Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) has appointed Chelle Izzi as its Chief Commercial Officer, a newly created position. Izzi will be responsible for developing PG&E’s commercial strategy to meet California’s increasing energy needs, with an emphasis on serving large commercial and industrial customers.
Izzi’s role will focus on supporting the expansion of electric services for major clients such as data centers powered by artificial intelligence. This initiative is expected to help lower costs for all PG&E customers by driving rate-reducing load growth. The company also anticipates that serving new and expanding large electric customers will contribute to local economic development through job creation, increased investment, and higher revenue for public services.
PG&E Corporation CEO Patti Poppe stated, “We’re thrilled to welcome Chelle to the PG&E family as we continue to work every day to provide clean, resilient energy and create prosperity for the customers and hometowns we serve. Chelle’s expertise will help us find new ways to serve California’s growing electric demand while staying focused on affordability for our customers.”
With over 25 years of experience in the clean energy sector, Izzi brings knowledge from her previous roles at Constellation, CPower, NextEra Energy Resources, and Walmart. Her background includes managing large-scale projects in competitive retail markets and infrastructure development.
“PG&E’s electric demand will reach new levels as large commercial customers bring projects online and electrify their vehicle fleets,” said Izzi. “Meeting this transformational moment requires a strategic and streamlined approach to deliver for these high-growth customers. I’m passionate about accelerating the energy transition, and there is no better time or place to do so than today at PG&E.”
PG&E projects that electricity demand on its grid could double by 2040 due to growth in sectors such as technology, agriculture, retail, education, manufacturing, and government. Data centers are expected to be a significant factor in this increase; they could add up to 10 gigawatts of demand—enough energy for 7.5 million homes. As electricity use rises among its customer base, PG&E expects it can distribute fixed operational costs more widely, which may result in lower per-unit costs for all users. For example, each additional gigawatt of data center demand could reduce customer bills by 1% to 2%, with a potential total reduction of over 10% if data center demand increases by 10 gigawatts.
Similarly, adding one million electric vehicles (EVs) to the grid could decrease bills by at least 1%. Izzi has been active in advancing eMobility initiatives including Walmart’s public EV charging network, Greenlane—a zero-emission fleet network—and NextEra Mobility.
Izzi holds an MBA in Finance and Economics from Columbia Business School and a Bachelor of Science from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service.
PG&E serves more than 16 million people across Northern and Central California. More information is available at pge.com/news.
