Karolina Maslanka Joins CESA as Policy Director

Karolina brings extensive energy policy knowledge, valuable regulatory experience, and dedication to California’s clean energy transition. As CESA’s Policy Director, Karolina is committed to tackling emerging challenges and seizing new opportunities to improve the regulatory environment for energy storage. She is ready to advance policies that promote the deployment and integration of energy storage solutions, ensuring a reliable, affordable, and sustainable energy future.

Prior to joining CESA, Karolina played a pivotal role at the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), where she contributed to the design and implementation of the Integrated Resource Planning (IRP) program. As a Senior Analyst, she managed cross-functional teams to improve capacity expansion modeling and cultivated partnerships to ensure the unprecedented amounts of planned energy storage were accounted for in the CAISO’s transmission planning process. In her role as Energy Advisor to Alice Busching Reynolds, President of the CPUC, Karolina guided decision-making on critical topics, including long-term resource planning, transmission, and permitting, and contributed to the landmark decision that calls for centrally procured resources, including long-duration energy storage.

Karolina’s background also includes legislative work in California, federal-level experience with the White House Council on Environmental Quality, advocacy work as a fellow for NRDC, and community engagement as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Panama. Karolina holds a Master of Public Policy from the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley.

Karolina’s interdisciplinary expertise, strategic foresight, and proficiency in navigating complex regulatory landscapes equip her to effectively advance energy storage policy as the Policy Director at CESA.