Idaho Public Utilities Commissioner Kristine Raper will join WECC as vice president of external affairs beginning Jan. 24, the regional entity said Monday.

Raper has served one full six-year term as commissioner and was reappointed to a second term last year by Gov. Brad Little. Prior to her appointment to the commission, Raper worked for seven years as its deputy attorney general, “representing a myriad of regulatory and energy law matters, with a strong emphasis on the federal Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act,” according to her bio on the PUC’s website. She holds a juris doctorate from the University of Idaho College of Law.

Raper currently serves on the Electricity Committee of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners and is a member of the Western Energy Imbalance Market’s Body of State Regulators. She also previously served on the EIM’s Governance Review Committee (GRC), which is responsible for oversight of the market as CAISO moves to expand the market from real-time to day-ahead trading. (See CAISO Takes on Transmission, EDAM in 2022.) As a GRC member, Raper advocated for CAISO to provide the EIM’s Governing Body to have greater joint authority with the ISO’s Board of Governors over decisions that affect the interstate trading market. (See Joint CAISO-EIM Authority Debated in West.)

She is also current chair of the Western Interconnection Regional Advisory Body (WIRAB), a group organized under the Federal Power Act to advise FERC, NERC and WECC on matters related to grid reliability in the West. WECC regularly provides organizational and issue status updates to WIRAB members at the latter’s monthly meetings.

“Kris’ wide-ranging regulatory and utility industry knowledge, along with her ability to engage with key stakeholders, will be a tremendous asset in this position at WECC,” the RE’s CEO, Melanie Frye, said in a statement Monday. “Furthermore, her in-depth knowledge of the issues affecting the Western Interconnection will enable her to hit the ground running in this critical outreach role.”

At WECC, Raper will be taking on the position similar to that previously held by former Utah Public Service Commissioner Jordan White, who joined WECC in May 2020 as vice president for strategic engagement and departed in August to become executive director of development at NextEra Energy subsidiary GridLiance. White was a key figure in WECC’s stakeholder outreach efforts as the RE sought to reshape its mission to center on resource adequacy in the Western Interconnection. (See WECC Seeks to ‘Invent’ Future with RA Forum.)

Under Raper’s leadership, WIRAB last year recommended that WECC’s Board of Directors approve a controversial, staff-driven proposal to reorganize the RE’s stakeholder technical committees to ensure a focus on the new core mission of resource adequacy. (See WECC Board Approves Stakeholder Committee Shakeup.)

In her role on WECC’s executive team, Raper will report to Steve Goodwill, who is senior vice president of strategic engagement and general counsel.