SEPAConnect Case Study: The Minnesota PBR Experience

As Vice President of Regulatory and Business Innovation, Janet Gail Besser leads SEPA’s Regulatory and Business Innovation Pathway and related work.  She brings to this role broad energy industry experience as a regulator, clean energy business association leader, utility executive, developer, consultant, and consumer advocate.  Previously, she was Executive Vice President of the Northeast Clean Energy Council (NECEC), Vice President, Regulatory Strategy and Policy at National Grid, Chair and Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities, where she led electric industry restructuring, and an executive and expert consultant at Analysis Group and Lexecon.  She also held senior staff roles at the Massachusetts Energy Office and New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission, served as policy director for a DC-based national independent power association, and began her career as a small hydro developer and low-income consumer advocate.  Janet is a nationally recognized expert on a wide range of energy policy issues with deep relationships across the industry.  She earned a Master in Public Policy degree from the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University and a B.A., magna cum laude, from Williams College.

Matthew Schuerger was appointed to the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission by Governor Mark Dayton, effective February 1, 2016.

Commissioner Schuerger serves on the Board of Directors of the National Association of Regulatory Commissioners (NARUC), he is the Co-Vice Chair of the NARUC Electricity Committee, and he is a member of the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) Advisory Council and Executive Committee. Schuerger was elected and serves as President of the Organization of MISO States (OMS) Board of Directors. In addition, he has been elected to serve on the Member Representatives Committee of the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) where he represents state government interests in maintaining reliability of the electric grid.

Commissioner Schuerger has thirty-five years of experience in the energy industry as a senior manager and professional engineer, including work focused on power system planning and reliability, energy markets, distributed energy resources, and grid integration of renewable energy. From 2001 until he was named to the Commission, Schuerger was the President of an engineering and management consulting firm. Prior to that, he was the Executive Vice President of District Energy St. Paul Inc., a privately held provider of district heating, district cooling, and co-generated electricity.

Schuerger earned a Master’s of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Minnesota, a Master’s of Business Administration from the University of St. Thomas, and a Bachelor’s of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University.

Trevor Drake joined the Great Plains Institute in 2013 and is a senior program manager. His work is focused on engaging diverse groups of stakeholders to enable innovation and collaborative problem-solving around utility initiatives and state regulatory proceedings. Trevor has run stakeholder engagement processes to support new time-varying rates, utility investments in electric vehicle infrastructure, distribution system planning, demand response programs, performance-based utility regulation, and decarbonizing end uses served by natural gas.