistance to government officials on energy issues.
Hannah Polikov
Hannah Polikov
MANAGING DIRECTOR AT ADVANCED ENERGY ECONOMY (AEE)
Hannah Polikov is a Managing Director at Advanced Energy Economy (AEE), a national association of businesses that are making the energy we use secure, clean, and affordable. At AEE, Hannah leads public utility commission (PUC) engagement efforts, to date holding over a dozen regional and national forums for PUC commissioners and staff to discuss cutting edge advanced energy issues and best practices. The forums have been co-hosted by the Chairs of 17 state PUCs and attended by commissioners from over three dozen states. Previously, Hannah held senior energy policy roles with the State of Maryland and a member of the U.S. Congress, and practiced law at a large firm. Hannah received her BA and JD with honors from Duke University.
Bryan Hannegan
Bryan Hannegan
PRESIDENT AND CEO, HOLY CROSS ENERGY
Bryan Hannegan is President and CEO of Holy Cross Energy, a not-for-profit, member-owned electric cooperative utility providing electricity and energy products and services to more than 42,000 customers in Western Colorado. Prior to joining Holy Cross in July 2017, Bryan was an Associate Laboratory Director at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), where he co-founded the US Department of Energy’s Grid Modernization Initiative and started up the Energy Systems Integration Facility (ESIF), a unique “distribution grid in a box” enabling utilities, entrepreneurs and consumers to work together on cleaner, more affordable and more reliable energy systems. Earlier in his career, Bryan held senior leadership roles at the Electric Power Research Institute, the White House Council on Environmental Quality, and the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.
Rob Gramlich
Rob Gramlich
Rob Gramlich is Founder and President of Grid Strategies LLC where he provides economic policy analysis for clients on electric transmission and power markets in pursuit of low-cost de-carbonization. He is co-founder of Americans for a Clean Energy Grid, the WATT Coalition, and the Future Power Markets Forum.
Rob oversaw transmission and power market policy for the American Wind Energy Association from 2005 through 2016 as Senior Vice President for Government and Public Affairs, Interim CEO, and Policy Director. He was Economic Advisor to FERC Chairman Pat Wood III from 2001 to 2005, Senior Economist at PJM Interconnection in 1999 and 2000, Senior Associate at PG&E National Energy Group in 2000-2001, and an analyst at the FERC Office of Economic Policy, ICF Resources, the World Resources Institute, and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in the 1990s. He testifies frequently before the US Congress, US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), US Department of Energy, and state legislatures and regulatory commissions. He has served on advisory committees for the U.S. Department of Energy and the North American Energy Standards Board, on boards of a number of regional clean energy organizations.
Sachu Constantine
Sachu Constantine
Curtis Seymour
Curtis Seymour
Vijay Satyal
Vijay Satyal
Prior to his time at WECC, he was a senior policy analyst at the Oregon Department of Energy, where he held several responsibilities, including advising the Governor’s Office on renewable energy and emerging grid technologies. He also served as the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality’s first policy economist, and was a senior consultant at Navigant, where he assisted utilities in developing risk assessments for compliance with North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) reliability standards.
In addition, for the past 12 years, Vijay has worked as an adjunct professor at Oregon State University’s School of Public Policy, where he teaches graduate level (master and doctorate) classes on renewable and international energy policy.