Meet Anya Poplavska – Acadia Center’s Transmission Advocacy Fellow

What’s your name and title at Acadia Center?

My name is Anya Poplavska, and I’m currently a Transmission Advocacy Fellow working at Acadia Center.

So – you’re a fellow? How does that work?

I’m funded to work at Acadia Center for a year through an innovative program that RMI (the Rocky Mountain Institute) has started to train more advocates in the transmission space. Unfortunately, there’s a shortage of professionals ready to hit the ground running on transmission advocacy, given it’s a pretty thorny topic – which is why the fellowship was created. I spend 80% of my time at Acadia Center, in a full-time capacity like any other employee, and I spend the other 20% of my time getting training from RMI on transmission topics. This includes peer learning with the other fellows, readings, lectures, mentorship, and more. It’s a comprehensive and helpful program – I feel grateful that my day-to-day job consists of learning as much as I can.

What is transmission in the context of clean energy? Why is it important?

Simply put, transmission is how power flows from point A to point B. Think about how you can flip on a light switch or charge your devices by plugging them into an outlet at home – that power was originally generated elsewhere and was delivered to your home. ‘Transmission’ is how that energy gets delivered to you, with lines that run at high voltages and typically long distances to carry power from an energy source to your home. Transmission is critical to keep the lights on – without it, we can’t get power from point A to point B. Transmission is also an important tool for renewables – think of transmission as a highway; the more capacity we open and the better we plan it, the more we can get clean energy resources plugged into this ‘highway’ of power lines. Transmission, for this reason, can typically help decrease prices if planned and invested in prudently – it allows more resource competition, which is critical at a time where clean energy resources are encountering years-long wait times to get plugged into our grid.

What projects are you working on now? What does a typical day look like for you as a fellow?

One of my favorite things about working at Acadia Center is the variety of my day-to-day work! On the state level, I’m advancing intervenor compensation legislation and a bill to deploy Grid Enhancing Technologies (GETs) on transmission lines. Intervenor compensation helps underrepresented groups participate in utility proceedings, while GETs improve the efficiency of existing transmission lines. This work involves drafting legislation, research, writing, and many meetings. On the regional transmission level, I’m involved in New England’s “Longer Term Transmission Planning Process,” which is focused on soliciting proposals for new transmission projects. We’re preparing to submit comments on a Request for Proposals process, we’re always reading and updating our advocacy positions as the process moves along, and we work with other advocates. Additionally, I track the federal “Order 1920”, which mandates transmission planning in every region – so I attend many meetings on this topic to see how compliance is happening with this Order, and provide our feedback to represent the public interest. Beyond this, I’m working on Acadia’s internship program to promote diversity, reading a LOT about transmission, and doing other projects, like researching Community Benefits Agreements.

Can you tell us more about what programs Acadia Center is working on regarding Transmission?

Acadia Center’s Communities and Clean Grid project engages municipalities, keeping them informed about decisions and ongoing discussions at the Independent System Operator (ISO) in New England, which manages transmission and wholesale energy markets. We also participate in ISO stakeholder meetings and serve as a voting member on key issues. Additionally, The Acadia Center, along with Nergica, is working with stakeholders on the Northeast Grid Planning Forum to enhance coordination between the eastern U.S. and Canadian grids, aiming for a collaborative energy system (including interregional transmission) that empowers both regions.

What got you interested in this work?

I was born in Kyiv, Ukraine, and raised in California as a first-generation Ukrainian-American. While growing up in the U.S., I was aware of the privileges I had, but also saw the environmental damage in Ukraine, from Chernobyl’s legacy to pollution near my grandmother’s home. These experiences sparked my passion for environmental protection. I also recognized that marginalized communities in the U.S. face similar environmental harms, typically stemming from polluting fossil fuel sources more likely to be sited where they live. It even goes deeper, where gentrification and inequalities between different communities can even explain things like variations in tree canopy density. Overall, my memories of growing up in California – ones that came at a sharp contrast to my experiences in Ukraine – have made me passionate about ensuring our domestic environmental action is equitable and protects vulnerable communities. I started doing environmental activism when I was 14, I spent all of college trying a myriad of different environmental internships, and post-graduation I landed at the U.S. Department of Energy working on equitable access to clean energy. I’m particularly drawn to clean energy within the climate space for its potential to create wealth and independence for communities—and I generally find it fascinating!

Which issues do you feel are most important to the clean energy transition?

I will always beat the drum of centering equity in conversations regarding clean energy. To explain why, I think it’s important to put the clean energy transition into context – we’re dealing with a monumental shift in the way we consume energy and the way we plan our future. I think of it as akin to the industrial revolution, honestly. When we can so drastically change the way we do things, we should get it right and ensure that communities are front and center in the decision-making process, that they own clean energy sources, and that they financially + materially benefit from what happens. I will say, this same issue is what makes transmission a sticky issue. Transmission happens at such a large scale, and there’s a lot of technocratic discussions that are decentered from people’s day to day lives – which is ironic, because we all do pay for transmission at the end of the day through our utility bills! So I do think it’s important that we build more transmission – research shows that the benefits of tax credits stemming from the Inflation Reduction Act won’t be realized without MASSIVE amounts of new transmission – but I think we do need to do a better job of communicating how clean energy and transmission affects communities + their lives. We also see massive backlash from communities when it comes to siting transmission and clean energy generally – I think all this ties together and truly is the barrier to us pushing these beneficial technologies and transmission forward.

What advice do you have for any other folks/young people hoping to get into the climate/clean energy space generally?

Honestly, I would say to not get discouraged – I feel like it’s hard to know how much opportunity there is in the climate field until you’ve dipped your toe in – I can’t tell you how many jobs I’m seeing pop up due to large influxes in government funding, private capital, philanthropy, etc. I would encourage people to follow what they’re passionate about and to be strategic about the future; i.e., ask yourself, what will be booming 10 years from now? Personally, I think clean energy will continue to grow and be an essential field. Trust that what you’re pursuing is a valuable skill, even if it doesn’t feel that way in this moment or if people tell you there’s not many ‘jobs in the climate space’ (which I think is untrue).