Before Brandon McGee was directing one of the most sophisticated energy market operations centers on the East Coast, he was spinning records at weddings, bars, and corporate events up and down the Jersey Shore. As the house DJ at Ocean Drive in Sea Isle City, he learned something that has served him well ever since: read the room, stay in control, and never let the crowd — or the grid — feel the chaos.
Today, Brandon is Director of Market Operations at Customized Energy Solutions, where he oversees a control room managing more than 546 active resources and 31,300 megawatts of generation. But his path to that seat started not with a five-year plan, but with family.
Growing up, Brandon watched relatives work as operators at Atlantic City Electric and PECO. Their careers planted a seed. When it came time to choose a direction, he pursued mechanical engineering before pivoting to economics — drawn equally to how systems work and how markets move. That combination, it turned out, was exactly what the energy industry needed.
“I had environmental economics classes, robotics, engineering,” he recalls. “And even in high school, we were working with solar cells. Wind and renewables felt like the future.” When an opportunity to join CES right out of college presented itself, he took it — and never looked back.
Brandon came in as an operator, working night shifts and learning the grid from the ground up. Those early years were formative in ways he still carries. He remembers working through Hurricane Sandy, water coming through the roof, emergencies cascading across the grid. “It looked very different then,” he says, “both in our scope and what we did with clients.” But those high-pressure moments shaped both his instincts and his appreciation for what the operations center has become.
Over the years, he has grown alongside CES — from a small-scale operation handling a handful of units to the control room that exists today. A defining chapter in that journey was the move of the Market Operations Center from the 22nd floor to its current home on the 19th, purpose-built as a state-of-the-art facility and a genuine showpiece for the company. “There’s an immense amount of pride in that,” Brandon says. “Seeing it go from 11 assets at around 1,000 megawatts to where we are now — 546 active resources and 31,300 megawatts.” The growth isn’t just a number on a slide. It’s something he helped build, shift by shift, year by year.
More recently, he led the expansion of CES’s scheduling coordinator operations and the integration of Grid BOOST coordination, adding new structural layers to an already complex operation. What keeps Brandon motivated isn’t just the scale — it’s the people around him. He describes CES as an unusually deep talent pool, full of long-tenured industry experts who continue to challenge and teach him. “You should never be the smartest person in the room,” he says, “and I don’t think that will ever happen here.”
It’s a philosophy rooted in humility; one he would pass along to anyone considering a career in energy: stay curious, ask questions, and resist the temptation to over-specialize. “The industry moves, technologies change, regulations change. A diverse skill set will take you further.”
Outside of work, Brandon is a devoted family man and an avid golfer — equal parts competitive and meditative, depending on the shot. He and his wife have two young sons, ages five and three, and when he’s not at the course, he’s likely at the beach with his family or out fishing.
And yes, the DJ equipment is still within reach. Old friends and colleagues still call, and when they do, Brandon is usually willing to dust off the headphones. Some skills, it turns out, never really leave you — whether you’re managing a dance floor or a control room, the job is the same: keep things running smoothly and know when to turn up the energy.
