Moving to a More Participatory Grid

Andrew Cotter joined SEPA in November 2017 as Senior Manager of Technical Services to coordinate SEPA’s working groups. He brings over 13 years of utility research and program management experience from the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association where he oversaw its “Renewable and Distributed Energy“ research portfolio.

Andrew has a Master’s in Business Administration from the University of Maryland College Park and a Bachelor of Science in Journalism and Mass Communications from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Michel Peter “Mike” Florio is a consultant on energy policy, regulation and markets, and a Senior Fellow at Gridworks, an Oakland non-profit that convenes stakeholder meetings and publishes papers on issues related to decarbonization of the electric sector. Mr. Florio was appointed to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) in January of 2011 by Governor Jerry Brown, and served a full six-year term through the end of 2016. As part of his work at the CPUC, Mr. Florio oversaw proceedings dealing with resource planning, ratemaking, demand response and the integration of distributed energy resources. Prior to his CPUC appointment, he served for over 30 years as an attorney for The Utility Reform Network (TURN), the leading utility consumer advocate group in California.

Mr. Florio also served on the governing board of the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) from May of 1997 through early 2005, and on the board of the California Power Exchange from May of 1997 until January of 2001. During his tenure on the CPUC, he represented the commission in a variety of western states forums, including the Committee on Regional Electric Power Cooperation, the Western Conference of Public Service Commissioners, and the Transmission Expansion Policy Planning Committee of the Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WECC).

In 1978 Mr. Florio received a J.D. from New York University School of Law and a Masters of Public Affairs (M.P.A.) from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. He was admitted to the California State Bar that same year.

Colton has responsibility for planning Hawaiian Electric’s 100% renewable energy grid and integrating needed new technologies into the system. He previously served as Vice President of Energy Delivery as well as Vice President of System Operation and Planning and has 27 years of utility experience.

In addition to his work at Hawaiian Electric, Colton serves on the Corporate Board of Directors of the Boys and Girls Club of Hawai‘i, the Executive Board of the Aloha Council Boy Scouts of America, and on the Advisory Council to the State of Hawai‘i Emergency Management Agency. Colton is also one of 13 inaugural cohorts in the Omidyar Fellows Leadership program.

Colton was born and raised on the island of Maui and is a graduate of the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa where he received a degree in Mechanical Engineering. He now calls Kāneʻohe home where he resides with his wife Vicky and their son Jacob.

Hawaiian Electric serves 95% of Hawaii’s electric customers with a service area made up of five separate islanded electric systems. At 27% RPS with 17% of its customers deploying various rooftop solar systems, Hawaiian Electric has taken a leading role in the integration of renewable and DER systems.

Dr. John Caldwell is Director of Economics at the Edison Electric Institute. He has worked in the electric and gas utility industry for over thirty years, first at the Illinois Power Company (now part of Ameren) as a planning engineer, and then at NiSource, where he was involved in the development of long-term forecast models for energy use and peak demand, the introduction of innovative alternative rate designs, and the design and implementation of financial hedging strategies and risk management systems to support these products.

At EEI, Dr. Caldwell has been examining and reporting on the interrelationship of the economy with energy supply, demand, and pricing, and providing regular outlooks on the state of the economy and its current and potential impacts on the energy industry. Recently, he has been working with industry consultants and colleagues at EEI in the development of new recommended regulatory policies and business models that will better enable investor-owned utilities to contend with the many imminent and potentially significant changes facing the electricity industry. He has also begun addressing the growing role of microgrids in the evolving electricity system, and how these can best be utilized.

Dr. Caldwell holds a B.S. in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, an MBA from the University of Illinois at Springfield, an M.S. in mathematics from the University of Iowa, and a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Illinois at Chicago.