Matthew McDonell

Matthew McDonell

Current Energy Group
Managing Partner 

Matthew is the Managing Partner for Current Energy Group, a boutique energy economics and policy advisory firm focused on providing solutions that balance sustainability, affordability, and reliability. Matthew is a national expert in new utility business models and innovative regulatory frameworks to address emergent needs of the energy transition. Matthew has experience in a variety of energy issues, including distributed energy resources (DER) integration, power system planning, rate design, grid modernization, and electric vehicles (EVs).

Before co-founding Current Energy Group, Matthew was a Partner and Head of Consulting for Strategen, where he led teams advancing regulatory innovation across several areas critical to energy transition. In Connecticut, Matthew supported the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) in the development of a regulatory sandbox, the Innovative Energy Solutions (IES) Program, that identifies, pilots, and scales innovative ideas that enable a decarbonized, affordable, and equitable electric grid for Connecticut. Matthew has further supported PURA’s leading efforts to adopt a comprehensive performance-based regulation (PBR) framework.

Prior to Strategen, Matthew served as Commission Counsel at the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission (HPUC), a regulatory body that is a global leader in policy and market design for the deployment of clean energy technologies. Matthew supported the thought leadership, organization, and execution for critical projects from advanced DER program design, to establishing a statewide community solar framework, to articulating guidance for innovative grid modernization. Matthew also led the HPUC’s investigation into PBR as process architect, project manager, and thought leader. The PBR process and procedural template has since been adopted for similar efforts in leading jurisdictions and continues to gain traction nationwide. 

Matthew earned a Juris Doctor from the James E. Rogers College of Law at the University of Arizona and a B.A. in Finance from Michigan State University.