Ep. 30: Nicole Bouchez, PhD, on her unique role as NYISO’s Consumer Interest Liaison

01/10/24 • 20 min

You might say Nicole Bouchez’s role as the NYISO’s Consumer Interest Liaison and Senior Principal Economist combines deep data analytics with good, old-fashioned customer service.
She has an especially important responsibility evaluating the impacts of major market design changes for stakeholders, policymakers, and market participants. That’s where her PhD in International Economics comes in handy.
But a large part of her job also includes working directly with some of the largest energy consumers in the state so they understand those studies and how changes to electric system planning, operations, and decarbonization policies might impact their bottom line.
“Consumers are always concerned about costs,” Bouchez said. “They're also concerned about the technology switch that's happening and how smooth that's going to be. They're concerned about reliability, as we all are.”

In addition to performing consumer impact analyses, her office also responds to consumer questions about the markets and provides important training and information sessions. Her knowledge of the New York energy markets and her time as Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics at Royal Holloway, University of London, make her especially suited for that responsibility.
Bouchez’s role is unique even among ISOs and other research entities. She says one of the things she likes most about her job is how outward-facing it is – interacting with a diverse cross-section of market participants and stakeholders invested in the future of how the electric system will perform.
Her office accesses “real-world” electric systems data in its presentations and materials for stakeholders, providing a deep but comprehensive look into how the energy industry and the grid is changing. “We’re able to leverage that information in our analyses, which is quite exciting,” she said.
Bouchez, who co-chaired a task force in 2017 designing a carbon pricing proposal, is optimistic about the role that markets can play in supporting the grid of the future.
“We learned a great deal about how we can incorporate carbon dioxide emissions costs into our markets to support clean energy policy goals without jeopardizing reliability,” Bouchez noted.
She explains that if competitive wholesale electric markets can integrate the cost of carbon dioxide emissions, there’s more incentive to efficiently invest in cleaner resources.
As New York State studies its options to meet the goals of the CLCPA, Bouchez thinks the task force’s efforts are important and especially timely.
“I think that there is a desire to lower our carbon emissions as a country and as a state. It's taking us down a future that I could have never anticipated in 2017 when we started this. This is a really exciting time for [the industry],” she said.
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Follow us on Twitter @NewYorkISO and LinkedIn @NYISO
Read our blogs and watch our videos
Check out our 2040 grid page

Previous Episode

Ep. 29: Julie Tighe on Leading the NY League of Conservation Voters and Joining the NYISO’s Environmental Advisory Council

In this episode of our Power Trends podcast, Julie Tighe discusses her role leading the New York League of Conservation Voters, and her recent addition to the NYISO’s Environmental Advisory Council (EAC). The EAC, which was formed in 2005, provides information and analysis on state and federal environmental policies relative to NYISO’s mission of grid reliability.
“No one is going to be happy if the air conditioning goes out in a heat wave. So, we need to be strategic about that,” she said.
NYLCV’s efforts range from advocating for clean air and water to working with the real estate industry on constructing greener buildings.
“[The League is] the political arm of the environmental movement here in New York, where we really hold elected officials accountable for their actions on environmental policy,” she explained.
In the interview, Julie discusses new grid-level technology being developed, including thermal energy networks, that could address growing consumer electric demand. Tighe said it’s crucial to avoid “pie in the sky policy” and work on practical solutions that address decarbonization goals while maintaining system reliability.
Julie also speaks to the state’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act of 2019, arguably the nation’s most ambitious set of state decarbonization policies. “On the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act...the state went through a robust planning process with a significant amount of public input, lots of stakeholders who were involved in the conversation, really setting out the roadmap for how we are going to achieve these big, bold, ambitious goals of getting to an economy that is 85% emissions reduction by 2050,” she said.

“We need to have big stretch goals...but I also think we need to make sure that they are, in fact, technically achievable in a manner that's affordable,” she said.

Read the announcement of Julie Tighe’s addition to the New York ISO’s Environmental Advisory Council
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Ep. 31: Columbia Climate School’s Daniel Zarrilli on New York’s Decarbonization Progress

Columbia University’s Daniel Zarrilli knows a thing or two about New York City and the effects of climate change.

For almost a decade prior to Hurricane Sandy, he worked on the city’s waterfront, managing maintenance and construction of the city’s piers and bulkheads, overseeing cruise terminals and other maritime assets, and working with coastal communities on a variety of local projects. That experience along the city’s 520-mile shoreline, plus his training as an engineer, put him in view of Mayor Michael Bloomberg as he was standing up his initiative to rebuild New York following Hurricane Sandy and make it more resilient.

Bloomberg appointed Zarrilli as the city’s first resilience director. He then became Chief Climate Policy Advisor under Mayor Bill de Blasio, helping usher landmark energy policy through the city council, which mandates emissions reductions produced by the city's largest buildings of 40 percent by 2030.

Now Zarrilli serves as Special Advisor for Climate and Sustainability at Columbia University, helping to create a new world-leading climate school and advising on pathways to achieve the university’s deep decarbonization goals.

This wealth of deep experience and expertise makes him a valuable addition to the NYISO’s Environmental Advisory Council, a group of outside experts that informs NYISO leadership on evolving state and federal climate policy and environmental justice considerations.

Local Law 97, New York City’s building decarbonization law passed in 2019, requires most buildings over 25,000 square feet to meet new energy efficiency and greenhouse gas emissions limits, with even stricter limits coming into effect in 2030.

There are already indications that the policy is working, Zarrilli said.

“New Yorkers have so much to be proud of for the progress that has been made,” Zarrilli said. “There were $20 billion in climate adaptation investments made after Hurricane Sandy, everything from flood protection to grid upgrades to new elevated hospitals in our coastal communities.”

“I think the much more exciting thing about Local Law 97 is how it has catalyzed this marketplace in New York City around clean energy technology, innovation, and investment that is all now centered in New York City,” he said.

“So much of our infrastructure was built for a world and a climate that doesn’t exist anymore,” he said.

He pointed to concerns about global economic conditions and supply chain challenges that can make electrification projects difficult. In the offshore wind space, he noted that some coastal communities have zoning concerns and questions that must be addressed and answered.

Zarrilli credits the NYISO’s forward-thinking approach to the wholesale electric market, which he says will drive incentives to speed up the clean energy transition.

“The role that the NYISO plays to help provide that stimulus and incentive is really important, and not a fully appreciated role,” Zarrilli said, “but it's a critical one that I think the state and other ISOs are going to continue to learn from.

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