Matthew McDonnell

Advisor

Matthew is an experienced regulatory attorney who leverages his background as Commission Counsel to deliver valuable insights to clients. Matthew is a champion of new utility business models and innovative regulatory frameworks to responsibly accelerate the clean energy transition. Matthew has experience in a variety of energy issues, including energy storage, power system planning, rate design, grid modernization, and distributed energy resources (DER).

For five years, Matthew served as Commission Counsel at the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission (HPUC), a regulatory body that is a global leader in market design for the deployment of clean energy technologies. Matthew supported the thought leadership, organization, and execution for critical projects from advanced DER program design, to establishing a statewide community solar framework, to articulating guidance for innovative grid modernization that earned the Hawaiian Electric Companies SEPA’s 2018 Utility of the Year. 

Matthew also led the HPUC’s investigation into performance-based regulation (PBR) as process architect, project manager, and thought leader. He designed a regulatory process approach that won broad support from local stakeholders as well as national acclaim. The PBR template has since been adopted for similar efforts in Minnesota, Nevada, and North Carolina and continues to gain traction nation-wide.  

After departing the HPUC, Matthew served as Associate Director at Navigant (n/k/a Guidehouse). There, he authored a forthcoming report for the Edison Electric Institute (EEI) that provide in-depth analysis of alternative regulatory mechanisms available to regulators, with a section dedicated to examining regulatory sandbox best practices. 

Matthew is licensed to practice law in Arizona and Hawaii. He earned a Juris Doctor from the James E. Rogers College of Law at the University of Arizona and a B.A. in Finance from Michigan State University.