About Us

The Wired Group anticipates playing a role in the evolution of the for-profit distribution utility industry as it grapples with technological advances, changing customer expectations, and increasing societal interest in environmental impact.

The Wired Group helps its clients unleash the latent value in distribution utility businesses. Consumer, business, and environmental advocates, as well as regulatory staff, ask the Wired Group to provide them with objective information and decision support regarding for-profit distribution utility investment planning, operations, performance, and regulation.

Wired Group team members are experienced in a wide array of disciplines, including engineering, economics, finance and marketing, in all widely-distributed commodities (electricity, natural gas, and water/wastewater).

Download principal and associate biographies

Review open electric, natural gas, or water/wastewater positions.

The Wired Group is fiercely independent and resolutely objective. Our only goal is to help our clients minimize the cost and maximize the benefits of distribution utility investments. We maintain no relationships with investor-owned utilities, and offer no services that might bias the advice and counsel we deliver.

The Wired Group is the proud developer of the Utility Evaluator performance benchmarking software application. In addition, Wired Group associates are thought leaders and active authors, and are involved in many utility industry publications, conferences, and associations.

Electricity Journal:

• Alternative Ratemaking in the U.S: A Prerequisite for Grid Modernization or an Unwarranted Shift of Risk to Customers?
• Measuring Distribution Performance? Benchmarking Warrants Your Attention
• Busting Myths: Investor-Owned Distribution Utility Performance Can Be Credibly Benchmarked

Public Utilities Fortnightly:

• The Rush to Modernize (an Editorial on Distribution Planning and Performance Measurement)
• Maximizing Customer Benefits (smart grid)
• Integrated Distribution Planning (analogies to resource planning)
• Buying Into Solar (why IOUs have been slow to invest)

Smart Grid News:

• The Case for Performance-Based Recovery
• Guidelines for Performance-Based Recovery
• State Performance Measures

Conferences and Associations:

• Smart Grid Today
• DistribuTECH
• Canadian Electricity Association
• Electric Utility Environmental Conference
• National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) Subcommittee on Energy Resources and the Environment
• NARUC Subcommittee on Electricity
• Association for Demand Response and Smart Grid
• Mid-Atlantic Distributed Resource Initiative
• Great Lakes Smart Grid Symposium
• National Conference of Regulatory Attorneys
• National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates
• Intelligent Utility/Energy Central — The True Cost of Smart Grid Capabilities

The Wired Group enjoys a strong and growing reputation for integrity and customer perspective. The Wired Group's focus on obtaining fact-based solutions to client challenges have earned the firm and its team of seasoned professionals the respect of regulators, staff, utility managers, consumer and business advocates, environmental advocates, consultants, and researchers across the US.

The Wired Group is led by Paul Alvarez, formerly the utility practice leader at sustainable development advisory firm MetaVu, Inc. At MetaVu, Mr. Alvarez led teams that conducted comprehensive, independent evaluations of two high-profile smart grid deployments, including Xcel Energy's SmartGridCity and Duke Energy's Cincinnati deployment for the PUC of Ohio.

Mr. Alvarez has been active in the distribution utility industry for almost two decades and has testified before regulatory commissions in California, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, North Carolina, and Ohio. He is the author of Smart Grid Hype and Reality — A Systems Approach to Maximizing Customer Return on Utility Investment. He is also an adjunct professor for the University of Colorado's Global Energy Management Program and the Advanced Regulatory Studies program at Michigan State University.

Mr. Alvarez holds an undergraduate degree in Business Administration from Indiana University and a Master's degree in Management from the Kellogg School at Northwestern University.