CESA Independent Board Member

Diane Fellman has a 40-year career in California energy policy that is continuing into her retirement.  She has worked in both the public and private sector to advance carbon reduction policies and the related, necessary investment.  

Diane Fellman started her career in public service as an Administrative Law Judge with the Ohio Power Siting Commission in 1975.   In 1977, she came to California to serve as a Hearing Officer and Office Manager at the Energy Commission and staff counsel for the California Public Utilities Commission.  In a career arc, she returned to that Commission in 2017 and served as the Team Leader for the California Choice Project , identifying policy platforms to ensure affordability, reliability and decarbonization as part of the Commission’s inquiry into disaggregation of the electric sector.

Ms. Fellman’s experience as attorney in private practice focused on representing energy developers before California state agencies and in power purchase agreement negotiations with the utilities.   She was West Region lead at NextEra Energy and NRG emphasizing advancement of governmental policies to encourage the development of natural gas, distributed energy resources, storage, renewables (both utility scale and distributed), and electric vehicles.     

Ms. Fellman currently serves as a gubernatorial appointee to the California Wildfire Safety Advisory Board (Vice Chair) and as the Independent Board Member of the California Energy Storage Alliance (CESA). Her most recent area of concentration is applying California’s policy development experience to emerging markets with an emphasis on sub-Sahara Africa.

Ms. Fellman has a law degree from the University of Cincinnati and an undergraduate degree in political science from the Ohio State University.