Laura Olson

Bio

Laura is the Manager of Short-term Trading at the Salt River Project where she manages daily operations including retail load forecasting, scheduling of generation resources, scheduling of contract purchases and sales, short term purchases and sales of energy/capacity, coordination of unit outages and management of reserves to meet system and reliability requirements. Laura’s prior roles focused on corporate strategy, nuclear generation, resource acquisition, policy and regulation.

• Manager, Power Supply & Trading

  Salt River Project - Full-time From March 2021 to Present

  Manage daily operations including retail load forecasting, scheduling of generation resources, scheduling of contract purchases and sales, short term purchases and sales of energy/capacity, coordination of unit outages and management of reserves to meet system and reliability requirements; Represent the needs of Power Supply and Trading in cross-departmental efforts associated with resource planning decisions, Power Purchase Agreements, Operational Readiness efforts, system improvements and

• Manager, Strategic Planning

  Salt River Project - Full-time From October 2018 to March 2021

  Facilitated drafting of long-term corporate goals and annual corporate objectives; Developed a Corporate Planning Calendar to guide the development of Strategic Planning materials and related approvals in alignment with the annual budget cycle; Guided the Strategic Planning team’s market intelligence research; Aligned market intelligence with corporate goals to facilitate reaffirmation or revision of corporate strategy; Presented materials company-wide, to executives and the Board.

• Manager, Baseload Development

  Salt River Project - Full-time From November 2016 to October 2018

  Managed a multi-departmental team in conducting a siting study to identify proposed sites for a nuclear generating facility; Led efforts to establish a nuclear Quality Assurance Program that complies with Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) regulations; Conducted industry intelligence to stay apprised of relevant activity, including following regulatory actions and proceedings at the NRC and participating in industry groups and conferences; Initiated procedure and policy development.

• Senior Resource Analyst

  Salt River Project - Full-time From November 2015 to November 2016

  Assisted in power purchase agreement negotiations with large industrial customers for the purchase of solar energy; Project Manager for natural gas lateral siting and construction study to serve future natural gas-fired power plant; Created a development plan and assisted in power purchase agreement negotiations for the potential expansion of an existing natural gas-fired power plant; Drafted a request for proposals and assisted in contractor selection for future energy siting projects.

• Regulatory Analyst

  Salt River Project - Full-time From April 2012 to November 2015

  Provided regulatory expertise related to regional transmission planning implementation through WestConnect under Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Order No. 1000, FERC regulatory filings related to the Western Energy Imbalance Market, deregulation in Arizona, the EPA’s proposed Clean Power Plan and the proposed National Ambient Air Quality Standard for ozone, and the value and cost of distributed generation.

• Electricity Specialist

  Arizona Corporation Commission - Full-time From April 2010 to April 2012

  Analyzed utility filings and provided draft orders to Commission on demand side management programs and plans, renewable energy projects, utility acquisitions, line extension policy, retail electric competition, open access transmission tariffs, and various adjustor mechanisms; Drafted testimony and testified on a variety of energy-related topics including demand side management, renewable energy standards, and use of dry and wet cooling in power plants.rn

Climate policy Electricity market design Electricity Regulation Energy Law Energy market models Energy policy Energy wholesale markets Engineering Environmental policy Environmental Regulation

• English