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Dan Cross-Call is a Principal with RMI’s Electricity Practice. He works on electric utility strategy and regulatory policy, as well as issues of renewable energy adoption and community energy strategy. In addition, Dan supports RMI’s Electricity Innovation Lab (e-Lab), a unique multi-year collaboration of leading industry actors to develop, implement, and spread new solutions to enable greater adoption of economic distributed energy resources. Dan joined RMI in 2013.
Background
Prior to RMI, Dan worked as a consultant in the Energy practice of Charles River Associates in Boston. At CRA, he worked on a variety of electricity-related projects including energy and capacity market models for power plant valuations in U.S. Northeast markets, analysis of proposed legislation and regulatory rule changes, transmission development studies, and strategic planning for RTO wind integration. He has conducted studies of all of the major North American deregulated electricity markets, and performed modeling and research of European and Middle East electricity systems. Dan also supported corporate sustainability at CRA, directing the “Green Office Initiative” across more than a dozen offices worldwide.
At MIT, Dan was a researcher for the MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI) Green Islands program, collaborating with university researchers and utility personnel in the US and Europe. His research focused on matching energy storage system design for renewable generation development and island electricity needs. He also organized a “Utility of the Future” panel at the annual MIT Energy Conference, convening utility and market experts to discuss models for electricity sector innovation. Previously, Dan managed renewable energy credit (REC) marketing programs with municipal utilities, and has conducted climate science field research in the Alaskan Arctic.
Education
Master of Science, Technology & Policy, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2013
Bachelor of Arts, Economics and Environmental Studies, Dartmouth College, 2005
Location
Boulder, CO
Authored Works
Outlet Blog Post
Aligning Utility Performance with the Public Interest
In 2018, the Rhode Island Public Utilities Commission rejected six out of seven performance incentive mechanisms (PIMs) included in a settlement agreement proposed by the state’s primary utility and a diverse coalition of stakeholder interests, from environmental groups to the state energy office. The joint proposal included new incentives…
Outlet Blog Post
Learning from Aloha: Hawaii’s Energy Transformation
We tell the story of Hawaii’s unfolding energy transition—from individuals’ leadership and legislative accomplishments, to the details of utility and regulatory efforts to achieve a low-carbon energy system.
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Powering Paradise
This report provides a comprehensive review of Hawaii’s clean energy journey, exploring the various elements which have come together to make this possible.
Outlet Blog Post
Performance-Based Regulation: Getting Down to Business Model Reform in Colorado
This Spring, Colorado ascended to the top tier of state-led clean energy policy in the United States. In the final days of May, Governor Jared Polis signed 11 bills ushering in a wave of key policy changes to advance decarbonization and clean energy in the state.
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Process for Purpose
Outlet Blog Post
Report Release: A Practical Guide to Navigating Utility Business Model Reform
Last week’s election brings a wave of new leadership across the country. Twenty states elected new governors, including at least three—in Colorado, Michigan, and New Mexico—who have suggested adopting 100 percent renewable energy portfolio standards. The composition of many state legislatures will also shift, and these…
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Navigating Utility Business Model Reform
Advancing efficient and equitable approaches to update the utility business model—motivated by emerging technological, policy, and market conditions in the electric power sector—is crucial to the grid’s transition to a more secure, clean, affordable, customer-centric system. Powerful trends are impacting the contours of the electric system, including growing policy…
Outlet Blog Post
RMI Recommends Actions and Process for Rate Design Reform in Ohio
Electricity rates are the signal by which the costs of power generation and delivery are translated to customers. Traditionally, costs are represented as rough averages across all hours, days, and seasons (as well as across locations and customers). Increasingly, time-based rates are being turned to for the opportunity to more…
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Reimagining the Utility
Electric utilities must modernize to serve new economic and policy objectives, including managing an increasingly distributed and decarbonized power system. A fundamental question for this future system is: What is the appropriate scope for utility functions (and associated earnings opportunities) versus those that should be provided by a competitive marketplace?…