In 2012, Sam Newell worked on a project that defined his career in energy consulting, advising Texas policymakers on investment incentives to ensure grid reliability. Rather than advocating a single solution, Newell said he laid out a full range of options and their tradeoffs for policymakers and stakeholders.
His report became widely cited and sparked a wave of follow-up challenges, but it also taught him important lessons that he has implemented throughout his career. That said, the consultant’s role is not to prescribe answers, but to provide rigorous, objective analysis to help decision makers navigate complex choices.
Now based in Boston, Newell leads the Brattle Group’s 65-person power practice, advising clients ranging from utilities and infrastructure investors to regulators, high-tech companies and system operators.
Brattle Group has approximately 500 employees worldwide and specializes in financial analysis and litigation support for businesses and policymakers.
Demand has skyrocketed since 2024, when large-scale data center projects were announced, and is five times higher than demand over the past 20 years, Newell said.
What customers want to know is how to provide enough generation and transmission capacity and how to price it, he said. “How do we accommodate this new load growth, and how do we do it reliably and keep power affordable for everyone?”
Much of his work now focuses on answering that question, from finding ways to get more out of the existing power grid using “grid hardening techniques” to advising large energy users on how to better integrate them into their systems.
Interest in nuclear power is also growing, Newell said, and the Brattle Group is working on a “nuclear master plan” for New York City, addressing issues such as how to expand nuclear power and what financing structures to use. He said there were “big questions” about how to reduce the cost curve and what business structure could pay for nuclear power plants, adding that new nuclear capacity is unlikely to meaningfully increase U.S. supply until around 2040.
Working in the energy sector offers an opportunity to help build the infrastructure, commercial models and regulatory frameworks needed to support AI, Newell said.
“There’s more room for innovation now than ever before, and a lot of the innovation is actually coming from young people,” he said.