Directors, Ombudsperson
Brian Ritzinger is Director of the Clean Energy and Resilience Engineering Division at the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities. Katie Zilgme is Distributed Generation and Clean Energy Ombudsperson at the Massachusetts DPU. Tracy Dyke Redmond is Director of the Electric Power Division at the Massachusetts DPU.
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is well known for its history in the formation of the United States as a center of the movement for independence from Great Britain. Now, it is becoming recognized for making strides in its quest for clean energy via its Department of Public Utilities (DPU), an adjudicatory agency overseen by a three-member Commission.
In addition to its more traditional regulation of utilities, the DPU also is charged with developing alternatives to traditional regulation, monitoring service quality, regulating safety in the transportation and gas pipeline areas, and the siting of energy facilities. There is more, and so the PUF team traveled to Boston for an inside look at the hard work going on there to regulate in the public interest.
The DPU is led by Chair James Van Nostrand along with Commissioners Cecile Fraser and Staci Rubin. The PUF team discussed with them the latest events in regulation, as well as where the Bay State is headed in its energy transition. DPU Staff provided updates on what is going on in their divisions, and as a bonus, PUF Executive Editor Steve Mitnick talked with Secretary of Energy for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Rebecca Tepper.
(As this PUF issue went to press, Chair Van Nostrand and Commissioner Cecile Fraser announced they will be leaving the Commission this fall.)