Peter Lake is an American businessman who served as chairman of the

Public Utility Commission of Texas The Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUC or PUCT) is a state agency that regulates the state’s electric, water and telecommunication utilities, implements respective legislation, and offers customer assistance in resolving consumer complain ...

from 2021 to 2023, and as chairman of the

Texas Water Development Board The Texas Water Development Board is an agency of the government of Texas with authority over water development in the state. The Board appoints directors for regional water development agencies such as the Lower Neches Valley Authority. In the 2 ...

from 2018 to 2021.

Early life and education

Originally from

Tyler, Texas Tyler, officially the City of Tyler, is a city in and the county seat of Smith County, Texas, United States. As of 2020, the population is 105,995. Tyler was the List of municipalities in Texas, 38th most populous city in Texas (as well as the m ...

, Lake attended the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

and

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

. He earned a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

in Public Policy from the University of Chicago and an

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA) is a professional degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration; elective courses may allow further study in a particular a ...

from Stanford's Graduate School of Business.

Career

Early career

Lake began his career in the financial sector, working as a trader on the

Chicago Board of Trade The Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT), is an American futures exchange, futures and options exchange that was founded in 1848. On July 12, 2007, the CBOT merged with the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) to form CME Group. CBOT and three other excha ...

and the

Chicago Mercantile Exchange The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) (often called "the Chicago Merc", or "the Merc") is an American derivatives marketplace based in Chicago and located at 20 S. Wacker Drive. The CME was founded in 1898 as the Chicago Butter and Egg Board ...

as well as director of research at Gambit Trading. He also worked a number of private sector jobs which included director of business development at Lake Ronel Oil Co., and special projects director for private investment firm VantageCap Partners.

Public service

Lake served on the Texas Water Development Board beginning in December 2015, before becoming chairman of the board in 2018. While on the board, he oversaw the implementation of a

Senate Bill A bill is a proposal for a new law, or a proposal to substantially alter an existing law. A bill does not become law until it has been passed by the legislature and, in most cases, approved by the executive. Bills are introduced in the leg ...

that established Texas' first flood infrastructure fund and statewide planning following

Hurricane Harvey Hurricane Harvey was a devastating tropical cyclone that made landfall in Texas and Louisiana in August 2017, causing catastrophic flooding and more than 100 deaths. It is tied with 2005's Hurricane Katrina as the costliest tropical cy ...

. It also financed billions of dollars in water infrastructure projects through the State Water Implementation Fund for Texas program and State Revolving Funds. This included the construction of the Lower Bois d'Arc Creek Reservoir which was the first reservoir to be built in Texas in 30 years. In April 2021, Governor Greg Abbott appointed Lake as chairman of the Public Utility Commission of Texas, following the resignation of

DeAnn Walker DeAnn Thomason Walker was a chairman of the Public Utility Commission of Texas from 2017 to 2021, when she resigned following criticism of the commission's response to the 2021 Texas power crisis. Biography The daughter of artist Ronald Thomason ...

from the position. The appointment came in the aftermath of the

2021 Texas power crisis In February 2021, the state of Texas suffered a major Energy crisis, power crisis, which came about during three severe winter storms sweeping across the United States on February 2021 North American ice storm, February 10–11, February 13� ...

. As PUC chairman, Lake was tasked with rebuilding stakeholder trust and increasing transparency. He initiated several public work sessions to drive grid reforms and oversaw the creation of the agency's Office of Public Engagement. He also worked closely with the Texas Legislature to implement changes, playing a key role in executing Senate Bill 3, which overhauled the state's power grid. Lake implemented several significant reforms, including new winterization requirements for power plants and fuel sources, and oversaw changes to the grid operations of the

Electric Reliability Council of Texas The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, Inc. (ERCOT) is an American organization that operates Texas's electrical grid, the Texas Interconnection, which supplies power to more than 25 million Texas customers and represents 90 percent of the st ...

(ERCOT) to increase reliability. He also led the development of the "performance credit mechanism," a first-of-its-kind proposal designed to incentivize power generators to be available during peak periods. He also "pushed through a market change proposal designed to create an additional way for gas-fueled power plant generators to make money, hoping to spur construction of more power plants". During Lake's tenure, the state experienced no system-wide blackouts despite facing periods of record-breaking electricity demand. Lake resigned from the position in June 2023 but remained on the board as a commissioner through the following month.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lake, Peter Living people People from Tyler, Texas University of Chicago alumni Stanford University alumni Chairs of the Public Utility Commission of Texas Year of birth missing (living people)