Graduation Date: June 2010
Degree(s): M.S Energy & Environment (MS&E); B.S Management Science & Engineering

As a member of the Electricity Practice, Amanda worked on the implementation side of the Next Generation Utility (NGU) Initiative, researching and assessing how business models of traditional utilities will need to transform as the U.S progresses towards a low-carbon economy. Her work entailed studying current trends within the industry, identifying the market, technology, and policy enablers that would drive utilities to adopt low-carbon solutions, assessing how different utility-types’ cash flows would change upon entering new market spaces like demand response and smart grid programs, and speaking with informed experts within the industry to gain insights about these important issues. Outside of this project, Amanda researched cost trajectories, capacity trajectories, and learning curves for variable renewable technologies.

“I’m very pleased with my experience because the most important things I learned are directly transferrable to a future job. For instance, I learned that I could really leverage the frameworks and concepts from my engineering classes at Stanford, and apply them to the abstract and high-level issues I was working with at RMI to bring these issues down to a practical and synthesizable level. I also learned a lot from RMI’s research process – observing how one remains flexible yet true to the trajectory of an initiative that is anticipated to take upwards of three years to complete.”

“Eager, passionate, excited, smart, dedicated, educated Fellows move RMI’s work forward.”