By Michael Kuser

Former FERC Commissioner Cheryl LaFleur was elected to a three-year term on the ISO-NE Board of Directors on Friday, just two weeks after leaving her job in D.C.

LaFleur will replace Director Raymond Hill, who is completing his third consecutive three-year term this month.

Re-elected were Directors Barney Rush and Vickie VanZandt, each of whom will begin their third consecutive term, the maximum allowed. Absent a waiver, an incumbent board member cannot serve more than three consecutive three-year terms.

Although LaFleur’s second term on FERC ended June 30, she served until the end of August, as allowed by law in the absence of a successor. She announced she would not be appointed to a third term in January. (See LaFleur Announces Departure from FERC.)

Returning to New England

The announcement represents a homecoming for LaFleur. Prior to joining the commission, LaFleur worked at National Grid, ultimately serving as executive vice president and acting CEO of the U.S. subsidiary. She had served at various times as COO, president of the company’s New England distribution companies, and general counsel.

LaFleur said in a statement that she was excited to join the board. “New England is my home and where I have spent most of my career, and I welcome the opportunity to be part of an organization that serves electricity consumers across the region.”

ISO-NE Board Chair Philip Shapiro said LaFleur “not only will bring insights from her long tenure at FERC, but also from her experience at National Grid.”

“Cheryl is a welcome addition to the ISO New England board,” ISO-NE CEO Gordon van Welie said. “The sum of her career experience will be put to good use as the region’s grid continues its transition to a future with cleaner, more distributed resources.”

Rush also serves on the board of Azure Power Global, which develops solar plants in India, and is a senior representative for Fieldstone, a regional investment bank that raises capital for power plants and infrastructure in Africa and other emerging markets. He is the former group CEO for Mirant Corp. in Europe. He is also the mayor of the town of Chevy Chase, Md.

VanZandt runs VanZandt Electric Transmission Consulting, based in Washington state, and is the Western Electricity Coordinating Council’s program manager for the Western Interconnection Synchrophasor Program. She retired from the Bonneville Power Administration in 2009 after 35 years, including a position as its senior vice president of transmission services. She served as BPA’s chief engineer for a decade.

Committee Assignments

The slate of board candidates is selected by the Joint Nominating Committee, endorsed by members of the New England Power Pool’s Participants Committee and confirmed by the board and the New England Conference of Public Utilities Commissioners (NECPUC). The nominating committee is composed of 14 members: six PC members representing their sectors; one member of NECPUC; and seven members of the board.

Van Welie announced that the board had also elected Director Kathleen Abernathy to replace Shapiro as chairperson. Committee assignments, as listed in the CEO report posted with the meeting materials, are as follows:

• Audit and Finance Committee: Michael Curran, LaFleur and Shapiro, with Christopher Wilson as chair;
• Compensation and Human Resources Committee: Abernathy, Brook Colangelo and VanZandt, with Roberto R. Denis as chair;
• Joint Nominating Committee: Abernathy, Curran, LaFleur, Rush, VanZandt and Wilson, with Shapiro as chair;
• Markets Committee: Curran, LaFleur and Wilson, with Rush as chair;
• Nominating and Governance Committee: Abernathy, Curran and Rush, with Shapiro as chair;
• System Planning and Reliability Committee: Colangelo and Denis, with VanZandt as chair; and
• Special Committee on Information Technology and Cyber Security: Colangelo and Wilson will serve on the temporary committee, with Colangelo as chair.

Age Limit

Voting directors on the RTO’s board serve staggered, three-year terms. A nominee cannot stand for election or re-election if they have reached the age of 71.

However, on Aug. 15, ISO-NE and NEPOOL filed amendments to the Participants Agreement to authorize the Joint Nominating Committee to waive the age limit (ER19-2616). That filing is currently pending and, if accepted, would permit the amendments to become effective Oct. 15.

ISO-NE said each of the candidates on the 2019 slate was under the age limit but declined a request for the current board members’ ages, calling it “personal information.”

“I can tell you that candidates’ ability to meet eligibility requirements are evaluated by the members of the Joint Nominating Committee and then by members of the NEPOOL Participants Committee, and all members of the board, including the slate taking office Oct. 1, currently meet the eligibility requirements,” ISO-NE Spokeswoman Marcia Blomberg said.