REDWOOD CITY, CA – Peninsula Clean Energy’s board of directors have selected Shawn Marshall as the agency’s new chief executive officer (CEO), effective July 1.
Marshall will succeed Jan Pepper, who is retiring after leading the agency to prominence over the past seven years as the CEO since the agency’s inception in 2016.
Marshall became Peninsula Clean Energy’s chief operating officer in May 2022 and has been leading the agency’s internal efforts toward meeting its strategic plan, which has succeeded in delivering zero-emission electricity to its customers and is now focused on dramatically reducing carbon emissions from the transportation and building sectors.
“Anyone following Jan’s pioneering leadership would have big shoes to fill. But Shawn’s transition to CEO should be seamless given her tremendous contributions to the agency already and her breadth of experience in California’s community choice energy industry,” said Dave Pine, president of the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors and the founding chairperson and a current board member of Peninsula Clean Energy.
“Taking Peninsula Clean Energy from a start-up public agency to an industry leading innovator in the energy sector over the past seven years has been a dream come true. Building an amazingly talented team, delivering cleaner electricity while saving our customers millions of dollars, and earning three investment grade credit ratings has been very fulfilling,” Pepper said.
“As this organization enters its next phase, Shawn is the perfect successor to hand the reins to.”
Before joining Peninsula Clean Energy, Marshall was the Director of CCA Market Development & External Affairs at Calpine Energy solutions and a founder and board member of Marin Clean Energy (MCE), California’s first Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) agency.
She was also the founder and executive director of LEAN Energy US, a national organization that provides resources and market expertise to state and local governments and other organizations wishing to pursue CCAs such as Peninsula Clean Energy and MCE. Marshall is also the former mayor of the City of Mill Valley, a former business consultant and former community development manager at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.
“It has been such an honor to work for Jan and this incredible team,” Marshall said. “Peninsula Clean Energy is well known as one of the premiere community choice programs in the country. I intend to build on Jan’s leadership by moving PCE into its next growth phase, delivering on customer rate savings, and leading on round-the-clock renewable energy and decarbonization.”
Under Pepper’s leadership, Peninsula Clean Energy became one of the most influential California Community Choice Aggregation agencies, and an industry thought leader more broadly in the electric utility sector.
That included developing a strategy and modeling toward achieving 24/7 renewable power on an hourly basis, which is the most aggressive goal in the power utility sector.
Since Peninsula Clean Energy service began in San Mateo County in the fall of 2016, customers automatically enrolled in the agency’s default ECOplus program have saved $107 million, including $17 million in 2022, demonstrating that it is possible to receive cleaner and greener electricity at a lower cost.
The agency has helped reduce millions of metric tons of heat-trapping carbon dioxide emissions, while keeping its electricity generation rates at least five percent lower than PG&E’s baseline rate. Peninsula Clean Energy through 2021 had already helped reduce nearly 1.7 million metric tons of heat-trapping carbon dioxide emissions, an amount equivalent to avoiding the use of more than 191 million gallons of gas.
Peninsula Clean Energy accelerated California’s clean energy goals by providing all of its customers with 50 percent renewable energy in 2016, which was 14 years ahead of the state’s target. The agency continued to be a trend-setter by providing all of its customers with 100 percent emission-free power beginning in 2021, well ahead of California’s 2045 zero-emission power mandate.
About Peninsula Clean Energy
Peninsula Clean Energy is a Community Choice Aggregation agency. It is the official electricity provider for San Mateo County and for the City of Los Banos. Founded in 2016 with a mission to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the agency serves a population of 810,000 by providing more than 3,600 gigawatt hours annually of electricity that is 50 percent renewable, 100 percent clean and at lower cost than PG&E. As a community-led, not-for-profit agency, Peninsula Clean Energy makes significant investments in its communities to expand access to sustainable and affordable energy solutions. Peninsula Clean Energy is on track to deliver electricity that is 100 percent renewable by 2025. Follow us at PenCleanEnergy.com, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn