Steve Andersen

Manager | Kirkland, WA

The Employee Spotlight for July 2020 is Steve Anderson, out of our EES Consulting Office in Washington.  Steve graduated from the University of Washington with a degree in Electrical Engineering. He has been a part of EES Consulting for 24 years, and with the recent acquisition of EES is now a part of the GDS family.

Mr Anderson splits his time between working on retail rate design and cost of service studies and assisting utilities with projecting power supply costs, integrated resource plans and resource feasibility studies.  He also works with utilities tracking their compliance with renewable portfolio standards, fuel mix reporting requirements and carbon legislation requirements.

Over the past 10 years, Steve has found the changes in the utility resource portfolio requirements interesting to track.  He enjoys helping utilities plan for how they will meet those requirements over the short (1 to 5 years) and long-term (5 to 20 years).  To him, the most rewarding part of consulting work is seeing the unique challenges presented and assisting the utility with a solution to satisfy those needs.

What do you enjoy doing on your day off?

Running, skiing, hiking and playing soccer and basketball.

What is on your bucket list?

To visit Peru and Chile.

Fun fact about yourself?

I ran long distance events on the track and cross-country teams at the University of Washington.

What is your favorite meal?

I could eat a burrito every meal.

What is the best vacation you’ve been on?  Why?

Exploring small towns in the mountains of France and Switzerland by train. The accessibility to high elevation hiking trails from beautiful small towns was exciting to see in person.

Any career lessons you have learned thus far?

Clients highly value communication and transparency. Projects go the most smoothly when the client feels he/she can contact us anytime and we will quickly get back to them with answers to their questions.

Do you have a favorite quote?

“Plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.”  – Dwight D. Eisenhower

Tell us about your family and how you like to spend your time with them.

We have 2 biological kids (14 y.o. boy and a 16 y.o. girl) and 2 adopted children from Ethiopia (9 y.o. boy and a 14 y.o. girl). We’ve been to Ethiopia 4 times and have enjoyed learning about their beautiful people and culture. Our house is full and loud. We enjoy taking trips to the mountains and the Oregon coast.