Regulatory Assistance Project

Background

The Regulatory Assistance Project was founded in 1992 by former Maine utility regulators to provide technical advice to electric utility policymakers. The RAP has evolved into an international organization with a focus on the United States, Europe, China, India, Brazil, and Thailand. The organization’s employees, who are mostly former public utility regulators, provide advice, advocacy, and support for power-sector regulation, the decarbonization of electricity generation, weather-dependent energy integration, and affordability. ^{1  2  3}

Initiatives

Build Clean Energy Sources

In furtherance of its effort to accelerate the use of what it calls the “most affordable” sources of electricity, the Regulatory Assistance Project launched a Power System Blueprint designed for the European system as part of its Build Electricity Resources initiative. The report’s stated goal was the achievement of “climate neutrality” by 2050, which requires meeting decarbonization goals by 2035. ^{4  5}

Electrify End Uses

Electrify End Uses is the RAP’s initiative to shift from coal-, oil-, and gas-generated power by converting buildings, industry, and transportation to fully electric power, heat, and other utility services. The organization claims that this shift of energy sources is more affordable, reliable, and efficient. The RAP helps governments and regulators design policies and pricing that makes the shift “cost-effective.” ⁶

The RAP published a document titled “How to unlock benefits from EV charging: Key lessons from a global study” in June of 2025 that details the results of case studies in the United States, Europe, India, and China to estimate the economic and environmental benefits of electric-vehicle charging. The authors concluded that savings are generated from smart charging, which also reduces reliance on coal and oil. ⁷

Optimize Electricity Use

Optimize Electricity Use is the RAP’s initiative to transform how power systems plan, price, and perform to ensure weather-dependent energy can be supplied and reaches people where and when it is needed. RAP works with regulators and policymakers to embed flexibility, affordability, and emissions goals into all decisions and claimed that following their recommendations results in cleaner, cheaper, more reliable energy systems. ⁶

Activities

The Regulatory Assistance Project posted on BlueSky in November of 2025 a paper titled “Nationalization and wind down: Regulation of disconnections and decommissioning of the gas distribution network and disconnections.” The paper detailed steps taken by Denmark to phase out natural-gas heating in households by 2035 and to achieve a 100 percent low-carbon gas supply by 2030. ^{8  9}

The RAP published on February 4, 2026, the first in a series of articles titled “Data Centers and the Next Era of Energy Regulation” designed to aid decisionmakers in dealing with the increased electricity load required to support data centers. ¹⁰

The RAP posted on LinkedIn on June 20, 2026, a presentation of nine policy principles developed in conjunction with the International Council on Clean Transportation designed to speed up freight electrification. ¹

Partner

The Regulatory Assistance Project is a designated partner of the left-of-center ClimateWorks Foundation (CWF) for power sector best practices. The CWF provides targeted funding to the RAP including a $2 million award in 2022 for leveraging utility regulatory policy and other lesser grants in 2016, 2018 & 2019. RAP states in its “Global Power Best Practice Series” that CW funded and co-founded the series. CWF is a left-of-center organization founded with funding from William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and David and Lucile Packard Foundation that seeks to end the sale of automobiles powered by combustion engines by 2040. ^{11  12  13}

Finances

The Regulatory Assistance Project reported 2023-2024 program services revenue on its 2024 tax return of $1,899,714 or 10.3 percent of total revenue and salaries and other compensation of $11,298,511 or 61.3 percent of revenue. ¹⁴

Funding

The Regulatory Assistance Project is funded by ClimateWorks Foundation (CWF) and multiple other foundations, federal contracts, and European Union grants, with grantors including the Aspen Global Change Institute, the New Venture Fund, the Climate Imperative Foundation, and in Europe, the European Climate Foundation, and EU Horizon Europe/LIFE. ^{2  15}

People

As of July 2026, the Regulatory Assistance Project’s co-founders and current board members were David Moskovitz and Cheryl Harrington. Prior to founding the RAP, both were commissioners on the Maine Public Utilities Commission (PUC). Harrington also was a vice-chair of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioner’s Energy Conservation Committee. ^{16  17}

Katherine Dixon is the CEO of the RAP and a former British diplomat and energy transition chief counselor at the International Energy Agency (IEA). Amanda Ormond is the board chair and managing director at Western Grid Group, a consulting firm. ^{18  19  20}