Ivan Urlaub is an impact entrepreneur who brings over 25 years of domestic and international experience to his role as Director, Energy & Infrastructure with New Energy Economics. Serving in a fractional role, Ivan is focused on iteratively improving energy affordability, equity, and economic competitiveness. Ivan works with NEE’s growing team and expert Board members to lead programmatic strategy, helping to build out NEE’s regulatory, market, and econometric research and analysis capacity, managing projects, and providing expert testimony and analysis.
Ivan is a former SAFE Energy Security Fellow, US EPA NNEMS Fellow, recipient of multiple business journal, state-level, and non-profit clean energy awards, an Eagle Scout, and he holds Master of Public Policy and Master of Environmental Management degrees from Duke University. He is Principal and founder of Urlaub Strategies, LLC where he also helps clients devise strategic roadmaps supported with research and analysis to realize their vision in the global clean energy and climate transition.
Outside of work, Ivan is based in the Southeast and enjoys baseball, soccer, scouting, travel, and family activities.
Select relevant accomplishments include:
Founded or helped grow several national and state-level not-for-profit organizations
Advised hundreds of clean energy sector, digital infrastructure, and transmission infrastructure firms, state and local governments, not-for-profits, and large energy consumers, helping them successfully navigate energy policy challenges
Co-developed North Carolina’s first clean energy consumer adopter surveys, ratepayer bill impact analysis and reporting, and the nation’s first state-level survey of clean energy jobs and investment
Collaboratively led and supported diverse coalitions that have secured the adoption of dozens of laws and more than one hundred beneficial regulatory outcomes
Supported design and iterative improvement of inclusive utility investment programs and related financial mechanisms
Advised on energy market and policy development in 20 U.S. states

Letter to The Honorable Jennifer M. Granholm

Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy

New Energy Economics and Clean Energy Buyers Alliance coauthor guest column to inform how regional energy markets can lower costs for all customers and inefficiencies for companies that want access to reliable, affordable, clean energy.

Opinion: The West can plug into lower-cost electricity with regional energy markets

For Immediate Release New Energy Economics

Plan Summary Evergy KS    |    Plan Summary Evergy MO

UPDATE — Evergy adjusts future resource planning as a result of NEE modeling:

NEE secured Evergy’s agreement to replace its outdated modeling with software capable of capacity expansion modeling, which is a critical capability for achieving reliable modeling results that reflect the new energy economics, including the affordability and availability of renewable energy resources.

Coalition Letter to Appropriations Committee

Georgia has been very successful in the development of solar generation, currently fifth in the country in total solar installed. Ron’s testimony addressed why the Georgia Power bid process resulted in recommendation for only new gas production. He summarized the following conclusions and recommendations:

1. Some of the new gas will not be needed in a “least cost” scenario.
2. Georgia Power needs to recharacterize solar plus storage in the planning process.
3. Most importantly, move to All Source Solicitation for new generation capacity and reliability.
4. The Georgia Public Service Commission needs to encourage or require Georgia Power to move into more regional cooperation and use of connected assets and reserve capacity in the region.

Manchin’s Budget Offer Can Help America Fight Inflation And Climate Change

Pruning the thorns in transmission and generator interconnection reform

Anna Sommer, with Energy Futures Group (EFG), has more than 15 years’ experience working on a wide variety of energy planning related issues, with a primary focus on integrated resource planning (IRP). Along with Chelsea Hotaling at EFG and the transmission and grid reliability experts at Telos Energy, she is providing capacity expansion and system dispatch modeling consulting support to New Energy Economics. More information about Anna and her team is available at: https://energyfuturesgroup.com/team/anna-sommer/

Dan Bruer leads New Energy Economics’ organizational development and operations, external strategic partnerships, and advocacy in support of state initiatives and policy objectives. He has more than 25 years of experience serving people, communities, and causes through philanthropy, public policy initiatives, and political campaigns.

With professional and nonprofit board experience in the areas of conservation and clean energy, his career highlights include strategies and programs in support of:

• Fundraising in support of pro-conservation candidates in US congressional elections across six states.
• Corporate philanthropy and conservation-related initiatives with companies such as Walmart, Lowe’s Home Improvement, Mcdonald’s, and State Farm.
• Billion-dollar research university campaigns with the University of Missouri-Columbia and the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.
• $5.5 million Our Water Our Land campaign, the largest land trust campaign of its kind in North Carolina.
• National disaster relief efforts in excess of $50 million with the American Red Cross.

Sonny Popowsky served as the consumer advocate of Pennsylvania for twenty-two years from 1990 to 2012, starting his career as an assistant consumer advocate in 1979. He served as the President of the National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates (NASUCA) from 1996 to 1998, and also served on the Board of Trustees of the North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC) from 1997 to 2001, as Vice Chair of the United States Department of Energy Electricity Advisory Council from 2012 to 2016, and on the Advisory Council of the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) from 2014 to 2019. He currently serves as Chair of the City of Philadelphia Water, Sewer and Storm Water Rate Board and as a member of the Advisory Board of the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania, and on the Boards of Directors of the Energy Coordinating Agency, the Sustainable Energy Fund, and Regional Housing Legal Services. Mr. Popowsky graduated Cum Laude from Yale University and received his J.D. Cum Laude from the University of Pennsylvania.

