Biography
James Gallagher has more than 40 years of energy policy and power industry experience, mainly serving consumers in the State of New York. Gallagher spent twenty-one years at the New York Public Service Commission (PSC) where he was initially hired as Chief of Demand Side Planning and Evaluation and ultimately promoted to the position of Director, Office of Electricity and the Environment, supervising 73 professional regulatory staff.
Most recently, from 2013 until 2020, he was the Executive Director of the New York State Smart Grid Consortium, which aimed to utilize advanced technologies, especially distributed energy resources and demand response, to more effectively and cleanly meet utility energy service needs. During this period, Gallagher led the stakeholder process in New York for the PSC’s Reforming the Energy Vision Initiative (REV), and also was a member of the Advisory Board for the European Union’s innovative Grid4EU program involving the development and implementation of advanced demand response and DER integration pilots at utilities in six European countries.
Prior to joining the Smart Grid Consortium, Gallagher served as Manager of Strategic Planning at New York Independent System Operator Inc., and as Director of Energy Policy for the City of New York under Mayor Michael Bloomberg. In this role he chaired the New York City Energy Policy Task Force. Gallagher is currently, on behalf of NARUC and USAID, directly assisting utility regulators in Eastern Europe and Eurasia with the energy related challenges resulting from Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.
Gallagher earned a bachelor’s degree in Business and Economics from Lehigh University and a master’s degree in Energy Management and Policy from the University of Pennsylvania.