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.
Mark’s work focuses on several topics related to the changing nature of the electricity grid. Mark has contributed to RMI’s work on new approaches to grid resource planning that better account for the expanding role of renewable energy and distributed energy resources. Mark also helped lead RMI’s analysis of the potential of demand flexibility to reduce grid emissions and costs, and has engaged with several industry partners to launch new business models that take advantage of that potential.
BACKGROUND
Prior to joining RMI, Mark worked at Ascend Analytics, helping deploy software for grid dispatch optimization and financial modeling to several large energy companies. Mark has also held research positions at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory working on improving regional electricity system planning models, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory working on analysis of the potential for aggregated demand response programs to provide ancillary services.
LOCATION
Boulder, CO
TWITTER HANDLE
@mehdyson
EDUCATION & AWARDS
Mark received his bachelor’s degree in computer science from Carleton College, and his master’s degree in the Energy & Resources Group at the University of California, Berkeley. Mark has also worked in research roles at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab and the National Renewable Energy Lab, and for a half-dozen utility clients in several large consulting engagements.
M.Sc., Energy & Resources Group, University of California – Berkeley
BA, Computer Science and Geology, Carleton College
National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship – Energy Engineering
Authored Works
Outlet Blog Post
As global climate leaders gather in New York City this week, the scope and scale of the challenge in meeting international climate targets has never been clearer. On the other hand, neither has there ever before been such a confluence of technology, business-led innovation, and market-aligned policy that, together, can…
Outlet Blog Post
Download The Growing Market for Clean Energy Portfolios and Prospects for Gas Pipelines in the Era of Clean Energy Register for a webinar on September 19, 2019 where report authors will present the two studies and address questions about them. Over the…
Outlet Blog Post
On the evening of July 3, 2018, a wildfire broke out a half mile from the Rocky Mountain Institute office in Basalt, Colorado, in the heart of the Roaring Fork Valley. This fire—dubbed the Lake Christine Fire—spread to engulf more than 12,500 acres and came within minutes of shutting…
Outlet Blog Post
Twas a busy December, and all through the grid, Transformers were quietly buzzing amid The transition affecting the industry whole And spreading quite fast through each wire and pole. On the bulk power system and below the substation, Leaders moved quickly and drove innovation. Upstarts…
insight
For the past decade, regulated utilities have spent an average of $55 billion annually upgrading their distribution, transmission, and generation infrastructure to meet customer needs. The largest share of this investment has been in distribution infrastructure to maintain and modernize the last-mile networks that deliver energy…
Outlet Blog Post
If you would like to learn more about the results of this report and receive updates as they become available, please click here. The emergence of very low-cost renewable energy pricing in the United States has created unprecedented opportunities, and some risks, for utilities currently reliant on high-cost, legacy…
Outlet Blog Post
Xcel Energy’s Colorado Energy Plan, which will be considered by the Colorado Public Utilities Commission this month, has made national news with its promise to save the utility’s customers more than $200 million by shuttering an aging coal plant and replacing it with a combination of renewable energy and…
Outlet Blog Post
Last Friday, Michigan’s two largest electric utilities, DTE Energy and Consumers Energy, announced plans to meet half of their load by 2030 with renewable energy and efficiency technologies. Their commitment is the latest example of utilities recognizing the value these technologies provide to their customers, and often to their…
Outlet Blog Post
Download RMI’s new report, The Economics of Clean Energy Portfolios The US power system is one of the largest, most complicated, and most expensive machines in the world, but the grid’s core infrastructure is old and is not aging gracefully. Nearly 500 gigawatts (GW), or about half of the…