Grid Geeks

Grid Geeks is on hiatus for while...but, check out this new podcast: Electrify This! with host Sara Baldwin. This podcast explores the burgeoning movement to electrify everything as a core strategy to decarbonize all sectors of our economy. Three experts highlight the most important policy, regulatory, and market issues surrounding electrification of transportation and buildings. What are leading states are doing right? How will the new Biden-Harris Administration tackle clean energy? What can decision-makers can do to ensure the movement to electrify is equitable for all? Subscribe to Electrify This! where you get your other podcasts! Guests: Rose McKinney-James, Managing Principal of Energy Works LLC and McKinney-James and Associates, and a former Commissioner with the Nevada Public Service Commission; Sue Gander, Managing Director of Electric Vehicle Policy with the Electrification Coalition and former Director of the Energy, Infrastructure and Environment Division with the National Governors’ Association; and Mike Henchen, Principal of Building Electrification with the Rocky Mountain Institute and a former US Navy Officer. Electrify This! is an Energy Innovation original podcast.

Introduction Electrify This! - a new podcast devoted to the theme of electrification for decarbonization. Electrify This! features electrification experts from around the world who are advancing the transition of all sectors of our economy to 100 percent clean electricity. Hosted by Sara Baldwin, Energy Innovation's Electrification Policy Director (and former Grid Geeks podcast host), the show will explore the policy, regulatory, and market issues surrounding electrification of transportation, buildings, and industry, and demystifies complex issues to better understand the challenges and identify scalable solutions. Preventing the worst impacts of climate change requires rapid reductions in greenhouse gas emissions economywide. Electrification – replacing the technologies and systems that still run on fossil fuels, such as gas and oil, with alternatives that run on electricity, like electric vehicles, heat pumps, and induction stoves – is a proven way to transition away from highly polluting fuels to a clean energy economy without compromising reliability, affordability, comfort, or economic growth. We have the technologies and capabilities to run the electricity grid on 90 carbon-free resources (such as renewable energy, energy efficiency, energy storage, distributed energy resources, nuclear, demand response, etc.), and if we “electrify everything,” we can leverage this clean grid to drive deep emissions reductions across every sector of the economy. Electrify This! investigates promising electrification work underway in nationally and in states and communities across the country, highlighting what policymakers, regulators, businesses, and individuals should know and do to support economy-wide electrification.

Distributed energy resources (or DERs) – such as distributed solar or wind, demand response, and energy storage – have long been touted as part of the solution to create a more flexible, resilient and clean electric grid. These DERs are growing in popularity and the demand for consumer-sited resources is surging, as prices drop and people seek greater energy security. Yet, despite their fanfare, DERs still remain a relatively small percentage of the electricity grid and an underutilized resource when it comes to utility distribution system operations and planning. DERs have the potential to yield a more flexible and resilient (and, ultimately, a more reliable) grid – but only if that potential is allowed to be realized. In this episode, I speak with Jessica Shipley of the Regulatory Assistance Project (RAP) and Brian Lydic of the Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC)to explore what is happening on the cutting edge of DER policies, regulations, codes and standards. We’ll also talk about grid flexibility, resilience, and what more is needed to unlock the full potential of DERS.

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, utilities and system operators have continued to manage and operate the electric grid, while dealing with a number of challenges, including: keeping utility employees safe, responding to abrupt changes to electricity demand, protecting customers and preserving reliability. In this episode of Grid Geeks, I discuss the challenges and experiences brought by COVID-19 with two electrical energy industry experts: Dean Sharafi, who heads System Management for the South-West Interconnected System in Australia and Senior Member of IEEE and Member of the IEEE Power Energy Society Governing Board and Juan Carlos Montero, Network Analyst in the Costa Rican National Power Control Center and IEEE PES Vice President of Membership and Image. (Host Sara Baldwin)

Applicable across nearly every sector, energy efficiency is a pervasive and untapped resource capable of transforming our economy. Not only a key climate change solution and the most cost-effective energy resource available, energy efficiency also helps reduce harmful pollution, creates jobs and saves consumers and businesses money. Yet, despite its fanfare among energy nerds, energy efficiency is an often overlooked resource. In this episode of Grid Geeks, I speak with Rachel Gold, Director of the Utilities Program for the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE), and Christine Brinker is a Senior Associate at the Southwest Energy Efficiency (SWEEP) about energy efficiency policy trends, market impacts, and opportunities on the horizon. (Host Sara Baldwin)

In this episode of Grid Geeks, we investigate the efforts underway to reform the traditional regulated utility business model, as a means to remove the underlying economic disincentives for utilities to enable and/or support more aggressive clean energy policy goals (including increased deployment of distributed energy resources and energy efficiency). I speak with Hannah Polikov, Managing Director of Advanced Energy Economy, and Dan Cross-Call, a Principal with the Rocky Mountain Institute’s Electricity Practice to learn more about the drivers for these efforts, how different states are approaching them, and what we have learned to date from the early movers. (Host Sara Baldwin)

Connecting renewable energy resources to the electric grid in most places requires access to new or existing transmission. However, the current pace of transmission expansion plus policy, regulatory and permitting challenges all pose substantial barriers to transmission and renewable energy project development. In this episode of Grid Geeks, I speak with Nina Plaushin, Vice President, Regulatory and Federal Affairs for ITC Holdings Corp and Amy Farrell, the Senior Vice President for Government and Public Affairs at the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), to dig into the key trends and issues impacting large-scale renewable energy development and the transmission system. (Host: Sara Baldwin)

