Jay Griffin

James P. Griffin was appointed to the Public Utilities Commission by Governor Ige in May 2017. Commissioner Griffin was previously a faculty member at the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute (HNEI), an independent research institute within the University of Hawaii that conducts clean energy research and development activities. At HNEI, Dr. Griffin worked on research and demonstration projects related to grid integration of renewable energy sources, energy storage, and emerging distributed energy resource technologies. From 2012 to 2016, he served as the Commission’s Chief of Policy and Research. Commissioner Griffin has also worked as a policy analyst at the RAND Corporation and legislative analyst in the Hawaii State Legislature. Commissioner Griffin holds a Ph.D. in policy analysis from the Pardee RAND Graduate School, M.A. in economics from the University of California at Santa Barbara, joint master’s degree from Duke University in Environmental Management and Public Policy, and B.A. in Political Economy from Williams College. He recently participated as a core advisory team member for the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) DSPx Initiative, and previously served on peer review panels for DOE smart grid and microgrid programs. He was also a member of the Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative Electricity Working Group and mentor for the Hawaii Renewable Energy Venture Energy Excelerator program.