CUB Wishes Good Luck to Economist Sudeshna Pal

CUB Economist, Sudeshna Pal, is leaving CUB to begin work at the Public Utility Commission. Her departure is bittersweet, as we will certainly miss her wonderful personality and professional expertise at CUB. 

However, we are grateful to continue to work with her in her new role. Sudeshna has worked for CUB for more than three years covering a variety of major utility proceedings including resource planning, development of distribution level planning, transportation electrification plans, coal plant shut downs, and renewable development.

Sudeshna’s work on utility resource plans has made a real difference for customers. She has aided in preventing utilities from making risky investments on the backs of customers:

• Last year she successfully challenged Pacific Power’s request to seek approval for a new generation nuclear plant arguing that the utility had to first come forward with real information about the costs and risks of such a project. 
• She has led the efforts to get gas utilities to consider non-pipe solutions and scenarios that minimize growth of the gas system. Rather than invest in new pipes with long useful lives, Sudeshna has advocated working with customers to reduce peak demand through efficiency and other avenues.  This greatly lowers the risk customers face compared to new fossil fuel infrastructure. These measures can insulate customers from substantial cost and risk as the natural gas sector transitions to a clean energy economy.
• In Portland General Electric’s recent resource plans, Sudeshna effectively argued for increased energy efficiency across the Company’s system, including pushing the utility to conduct a study on energy efficiency measures that can be implemented on data centers. 
• In Idaho Power and Pacific Power resource plans, Sudeshna has pushed to establish coal phase-out dates as utilities move to decarbonize their systems.

Sudeshna has led CUB’s efforts related to distribution level planning, which looks at energy solutions at the distribution or neighborhood level – things like rooftop solar, home batteries, managed charging of electric vehicles, and smart thermostats.

Sudeshna’s analysis in a Pacific Power rate case led to a customer-friendly design for a time-of-use rate option and to a reduced monthly charge for multi-family residences. In a Northwest Natural rate case, Sudeshna successfully argued to remove significant amounts of spending on advertising that she judged to be focused on the utility’s corporate image.

While at CUB, Sudeshna wrote about her personal experience purchasing an electric vehicle and her experience installing a heat pump in her home. They were two of the most read blogs that we have published. CUB applauds Sudeshna for being a champion for clean energy alternatives not only in her work but at home.

Before joining CUB, Sudeshna was an economics professor at Portland State University. At CUB, she was able to apply her expertise to the energy world and as a consequence help ensure that utilities make wise choices as they invest billions of dollars on behalf of utility customers.

She will be missed.  Sudeshna has always been willing to chip in and help out on projects outside of her usual role at CUB.  She always brought a kind and professional demeanor with her to work and was a joy to collaborate with. We have learned a lot from her, including her experiences as an immigrant from Kolkata, India. 

CUB wishes the best of luck to Sudeshna and to her family as she transitions to her new work at the Oregon PUC as an analyst in their resource planning department.

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