Nicolas Puga, MSc

Nicolas Puga has more than 25 years experience as a senior energy advisor to electric utilities and generation and transmission companies in the analysis of electric power and natural gas markets, generation and transmission project development, utility resource supply planning, and renewable energy resource development. He has conducted due diligence, market assessments and tariff studies for independent power producers, generation and transmission project developers and lenders for conventional and renewable energy projects. Mr. Puga has assisted energy infrastructure project developers with interconnection feasibility studies, transmission access applications, and permitting processes in various United States and overseas markets. He has helped utilities and their industrial customers in the evaluation, implementation, and monitoring of energy efficiency and demand management projects, including demand response, thermal storage and combined heat, and power generation.

Mr. Puga has provided expert testimony in several state transmission line certification proceedings in California, New York, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia, and he has opined on US-México cross-border energy trade and infrastructure in Federal, California, and Texas regulatory proceedings.

MSc, Energy Engineering, University of Arizona

BS, Electrical Engineering, Universidad de Guanajuato, Salamanca, México

EXPERT Q&A SERIES

Mr. Puga talks about electric vehicles and the transportation sector.

• Testified on behalf of the Virginia State Corporation Commission staff about the use of Smart Meters in a utility Conservation Voltage Reduction (CVR) program designed to reduce electric distribution losses and to conserve energy at customer facilities. 
• Testified in front of the New York Public Service Commission in the Certificate of Environmental Compatibility and Public Need proceedings of the proposed 190-mile HVDC New York Regional Interconnect, Inc. (NYRI) transmission line.  
• Testified on behalf of the Virginia State Corporation Commission in the application proceedings for Certificates of Public Convenience and Necessity for the 500-kilovolt 502 Junction-Meadow Brook-Loudoun Trans-Allegheny Interstate Line Company (TrAIL) transmission line facilities, regarding the reliability need for the line and the feasibility of demand-side alternatives to the same. 
• Developed a GIS-based project siting methodology for utility-scale solar PV plants that considers the location of transmission/subtransmission infrastructure along with other known siting constraints, including county land-use plans, utility and conservation easements, environmentally sensitive areas and critical habitats, state and national parks, and military bases.  
• Advised developer of a 500-MW wind project in northern Baja California, México, on the technical, commercial, and regulatory aspects of interconnection and new transmission infrastructure for export to California.  
• Authored the Baja California electricity and natural gas supply and demand forecasts and infrastructure development plans sections of the 2005 IEPR Energy Supply and Demand Assessment for the Border Region – Consultant Report prepared for the California Energy Commission.  
• Co-led the development of a strategic plan for fuel risk management and the necessary organizational structure, processes, and systems to establish a fuel procurement and risk management organization for Comisión Federal de Electricidad, the Mexican government-owned vertically integrated utility.