Association Webinars: Ensuring Electricity Capacity for the Future: What Works, What Doesn't, and Who's Responsible?



  

 

We all count on the lights going on whenever we flip the switch. However, as we retire more baseload capacity, add substantial intermittent resources, and sharply increase generation on the distribution system, there's real concern about how to best ensure the generating capacity for customers is available on a 24/7/365 basis. On top of this huge transition, there are highly divergent approaches to ensuring that capacity is adequate, with widely different costs at different times. As we enter this new era, which one(s) will work best to ensure reliability at a reasonable cost, and send the right price signals at the wholesale and retail levels? This webinar will provide cross-cutting perspectives on key issues such as:

  • Where is the line between state and FERC/RTO responsibility?
  • How should we treat variable wind and solar in a capacity market?
  • Would greater interregional transmission capacity help?
  • What role should the demand side play in ensuring adequate capacity?
  • Capacity auctions vs the Texas model - can both ensure adequacy when supplies get tight?
  • Will the transition to digitized, smart power system controls and monitors help or hurt?

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Moderator:

John Jimison Esq. is an attorney and energy policy expert, retired after a 48-year professional career featuring a number of significant roles. He seved five years as Managing Director of the Energy Future Coalition of the United Nations Foundation. From 2007 to 2011, Mr. Jimison served as Senior Counsel to the Energy and Commerce Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives, with lead staff responsibility for legislation concerning energy efficiency, regulatory matters, energy markets, and electric grid modernization. He was the lead House staffer for energy efficiency and electric grid matter for that period, and responsible for staffing many current statutory provisions. Mr. Jimison practiced law from 1987 through 2006 in Federal and state forums, representing clients affected by natural gas regulation, companies developing cogeneration, municipal utilities, and Canadian gas producers. He served as Adjunct Professor of Energy Policy at the Johns Hopkins University. From 1982-1985, he was Principal Administrator at the International Energy Agency in Paris, France, responsible for electricity and natural gas policy and analysis, as well as the designated country expert for Spain and Australia. During the period from 1972 through 1981 he held several positions on Capitol Hill, including a previous period as Counsel to the Energy and Commerce Committee, service as Head of the Energy Section of the Congressional Research Service (Library of Congress), and as Professional Staff to the Senate Commerce Committee.

In his retirement, he supports several non-profit energy organizations on a pro-bono basis. He continues to serve as General Counsel to both the International Association for Energy Economics and the U.S. Association for Energy Economics. He serves as a Director, Secretary and General Counsel to a diverse coalition favoring an expanded, modernized, and integrated high-voltage power system and bulk-power market, Americans for a Clean Energy Grid. He is a co-organizer of the Energy Transition Forum, a top-level gathering of energy industry executives meeting each year in both Europe and the United States and now expanding to China. He volunteers with the Care for Creation network of the Roman Catholic Church. He is also Treasurer of his community homeowners' association and Treasurer of the Gabriel Homes Foundation, which supports supervised housing for mentally handicapped adults.

He has received national and international awards from the Alliance to Save Energy, the National Association of State Energy Officers, the International District Energy Association, the International Association for Energy Economics, and the Demand Response Coordinating Committee. He is a graduate of the College of Wooster and Georgetown University Law Center, a member of the Washington, D.C., and Virginia Bars, a member of the Energy Bar Association, and a former Peace Corps volunteer in Somalia, East Africa.

Panelists:

Craig Glazer serves as the Vice President--Federal Government Policy for PJM Interconnection. In this capacity, Mr. Glazer coordinates all of PJM's regulatory and legislative policies before Congress, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commissions, the United States Department of Energy and other federal agencies. PJM operates the largest competitive wholesale electricity market in the world and serves over 9% of the United States population. Mr. Glazer heads PJM's Washington, D.C. office.

Prior to coming to PJM, Mr. Glazer served as Commissioner and Chairman of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio. As one of the longest-serving Chairs of the Ohio Commission in its history, Mr. Glazer oversaw Ohio's move toward deregulation of its telephone, natural gas, transportation and electric industries. Mr. Glazer served as CEO of the agency which operated with over 300 employees and a budget of $25 million. He also chaired the state's Siting Board and served as a member of the Governor's Cabinet.

Mr. Glazer remains extremely active on national electricity issues. He frequently testified before Congress and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on development of Regional Transmission Organizations and the needs of the marketplace. Mr. Glazer served as a member of the Board of Directors of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, Chairman of its International Relations Committee and a member of its Electricity and Energy Resources Committees. He also chaired the National Council on Competition in the Electric Industry, an interagency collaborative which brought together FERC, the state PUCs, the US Department of Energy, the US EPA and the National Council of State Legislatures. He has served as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Northeast Midwest Institute, a bipartisan research arm of the Northeast and Midwest region's Congressional delegations and on the Board of Directors of the Gridwise Alliance.

Mr. Glazer is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and the Vanderbilt University School of Law.

