PLMA 2025 board of directors and at-large leader Elections

Since 2007, I have been a trusted partner to utilities nationwide, driving innovative solutions across DSM market research, regulatory strategy, program design, implementation, and evaluation. I began my career at Summit Blue/Navigant, where I played a pivotal role in helping utilities achieve compliance-based energy efficiency (EE) goals through strategic program design and evaluation. At Tierra Resource Consultants, I have taken a leadership role in advancing the integration of load flexibility programs into utility resource plans, enabling decarbonization while ensuring affordability and reliability. My recent work with leading utilities—such as Arizona Public Service, Tucson Electric Power, NV Energy, Duke Energy, and Seminole Electric—has focused on delivering impactful outcomes through engineering analysis, benefit-cost modeling, customer research, and regulatory support. By developing and implementing “grid-value” portfolio strategies, I help utilities maximize energy and capacity savings, integrate renewables, and address electrification-driven demand growth.

I bring 17 years’ worth of industry experience, ranging from entrepreneurship, consulting, director of Utility Customer Energy Resources department, as well as enterprise DERMS product architecture. Some of the specific highlights within that experience include serving as a business and product development lead for an early stage company that developed a distributed computing platform for the management of DER, leveraging system planning insights to develop and stand up a unique market for grade services in Hawaii, and architecting an enterprise, comprehensive DERMS with Oracle.

I bring over 20 years of experience at the nation’s largest public power producer, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), where I spent 15 years managing a diverse portfolio of Demand Response programs, including Direct Load Control, Aggregated Demand Response, Interruptible Pricing Products, and Voltage Optimization. I recently transitioned into a new role evaluating TVA’s largest capital projects for efficiencies, where I apply a data-driven mindset and a collaborative approach to drive continuous improvement. My experience spans cross-sector partnerships, stakeholder engagement, and strategic planning. I have a proven track record of translating complex data into actionable insights that support organizational growth and impact. I have served on the PLMA Board of Directors since 2017 and as Treasurer for the last six years, helping guide the organization through significant growth and change. My leadership has focused on fiscal transparency, policy development, and long-term sustainability. Beyond the energy sector, I’ve held leadership roles in nonprofit governance, including serving as a Trustee and member of the Sustainability Steering Committee at the University of the South – Sewanee, a board member for Project Canterbury at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, and senior warden and former treasurer of my church vestry. These experiences have deepened my understanding of fiscal oversight, mission alignment, and long-term organizational stewardship.

I have 35 years in the energy industry including almost 25 with Baltimore Gas & Electric (BGE) and the last 10 with ICF. At BGE, I led its extensive DSM portfolio including award winning energy efficiency and direct load control programs and a behavioral DR program. At ICF, I have especially focused on demand response, pricing, DER, grid modernization and regulatory advisory. I have extensive non-profit/association leadership experience including as board treasurer at AESP and treasurer at a K-12th grade independent school. At PLMA, I was on the Executive Committee for 5 years, before becoming the Board Secretary 3 years ago.

My career has been driven by a commitment to create a sustainable and resilient future for our planet and the people who live on it. With over 25 years of experience in the Climate tech industry, I am a passionate and skilled leader who has spearheaded innovative clean energy and sustainability solutions for diverse high-profile clients including Fortune 500 companies, major utilities, federal, state, and local governments, international funding agencies, and clean energy startups. With a deep commitment to client success and comprehensive energy industry domain expertise – I am a trusted partner for my clients through delivery of technical advice, strategic advice, development of lasting connections, and successful delivery of multi-million-dollar engagements. My educational credentials include Ph.D. in Urban-Environmental Planning, M.S. Building Design and a Bachelors in Environmentally Conscious Architecture, and I hold certifications in energy management, carbon reduction, and green building design. I have extensive knowledge and experience about Load Flexibility and have developed numerous Distributed Energy Resource (DER) programs, Virtual Power Plants (VPPs) and other load optimization solutions to deliver grid resilience, decarbonize buildings, and create financial value for customers. As the Vice President at Olivine, Inc, I am currently focused on the development of decarbonization products and solutions, business development and company-wide growth initiatives.

18 years of experience working internationally with utilities, vendors, and institutions on DR and DER-related strategic planning, procurement, potential studies and forecasting, program design, cost-effectiveness analysis, evaluation, and analytics.

• Principal and Founder of Trillium Energy Consulting, a single-member LLC working with local governments, utilities, community-based organizations, vendors, and strategic partners on advancing the uptake of DER and load flexibility.
• Prior to Trillium, I spent 16 years at Guidehouse (previously Summit Blue Consulting, then Navigant) where I was a Director co-leading Guidehouse’s Energy Analytics team, in which I supported Guidehouse’s Energy practice with new solution development for DER-related analytics, particularly in load management, transportation electrification, decarbonization pathways, and grid modernization & asset investment planning.
• Active member of PLMA since 2014 (see below for more detail on my activities with PLMA).

