Phillippe Phanivong is a postdoctoral scholar working on the Oakland EcoBlock project with the California Institute for Energy and Environment (CIEE).
Phanivong earned his Ph.D. in energy and resources from UC Berkeley in 2023. His dissertation examined the impacts of electricity rate design on electric grid operations with high distributed energy resource adoption. Phanivong works at the intersection of power systems engineering, energy economics and electricity regulation. His research interests include distributed energy resource operations, price-signal control, congestion management in the distribution system, and electricity market design.
Directly out of high school, Phillippe enlisted in the U.S. Navy, working on an aircraft carrier as a nuclear power plant electrician. After six years, he left the Navy to obtain his associate degree at North Seattle Community College and his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering at the University of Washington (UW). He held engineering internships with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and Seattle City Light during that time. After graduating from UW, he returned to PNNL as a research scientist before joining the Energy and Resources Group at UC Berkeley for graduate school. Outside of work, Phanivong enjoys climbing, running and playing overly complex board games.