Steve has worked in the power sector since 1990, at the intersection of new technologies, new business models and ideas, and the key policy-making institutions of state and federal government, with a focus on clean energy entrepreneurship in both business and policy arenas.  He worked for 14 years for NRG Energy, and during that time led the company’s wholesale market design and development, government and regulatory affairs, climate policy, and broader policy and strategy practices.  Prior to NRG, Steve was a utility consumer advocate in the Minnesota Attorney General’s office and a regulatory specialist serving competitive power sector clients in the law firm of Leonard, Street and Deinard.   Earlier in his career he managed a 600 acre family farm for more than a decade.  Steve serves on the board of the Climate Action Reserve, on the Executive Leadership Council of the Smart Electric Power Alliance, on RMI’s eLab Advisory Council, and has also served on the board of the Solar Electric Power Alliance and as a member of the Operating Committee of NERC.

Steve has a MA in Public Affairs from the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey Institute, concentrating on energy, environment and technology policy, and a BA degree from St. John’s College.

EXPERIENCE AT THE DISTRIBUTION EDGE

I have been involved with distributed energy production, efficiency and management since my years as a farmer during the ‘80s, and in the last 4 years have had a uniquely deep dive into distributed solar, storage, distributed energy resources and management systems, their business development and the many heated policy debates around them.  I have been part of a variety of business efforts to deploy and optimize various distributed energy resources, and close to many others — and have seen some thrive and others fail.

DESCRIBE WHAT YOU WANT TO OFFER TEAMS TRYING TO ACCELERATE THEIR PROJECTS

I want to offer accelerator teams insights into both key technologies and, perhaps more importantly, the business / technology / regulatory / customer ecosystems that seem to be critical for the success of distributed energy systems.

WHAT PERSONALLY MOTIVATES YOU TO WORK ON ISSUES AT THE DISTRIBUTION EDGE

I’m motivated to work on these “distribution system edge” issues because I see them as one of several essential components of a new power system that will attract and integrate the capital and innovation that are essential to achieve a high degree of global power decarbonization within the next 4 or 5 decades.