Mike O’Boyle, Director of Electricity Policy at Energy Innovation, directs the firm’s Power Sector Transformation program, working with policymakers, advocates, and others on policy and technology solutions for a clean, reliable, and affordable U.S. electricity system. Mike has co-authored foundational reports including Coal Cost Crossover 2.0, 2030 Report: Powering America’s Clean Economy, and A National Clean Electricity Standard to Benefit All Americans. Mike graduated cum laude from Arizona State University Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, where he focused on energy and international law. He also has a B.A from Vanderbilt University.

Steve Levitas is Senior VP for Regulatory and Government Affairs at Pine Gate Renewables and a nationally respected authority on energy policy. Steve devotes much of his time to expanding the offtake opportunities for independently owned solar generation resources through competitive procurement program design, voluntary customer programs, PURPA implementation, and market reform. He worked extensively on the development and passage of landmark clean energy legislation in North Carolina in both 2017 and 2021, as well as in the initial proceeding before the North Carolina Utilities Commission in 2022 leading to the adoption of a plan to reduce Duke Energy’s carbon emissions by 70%. He has also been heavily involved in matters relating to transmission and interconnection policies and procedures. From 1993 through 1996, Steve served as Deputy Secretary of the North Carolina Department of Environment, Health, and Natural Resources. In 1998 he opened the North Carolina office of the Environmental Defense Fund, serving as Director and Senior Attorney. He is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Harvard Law School.

Ron Lehr currently practices law and consults for clients about energy regulation and business matters. His work focuses on clean energy, market structure reform, new electric utility business models and various other regulatory policies to promote an environmentally-sustainable energy system. He has represented private firms, non-profit advocacy groups, national energy laboratories, trade groups, and foundations on renewable energy policies and commercialization strategies. He served for seven years from 1984 to 1991 as Commissioner and Chairman of the Colorado Public Utilities Commission and later as President of the Denver Board of Water Commissioners, the water utility for the metro Denver area. Ron is a graduate cum laude of Dartmouth College and the University of Colorado School of Law

Paula Connelly is retired from Xcel Energy, where for 19 years she was Xcel Energy’s Colorado lead regulatory counsel, representing Xcel Energy before the Colorado Public Utilities Commission and the Colorado General Assembly. Prior to joining Xcel Energy, Paula was a partner with the Denver law firm of Gorsuch Kirgis LLC, where she practiced public utility law, representing independent power producers, municipal electric utilities, rural electric cooperatives and large consumers of gas and electricity. Before Gorsuch Kirgis, she was in private practice representing utilities and independent power producers before the New York Public Service Commission and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Paula is a graduate of the University of Colorado School of Law.

Jennifer Chen consults with clients to shape electricity, transmission and governance policies with an eye toward modernizing grid infrastructure and scaling up clean energy. She has testified on these issues before the U.S. Congress and the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Prior to consulting, Jennifer led federal energy policy work at the Nicholas Institute at Duke University. She was an attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council, leading a coalition of stakeholders to advocate for an efficient and flexible power system. Jennifer holds a J.D. from New York University and a Physics Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. She is a member of the California Bar and the District of Columbia Bar and is admitted to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. She is a Senior Fellow in electricity policy at R Street, Senior Policy Counsel to CO2Efficient, and a member of the U.S. Department of Energy Electricity Advisory Committee.

Ron Binz served as the Chairman of the Colorado Public Utilities Commission from January 2007 until April 2011, where he led the Colorado PUC in implementing the many policy changes championed by the Governor and Legislature to bring forward Colorado’s “New Energy Economy.” Both before and after his PUC appointment, Ron specialized in policy, regulatory, and competitive issues in the telecommunications and energy industries from both consulting and non-profit perspectives. From 1984 to 1995, Ron directed the Colorado Office of Consumer Counsel, the state’s utility consumer advocate, representing residential, small business and agricultural utility consumers before the Colorado PUC, federal agencies, and the courts. While Consumer Counsel, Ron served as President of the National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates (NASUCA). Ron received a B.A. in Philosophy from St. Louis University in 1971 and an M.A. in Mathematics from the University of Colorado in 1977.

Brent Alderfer is an energy entrepreneur who cofounded Community Energy, Inc., and led the company as CEO from start-up. Alderfer was an early champion of clean energy and climate response as an engine for economic growth and job creation. He has led on regional modeling and market design of decarbonized utility grids and is active in energy policy nationally. Brent previously served as a Colorado Public Utility Commissioner and holds an electrical engineering degree from Northeastern University and a law degree from Georgetown University.