As we mark the two-year anniversary of Hurricanes Harvey, Maria, Irma, and Jose, and with Hurricane Dorian having just ravaged the Caribbean and now impacting the Southeast and Eastern Seaboard, the resilience of the electric grid is still a front-and-center conversation. Yet, in spite of the growing number of more severe natural disasters and man-made events impacting the electric grid, efforts to place a value on resilience are still relatively nascent. In this episode of Grid Geeks, I talk with two experts on the topic of resilience, Wilson Rickerson, Principal with Converge Strategies, and Jonathon Monken, Senior Director, System Resiliency and Strategic Coordination for PJM Interconnection. We explore some key questions: How is resilience defined? Does it make sense to ascribe a value to resilience? What methods and tools exist to determine that value? Which entities are ‘responsible’ for resilience of the electric grid? Is there sufficient coordination and communication among those entities? What existing resilience efforts provide useful models for others to learn from? (Host Sara Baldwin)

The growing movement to electrify our transportation sector is beginning to reshape our economy, the environment and public health. The transportation sector now exceeds the electricity sector in terms of its overall contribution to greenhouse gas pollution, and the widespread adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) can reduce tailpipe emissions and clean up the air we breathe. But as we move to electrify vehicles, how do you get help people get over their range anxiety and make EVs more mainstream? What are states doing to lead the charge for EVs? How are federal actions impacting EV market growth? To dig into these and other fascinating topics, Ispeak with two transportation electrification experts, Sara Rafalson, Director of Market Development for EVGo, and Max Baumhefner, Senior Attorney for the Climate and Clean Energy Program at the Natural Resources Defense Council. (Host Sara Baldwin)

It has been a little over two months since the November 2018 midterm elections and the 116th United States Congress has commenced – with new members in both the Senate and House and a new majority in the House. Across the States and U.S. Territories, there are 20+ new Governors taking office, which means new cabinet appointments and new policy priorities. In addition, numerous new state legislators are taking office and state legislative sessions are getting underway. On today’s episode of Grid Geeks, I talk with three federal and state policy experts about the impacts of the 2018 elections on clean energy policy and what’s on the horizon in 2019. Guests: Steve Koerner, Founder and Principal at Policy Strategy & Insight; Jessica Scott, Senior Director, Interior West for Vote Solar; and, Brad Klein, Senior Attorney with the Environmental Law & Policy Center. (Host Sara Baldwin)

In this episode of Grid Geeks, we take a closer look at two big policy maneuvers poised to catalyze some potentially major changes in the US energy markets: California’s passage of SB 100, which establishes a 100% carbon-free electricity goal by 2045 and the US Environmental Protection Agency’s Affordable Clean Energy Proposal, which is the Trump Administration’s replacement for the Obama Administration’s Clean Power Plan to regulate coal power plant emissions. What do these two concurrent efforts mean for clean energy markets? And what should we expect going forward? I speak with Laura Wisland, Senior Manager of Western States Energy for the Union of Concerned Scientists and Gavin Bade, Senior Reporter for Utility Dive to get more intel on these two power plays and gain insight on what they mean for clean energy, coal and the future of US energy markets. (Host Sara Baldwin)

The debates on bulk-power system reliability, resiliency, and the “federal fuel wars” continue at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (or FERC) and the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (or NERC). While the Trump Administration’s Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) rule proposal is getting the headlines, the more behind-the-scenes efforts underway at FERC and NERC continue to shape federal energy policy, energy markets and grid planning. In this episode of Grid Geeks I talk with Ric O’Connell, the Executive Director of Grid Lab, and Mark Ahlstrom, President of the Energy Systems Integration Group, to get the latest updates from the frontlines clean energy policy, including expanding the role of energy storage on the grid, integrating “resilience” into energy markets, and updating NERC reliability standards. Show links and bios are available at: http://www.goodgrid.net/blog (Host Sara Baldwin)

Advanced technologies are transforming our daily way of life and economy - from how we heat and cool our buildings to how we transport ourselves and power our economy. We are witnessing what some have declared the “fourth Industrial Revolution.” For state governors, these rapid changes have significant implications for their citizens and economies. To help governors stay “ahead of the curve”, the National Governors Association, under the leadership of NGA Chair Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval, released Energy and Transportation Innovation Roadmaps for Governors. On this episode of Grid Geeks, I speak with Sue Ganderand Daniel Lauf of the National Governors Association to learn about these roadmaps and the key policy considerations states should be thinking about as they navigate energy and transportation innovation. (Host Sara Baldwin)

Consumer-driven distributed energy resources (DERs), such as energy efficiency, distributed generation, electric vehicles and energy storage, are on the rise and here to stay. In many places, DERs are shaping how the grid is operated, managed, and planned. On this episode of Grid Geeks, I speak with Chairman Betty Ann Kaneof the Public Service Commission of the District of Columbia and Lisa Schwartzwith the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory about how regulators, states and utilities are addressing DERs in distribution planning, what new tools and approaches are needed, and what challenges exist to planning the grid of the future, while optimizing DERs on the grid for performance, reliability and cost-effectiveness? (Host Sara Baldwin)

When disaster strikes, what does it take a restore power to an entire island and rebuild a new grid, while taking steps to integrate resiliency and transform the system for the long-term. As Puerto Rico continues its efforts to recover and rebuild the electric grid after Hurricanes Irma and Maria, it has become a case study of resiliency. In this episode of Grid Geeks, I speak with Jose Roman Morales, Interim President of the Puerto Rico Energy Commission, and Julia Hamm, CEO/President of the Smart Electric Power Alliance, to learn more about the current state of the Puerto Rico electric grid, get an update on the efforts underway to make the grid more resilient (including new microgrid regulations) and have a candid discussion about the challenges ahead. (Host Sara Baldwin)