By William Opalka

ALBANY, N.Y. — Audrey Zibelman was brought from Pennsylvania to New York in 2013 to lead Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Reforming the Energy Vision initiative. But as she prepares to leave, Zibelman insists the ambitious program will survive her departure.

Zibelman surprised the state’s energy industry when her new employer, the Australian Energy Market Operator, announced her hiring a week ago. (See NYPSC Chair to Head Australia Grid Operator.)

At a news conference after the New York Public Service Commission’s Tuesday meeting, she said the offer was made barely a week before the meeting. She will preside over two more commission sessions, with her more than three-year tenure ending after the March 16 meeting.

Zibelman said she had no intention of leaving the PSC but was instead recruited by the Australian grid operator.

“This job, as chair, is a fantastic job for someone like me, who loves these industries and is always looking for ways to make things better,” she said.

She is most closely associated with the state’s ambitious REV initiative. She praised Cuomo for making tough policy decisions that will lead to a new organizational structure in the industry.

“I feel very strongly that REV is on the right track. Almost all of the key policy decisions that were needed to really start moving the industry in the direction that REV contemplates have been made,” she said, citing orders issued last week as examples. “We have really moved away from the policy conception to the implementation.” (See related stories, Con Ed Rate Order Moves REV Forward with Shared Savings and NY PSC OKs New Rules to Break Solar Interconnection Logjam.)

She cited the pending distributed energy resources valuation order as a policy priority to enact before she departs. (See NYPSC Vision for DER: From Net Metering to ‘Value Stack’.)

What Zibelman will leave behind is at least a dozen open dockets that deal with aspects of REV. These include the Clean Energy Standard and the zero-emission credits for nuclear plants, the Distribution System Implementation Platform, distributed generation compensation and several others.

On top of that, there are company- or issue-specific dockets that either predate REV and now include it, or have added REV components as they have progressed.

The PSC’s years-long grappling with how to combat alleged abuses by energy service companies is an example of the former. Its just-approved rate case with Consolidated Edison with several provisions for distributed generation, demand management and utility investment incentives were features of the latter.

But Zibelman said incumbent commissioners Gregg Sayre and Diane Burman and a strong staff would ensure no loss of momentum.

Her departure, the pending retirement of Commissioner Patricia Acampora and a two-year-long vacancy means the PSC will have three openings for new members in short order.

“At this point, the momentum is in the [energy] market. They’re leading and we’re following as they tell us where they need to go,” she said.

The decision to leave was made harder by having her husband on the other side of the world, Zibelman said. She is married to former PJM CEO Phil Harris, who for several years has led the Tres Amigas “superstation” project in New Mexico that would link the Eastern and Western Interconnections.

“It’s a personal decision we’re making, but he will continue at Tres Amigas, and we’re going to work it out,” Zibelman said.