Debra Lew

Debra J. Lew is an American engineering executive focusing on electrical power systems and on carbon-neutral sources of renewable energy such as wind power and solar power. She is the executive director of the Energy Systems Integration Group, a non-profit association focusing on educating engineers and the public about power systems.¹

Lew majored in electrical engineering and physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,² graduating in 1988.³ She has a Ph.D. in applied physics from Stanford University.²

After working for the United States government National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado, and then for General Electric as a senior technical director in its GE Energy Consulting firm, she joined the Energy Systems Integration Group (ESIG) in 2020 as its associate director.⁴ She was named executive director of ESIG in 2024, replacing its 1989 founder, Charlie Smith.²

Lew also serves as a member of the Board on Energy and Environmental Systems of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.⁵

Lew was named as an IEEE Fellow in the IEEE Fellows Class of 2025, "for contributions to grid integration of wind and solar power".³⁶