Lori Smith Schell, Ph.D., ERP, is Founder and President of Empowered Energy. Dr. Schell has nearly 35 years of experience in the energy industry, including policy analysis work done at the U.S. Department of Energy and Los Alamos National Laboratory. Dr. Schell is certified as an Energy Risk Professional (ERP) by the Global Association of Risk Professionals (GARP). Dr. Schell served on the Board of Directors of Pagosa Verde LLC, a renewable energy and sustainable agriculture development company. Dr. Schell was the 2015/2016 Vice-President of the International Association for Energy Economics (www.iaee.org) and is a Senior Fellow and Past President of the United States Association for Energy Economics (www.usaee.org).
Prior to founding Empowered Energy, Dr. Schell was the Director of Energy Risk Management for Trigen Energy Corporation, a leading provider of district heating systems and energy-efficient combined heat and power solutions for large industrial firms, universities, governmental agencies, and municipalities. Dr. Schell orchestrated the hedging of electricity sales and natural gas purchases for Trigen's major operating units, supported by in-depth commodity market analysis and commodity contract oversight. Aggregating Trigen's emissions allowances into a corporate portfolio, Dr. Schell negotiated and set the peak market price for vintage 2003/2003 NOx emissions allowances. Dr. Schell also represented Trigen on the Board of Directors of the Independent Power Producers of New York, Inc. (IPPNY).
Dr. Schell earlier served as the Manager of Regulatory Affairs & Market Analysis for Air Products and Chemicals, Inc., a Fortune 300 global producer of industrial gases and chemicals. While at Air Products, Dr. Schell provided expert witness testimony in numerous natural gas pipeline proceedings at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), on behalf of a coalition of up to nine industrial natural gas end-users. Dr. Schell filed testimony opposing the first major natural gas pipeline to file for market-based rates, on the basis of inadequate market analysis and lack of adherence to FERC policy guidelines.
Dr. Schell received a Ph.D. in Mineral Economics and Operations Research from the Pennsylvania State University and a B.A. in Economics from the University of Washington. After completing her Ph.D., Dr. Schell joined Benjamin Schlesinger and Associates, Inc., providing contractual, regulatory, and deliverability risk evaluation for a dozen project-financed natural gas-fired cogeneration projects.
