Jennifer Kallay

Jenn Kallay has 15 years of professional experience analyzing the benefits and costs of distributed energy resources (DERs) for jurisdictions in the United States and Canada. Her work entails reviewing different regulatory approaches; assessing the ability of utility plans to tap into cost-effective potential; researching best practice program designs and policies; analyzing DERs as an alternative to new power plants; understanding and accounting for the full benefits of DERs; and conducting cost effectiveness and rate and bill impact analyses. 

Most recently, Ms. Kallay is researching and analyzing strategies, policies, and practices that states and communities can use to reduce emissions and improve grid resilience and equity. From 2019 to 2021, Sandia National Laboratories contracted Synapse Energy Economics to improve understanding and provide guidance on the challenges and opportunities facing communities and electric utilities seeking to coordinate energy-related resilience efforts. Ms. Kallay produced a series of five reports on the topic including a landscaping report, a report on benefit-cost analysis for grid investments in resilience, a resilience performance metrics report, a report on resilient public purpose microgrids, and a report on regulatory mechanisms to support resilience.

From 2020 to 2022, Synapse partnered with Brown University’s Climate and Development Lab and Climable.org to conduct a study on climate action and public utilities in each of the New England states. The purpose of the study was to compile the climate actions of the New England utilities, the regulatory structures that the public utility commissions (PUCs) have in place to mitigate climate change and the opportunities and challenges for implementing lasting climate solutions. Ms. Kallay helped facilitate conversations amongst a diverse group of stakeholders around opportunities and challenges associated with advancing climate action in New England. 

In 2022 and 2023, Synapse partnered with Climable, Inc., Clean Energy Solutions, Inc., GreenRoots, Inc., GDT Engineering, and LSO Energy Advisors to help the City of Chelsea, Massachusetts implement its community-led microgrid. Chelsea’s microgrid project is ground-breaking in that it (1) provides clean energy and resilience to non-contiguous critical facilities that support the community and (2) addresses equity by directly and explicitly incorporating the needs and priorities of this environmental justice city into the design of and planning for the project.

Additionally, Ms. Kallay has direct experience with municipal utility governance as an elected member of the Board of Commissioners of Wakefield’s Municipal Gas & Light Department.

Ms. Kallay holds an MA in Energy and Environmental Analysis from Boston University and a BA in Journalism from the University of Maryland.