eLab Accelerator 2020
Pearl Street Station Finance Lab
Project Description
Pearl Street Station (PSS) Finance Lab is an initiative that was launched this year to provide the financial analysis tools and education that advocates, regulatory commissioners, and institutional investors need to improve the incentives for utilities to decarbonize and adopt a growing pool of new technologies. The Lab wanted to develop its roadmap and scaling plan for impact. To accomplish this, it brought a team to Accelerator—assembling deep experience in finance, advocacy, and policy—to evaluate the Lab’s organizational structures, decision-making processes, execution capabilities, and strategic priorities.
What The Team Achieved By Participating in Accelerator
With Accelerator came the opportunity to test, refine, and strengthen the value proposition for this newly established initiative through feedback, coaching, and strategic review from team members, as well as other teams and Accelerator faculty coaches. PSS Finance Lab has a sharpened focus as a result of the feedback received during e-Lab, and will work on topics of high impact such as ROE target setting while incorporating KPIs and tools to measure progress.
Based on guidance from the team, PSS Finance Lab is also establishing a regular call (6 to 12 per year) to educate and discuss timely key financial topics for its target audiences. It has a goal to participate in three to four state-focused initiatives on ROE target setting and associated risks with advocates and advocacy supporters during 2021. Two to three States have started drafting legislation for securitization, an area where PSS Finance Lab intends to participate in the design and structure. Lastly, for 2021, the Lab has initiated support for a database and scorecard evaluating the transition prospects for retired fossil generating assets, to be developed in conjunction with numerous stakeholders.
Team Members
- Albert Lin, PSS Finance Lab, Executive Director
- Allison Clements, goodgrid, Founder
- Carla Tully, Earthrise Energy, CEO
- Cheryl Roberto, Synapse Energy, Senior Principal
- Jeremy Fisher, Sierra Club, Senior Strategy and Technical Advisor, Environmental Law Program
- Meghan Harwood, Energy Foundation, Senior Program Associate for Efficiency and Markets
- Ron Lehr, Clean Energy Consultant
- Tom Friend, Bank of America, Business Agility Consultant
- Uday Varadarajan, RMI, Principal, Carbon-free Electricity