Bret Stevens

Bret Stevens, PhD specializes in utility regulation, with a focus on rate design, data analysis, and equity. Dr. Stevens consults on a range of pressing issues facing regulators, including large load tariffs, the distributional impacts of rate design, wildfire mitigation and insurance, multi-year rate plans, and performance-based ratemaking (PBR). He also has a strong background in econometric methods and their application to large datasets.

Prior to joining Synapse, Dr. Stevens worked at the Oregon Public Utility Commission, where he testified in numerous gas and electric rate cases. His testimony covered load forecasting, rate spread, rate design, and rate base calculation methodology. He testified in proceedings that produced landmark data center tariffs in Oregon. Those tariffs set robust customer protections and cost allocation methods that shield other customers from data center interconnection costs. His testimony also led to the sharing of utility wildfire costs for the first time in Oregon. In addition, Dr. Stevens performed rate design equity analyses using customer billing data, helping stakeholders understand how alternative rate design proposals would affect low-income customers.

Dr. Stevens holds a PhD and an MS in Agricultural and Resource Economics from the University of California, Davis, and a BA in Economics and Environmental Studies from Western Washington University. His dissertation applied econometric methods to the intersection of utility policy and climate change. It examined the impact of extreme heat on consumer credit scores and measured the outcomes and cost-effectiveness of four drought-era California water-energy demand management programs.