PJM Interconnection ensures the reliability of the high-voltage electric power system serving 51 million people in all or parts of Delaware, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia. PJM coordinates and directs the operation of the region's transmission grid, which includes 6,038 substations and 56,070 miles of transmission lines; administers the world's largest competitive wholesale electricity market; and plans regional transmission expansion improvements to maintain grid reliability and relieve congestion. Visit PJM at www.pjm.com.

Pat Wood is the past Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and of the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT). The son of a small businessman, Mr. Wood has been a forceful advocate throughout his career for replacing government-centered regulation with customer-focused, technology-unleashing competition.

Today, as CEO of Hunt Energy Network, Mr. Wood's focus is on new power system infrastructure and the related business systems to integrate it into competitive power markets.

Mr. Wood also serves as the Lead Independent Director of solar pioneer SunPower (NASCAQ: SPWR), and Director of utility construction firm Quanta Services (NYSE: PWR). In the past, he was Board Chairman of independent power producer Dynegy, and a Director of TPI Composites, among others.

In 1995, Governor George W. Bush named Mr. Wood to head the PUCT with a mandate to free power (and telecom) customers from monopoly utility control. The resulting restructured Texas electric market (ERCOT) is considered to be the most robustly competitive energy market in the country, with high infrastructure investment, diverse service and technology offerings, and customer prices well below what they were under regulation.

During his four years at the helm of the FERC, under President George W. Bush, Mr. Wood led the responses to the 2000-2001 California energy crisis, the bankruptcy of Enron, and the 2003 North American power blackout. By the end of his term, over two-thirds of the country was served by the reliable, organized wholesale power markets FERC championed.

Mr. Wood holds a B.S. degree (civil engineering) from Texas A&M University and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. He serves on the Executive Board of Big Brothers Big Sisters Lone Star and The Joy School Board of Trustees. He, and his wife, Kathleen, have four sons and are proud to call Houston their home.

Julia Frayer, is a Managing Director at London Economics International LLC ("LEI") with more than 20 years of experience providing expert insights and consulting services in the power and infrastructure industries. She has worked extensively in the US, Canada, Europe, and Asia on a range of issues in the electricity sector, including wholesale market analysis (to support policy analysis, investment and commercial strategy, resource planning, M&A due diligence, and wholesale market design). Julia also has experience with regulatory matters in the electricity sector, including expertise on tariff design, performance-based ratemaking, and market power regulation.

Julia is currently advising clients on various wholesale market design issues in several US markets. This includes crafting solutions to address New England's fuel security challenges, providing recommendations on New York's carbon pricing plan, and analyzing PJM's capacity market reforms. Concurrently, Julia is leading the modeling group at LEI in assessing the various state and local policy initiatives with respect to decarbonization and clean energy regulation of the electricity sector. This work involves a multi-disciplinary approach and in-depth understanding of wholesale market dynamics, system operations, demand forecasting (to account for changing consumer behavior and electrification trends in other sectors of the economy), regulatory economics (including views on rate mechanisms that can align with consumers' willingness to pay for electricity and consideration of the reliability attributes).

Outside North America, Julia has worked extensively on wholesale market design issues (including the question of capacity markets), incentive rate design, renewable investment strategies, decarbonization policies, and privatization initiatives. London Economics International LLC ("LEI") is a global economic, financial, and strategic advisory professional services firm specializing in energy and infrastructure. The firm combines detailed understanding of specific network and commodity industries, such as electricity generation and distribution, water and wastewater provision, and natural gas distribution, with a suite of proprietary quantitative models to produce reliable and comprehensible results. For further information, please contact Julia Frayer at (617) 933-7200 or go to www.londoneconomics.com.

Jay Morrison leads the Regulatory Issues Unit of NRECA's Government Relations Department, where he works with a staff of professional advocates representing NRECA and its members on matters relating to federal and state utility regulation, power supply and delivery. Since joining NRECA in 1998, Mr. Morrison has worked extensively on issues relating to wholesale market design, power supply and delivery, industry restructuring, renewable energy, energy efficiency, distributed generation, and the smart grid.

In 1993, Mr. Morrison earned his MPP, from the John F. Kennedy School of Government and his JD, magna cum laude, from Harvard Law School where he served on the Harvard Law Review. Mr. Morrison earned his BA summa cum laude from UCLA in 1989. Mr. Morrison has also clerked for the Honorable A. Raymond Randolph on the D.C. Circuit, served as counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources, and represented cooperatives and other clients before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Congress, and the courts with the firm of Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker.

Mr. Morrison is active with the Energy Bar Association where he presently serves as a "Dean" for the primer program, the Energy Law Journal for which he is an editor, the Charitable Foundation of the Energy Bar Association for which he is a board member, and the American Bar Association Infrastructure and Regulated Industries (IRIS) Section for which he is a member of the Council and a vice-chair of the electricity committee.

 

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