Home > Consulting Expertise > Staff > Paul Peterson



Paul Peterson

Paul Peterson is a Senior Associate with Synapse Energy Economics. He has been with Synapse since 2001 and focuses on wholesale electricity market issues in both PJM and ISO New England on behalf of numerous clients. He also monitors national electricity policy issues regarding resource adequacy, reliability, and competitive markets. Mr. Peterson has testified in Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Nevada, Arizona, Arkansas, and Texas on wholesale competitive market issues and FERC regulatory policy, as well as co-authoring several Synapse reports on wholesale electricity market issues.

Mr. Peterson has twenty-six years of experience with energy efficiency policy issues through work with the University of Vermont Extension Service, the Vermont Public Service Board, and, most recently, ISO New England, the operator of the regional electric grid for New England.

Mr. Peterson developed and implemented residential, farm, and small commercial energy efficiency programs during his twelve years with the University of Vermont Extension Service. This included over 1,000 home energy audits and groundbreaking work on enhancing dairy farm energy efficiency with heat reclaimers.

Over an eight-year period with the Vermont Public Service Board, Mr. Peterson focused on electric utility integrated resource planning, electric rate cases, and numerous other contested cases; he served as both a hearing officer and a board analyst in these proceedings. He also functioned as a legislative policy analyst during the early efforts to implement electric restructuring in Vermont in 1997. As chair of the Staff Energy Policy Committee for the New England Conference of Public Utilities Commissioners (NECPUC), Mr. Peterson coordinated NECPUC's positions and was directly involved in the negotiations to re-design the New England wholesale electric markets and create the Independent System Operator (ISO).

In the fall of 1998, Mr. Peterson joined ISO New England Inc. to manage its regulatory affairs. For two and one-half years he worked with state, regional, and federal entities and regulators regarding ISO New England development and implementation issues. These included the start-up of the new wholesale markets in 1999, changes and improvements to those markets, market monitoring reports, the development of load response programs, the implementation of electronic dispatch, and the long-term efforts to develop and implement a congestion management system (CMS) and a multi-settlement system (MSS). He was also involved in the early discussions and filings related to FERC's efforts to establish regional transmission organizations (RTOs).

Mr. Peterson holds a BA in Political Science from Williams College and a JD from Western New England College School of Law. He has also taken courses at the National Judicial College and has experience with mediation of Vermont Superior Court civil cases.