I bring a decade of experience in energy technologies to PLMA, focusing on load management, VPP and DERMS, and DER integration. My career has provided opportunities to support efforts shaping industry strategy, aligning with PLMA’s initiatives. In both my work and within PLMA, I am actively driving innovation and advancing key efforts that align with PLMA’s mission to drive dynamic load management and DER applications.

Key Qualifications:

• VP of Marketing, Edge Zero (Present): Leading marketing for a low voltage network monitoring company focused on energy grid efficiency and DER integration.
• Director of Marketing and Communications, EO Charging: Led marketing for EV charging solutions, advocating for sustainable energy infrastructure.
• Women in Demand Management PLMA Affinity Group Co-Chair (2021-2023)
• Head of Marketing, Generac Grid Services: Supported corporate strategy and drove marketing for the company’s DERMS solution, interfacing with many of PLMA’s utility and vendor members.
• Senior Research Analyst, Guidehouse: Led VPP research and supported energy management and demand response projects. Through my passion for energy management and grid modernization, I’ve built strong relationships with technology vendors and utilities participating in PLMA initiatives. This network allows me to contribute insights and collaborate effectively with industry leaders to advance peak load management solutions and strategy.

I bring 20 years of experience in the electric utility industry, with a focus on distributed energy resources (DERs), demand flexibility, and smart grid innovation. In my current role at San Diego Community Power, I lead the development and implementation of the agency’s Flex Load Strategy, overseeing the design and delivery of load shifting programs, vehicle-grid integration (VGI) initiatives, and management of the agency’s distributed energy resource management system (DERMS). My background includes program design, applied research, and technology deployment, with particular emphasis on enabling DERs to serve as reliable, dispatchable grid assets. In addition to my current leadership role at a large, California-based Community Choice Aggregator, I have held positions within consulting, non-profits, and an investor-owned utility. This experience has provided me with a comprehensive perspective on the opportunities and challenges of advancing load management, and its potential to reshape the electric utility industry.

I have been CEO of Aquanta Inc., which is the leading IOT solution for connecting water heaters to the smart grid, since 2010. Frequent speaker in industry forum including PLMA, ACEEE, and EPA’s Better Buildings Network.

18 years of experience working internationally with utilities, vendors, and institutions on DR and DER-related strategic planning, procurement, potential studies and forecasting, program design, cost-effectiveness analysis, evaluation, and analytics.

• Principal and Founder of Trillium Energy Consulting, a single-member LLC working with local governments, utilities, community-based organizations, vendors, and strategic partners on advancing the uptake of DER and load flexibility.
• Prior to Trillium, I spent 16 years at Guidehouse (previously Summit Blue Consulting, then Navigant) where I was a Director co-leading Guidehouse’s Energy Analytics team, in which I supported Guidehouse’s Energy practice with new solution development for DER-related analytics, particularly in load management, transportation electrification, decarbonization pathways, and grid modernization & asset investment planning.
• Active member of PLMA since 2014 (see below for more detail on my activities with PLMA).

With over 17 years of experience working in the demand-side management space with utilities, I bring a deep and strategic awareness of technical, programmatic, and regulatory topics that are relevant to demand flexibility. From a technical domain perspective, I have worked with all of the major IOUs, municipals, and cooperative utilities helping design and deploy effective load management programs, including support with organizations, regulatory, and implementation challenges across both traditional loads and emerging distributed energy resources. I have held many senior leadership roles across the industry ecosystem (E Source, Resource Innovations, Enervee, and ev.energy, Avista’s DSM Advisory Group) responsible for strategy, budgets, outcome delivery, and stakeholder coordination. I have extensive experience with risk management, tradeoffs, prioritization across competing goals that I can help bring to PLMA’s strategic direction. I also bring a strong network of utilities, vendors, regulators, and governmental agencies in energy sector who can help advance PLMA’s goals. One of my strengths is translating technical challenges to nontechnical stakeholders and synthesizing information in a meaningful way to advocate for change and work to convene cross-sector collaboration. I have ample experience in speaking and publishing content in the energy space, including at many PLMA conferences.

Dain Nestel is a customer-focused executive with 20+ years of international experience across Energy, Consumer Products, and Telecommunications. Since 2008, he has specialized in demand-side management (DSM), designing and implementing energy efficiency and flexible load portfolios for utilities, which includes launching CLEAResult’s Demand Response business line in 2016. As Head of Growth and Commercialization at Portland General Electric (PGE), he led business customer sales, program and platform development, portfolio execution and advanced key initiatives in transportation electrification, integrated resource planning (IRP), and virtual power plants (VPPs). A recognized thought leader, Dain has presented on DSM, load management, and strategies for serving large-load requests in semiconductor and data center sectors. He has a proven track record in strategy, sales, marketing, and general management, with deep expertise in P&L and financial management.

Over the past decade, I’ve worked with over two dozen utilities, designing, implementing, and analyzing a wide range of load management and electrification programs. My experience ranges from on-the-ground implementation for small public power utilities to leading strategic initiatives for large investor-owned utilities. This broad industry knowledge has been valuable in my current term as an At-Large Leader, where I’ve leveraged it to effectively represent the Associate members to the PLMA Leadership Council and Board of Directors.