Technical Staff
Drew McAuliffe is Director of Electricity Division (Technical Staff) at the Maryland Public Service Commission.
The PUF team had a warm welcome at the PSC offices in Baltimore on the upper floors of the William Donald Schaefer building. Maryland punches well above its weight, with an expansive grid modernization portfolio, ambitious electric vehicle and charging programs, utility-scale batteries deployed as grid assets, and more, backed up by a diverse renewable generation portfolio and nuclear power at the Calvert Cliffs plant.
PUF's Lori Burkhart: How did your background lead you to the Commission?
Drew McAuliffe: My graduate degree was in Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics, with a focus on environmental economics. Through my time at the University of Delaware, I gained a lot of interest in this field, renewables and electric vehicles, and anything environmental and renewable energy related.
After I graduated, I didn't know much about public utility Commissions, but I found this job about five years ago, did research, and applied for it. I've been here ever since. Once I learned what we do at Commissions around the country, it piqued my interest.
PUF: You're the Director of the Electricity Division. Talk about your unique role at the Commission.
Drew McAuliffe: Our main function is working on any rate cases from our electric utilities. We'll handle the rate design, cost of service analysis, as well as the return on equity portion of a rate case.