By Rory D. Sweeney
It’s been three years since Dan Griffiths became the first executive director of the Consumer Advocates of the PJM States.
Now he’s ready to hand the reins to someone else.
Griffiths describes himself as “a startup guy,” which served the nascent CAPS organization well when it was all just ideas. The concept of a single voice for all of the state consumer advocates within PJM’s territory had been around for some time — Griffiths himself had started thinking about it in the early 2000s — but the opportunity didn’t materialize until 2012 when FERC, in a market manipulation settlement with Constellation Energy, ordered that $6 million in fines should benefit PJM consumers.
Griffiths, who had been representing demand response provider Comverge at PJM after seven years in the Pennsylvania Office of Consumer Advocate and 18 years at the state’s Public Utility Commission, emerged from the hiring search. (See Consumer Advocates Name Director.)
“They had the money, but … they didn’t have the structure,” he said. “I’ve always enjoyed the creative anxiety that makes me perform well in startups. … There’s a lot of problems to solve and there’s not a lot of structure.”
Well, the structure is now there. Protocols, policies, procedures — they’re all in place. Griffiths was able in April to get the members to convene and decide how the organization should be run.
The members developed policies for prioritizing the issues the group will pursue. Members also identified a need for a conflict of interest policy and made improvements to bylaws, financial policies and reimbursement policies, Griffiths said. The updates are scheduled to be approved at CAPS’ next board meeting, he said.
Pleased with the progress, he realized that he had reached the extent of his usefulness to the organization, he said. “The organization was coming together in the right way, and I could step away without feeling like I was leaving gaps,” he said. “It’s been great personally; it’s been great professionally; and it’s time for me to get the right person in here.”
He plans to find his successor and retire by the end of the year.
Rather than someone who can build something from nothing, CAPS’ next executive director should be a strong administrator, Griffiths said. Because most consumer advocates are attorneys and have the legal aspects covered, candidates don’t necessarily have to be lawyers, he said. Engineers and policy experts stand just as good a chance at being the right fit.
“We’re looking for somebody from the RTO space, hoping to find somebody with some consumer perspective,” he said. “If we get somebody who’s been in the stakeholder process, they will know the policy map” and won’t have too steep of a learning curve.
Luckily, the successful applicant will soon have help. Space has been carved out in the budget for the new executive director to also hire an administrative assistant, Griffiths said.
In March, FERC approved PJM’s creation of a funding mechanism to support CAPS through a charge to residential electric customers. Beginning next year, CAPS will receive an initial annual budget of $450,000. FERC approval would be needed for any budget increase of more than 7.5%. (See FERC Approves PJM Funding of Consumer Advocates.)
Application details are available for download on CAPS’ website.