Aubrey Johnson, head of transmission planning for Midwest electrical grid operator MISO, explains the $22 billion effort to expand and modernize the grid for clean energy and reliability.

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Last year, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, or FERC, issued its landmark Order number 1920, with the goal of spurring the development of long distance electricity transmission lines in the United States. The order came in response to a challenging reality: the U.S. will need dramatically more transmission to accommodate growing electricity demand and an expanding fleet of clean energy resources. Despite this need, very little regional transmission development has, in fact, taken place over the past decade.

Yet there has been at least one place where grid planning has aggressively moved forward. The Midcontinent Independent System Operator, or MISO, is the electric grid operator for the midwestern U.S. and part of Canada. In December, MISO approved $22 billion dollars' worth of new transmission projects as the latest step in its ongoing effort to build a clean and reliable grid of the future.

One of the leaders of that effort is Aubrey Johnson, vice president of system planning and competitive transmission at MISO. He discusses the need behind MISO’s grid expansion efforts and the unique set of challenges involved in getting more than a dozen states, each with their own unique energy policy agendas, to lend their support to these projects. Johnson also explains the range of benefits that the new powerlines will offer and challenges that could lie ahead as the lines move from the planning stage to construction.

Aubrey Johnson is vice president of system planning and competitive transmission at the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO).

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Cooling People, Not Spaces: Surmounting the Risks of Air-Conditioning Over-Reliance https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/research/publications/cooling-people-not-spaces-surmounting-the-risks-of-air-conditioning-over-reliance/

Energy Policy Now is produced by The Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. For all things energy policy, visit kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu

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Grid Strategies’ Rob Gramlich discusses the dramatic increase in electricity demand from data center and manufacturing growth, and the challenges it presents for the grid.

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Electricity demand growth has returned with a vengeance in the United States due to an increase in manufacturing and, most dramatically, the growing use of AI. Across the country, technology giants are racing to build AI data centers, the largest of which will consume as much electricity as an entire mid-sized city.

Yet our electrical grid was not built with such large and immediate new sources of power demand in mind, and it has become clear that solutions are urgently needed if our grid is to successfully accommodate this new load. Adding to the challenge is the fact that forecasts of future demand have been frequently and dramatically revised upwards. The future of electricity demand looks big, but just how big remains uncertain.

Rob Gramlich, president of power sector consultancy Grid Strategies and a frequent expert witness on grid issues before Congress and regulatory agencies, explores the future of electricity demand. Gramlich discusses data from a new Grid Strategies report on the pace of demand growth, and a variety of strategies by which our electric grid might meet that demand. He also considers implications for the cost of electricity and the pace of grid decarbonization.

Rob Gramlich is president of Grid Strategies.

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Energy Policy Now is produced by The Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. For all things energy policy, visit kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

North America’s electricity grid faces a shortfall of power. A grid policy expert explores one region’s efforts to ensure reliability and the controversies its proposals have raised. 

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In December, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, or NERC, released its annual assessment of grid reliability across North America. The results were concerning.

NERC, which is the organization responsible for setting grid reliability standards, reported that electricity supply is struggling to keep up with rapidly growing demand across much of the U.S. and Canada. In several major grid regions, electricity shortfalls could occur under challenging conditions within the next one to three years.

On the podcast, Abe Silverman, assistant research scholar at the Ralph O’Connor Sustainable Energy Institute at Johns Hopkins University, discusses the threat of electricity supply shortages with a focus on one area of the grid in particular, the PJM Interconnection. PJM is the largest regional grid operator in the U.S., serving 65 million people in the eastern part of the country. PJM recently announced that it, too, could face a capacity shortage as early as 2026.

To date, the grid operator has undertaken a complex set of actions to address its challenges, with more efforts on the way. Silverman explores PJM’s looming supply shortfall, and examines the steps it’s taking to shore up supply. He also explains the controversies that some of these actions have raised.

Abraham Silverman is an assistant research scholar at the Ralph O’Connor Sustainable Energy Institute at Johns Hopkins University, and former general counsel for the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities.

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Energy Policy Now is produced by The Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. For all things energy policy, visit kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Two experts discuss the challenge of keeping billions of people cool while minimizing electrical grid and climate impacts.

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Global air conditioner use could triple by the middle of this century, driving a dramatic increase in electricity demand. This growth will place additional strain on already overburdened electrical grids and lead to significant economic and environmental challenges.

Yet these negative impacts might be substantially reduced if more attention were paid to cooling people, rather than the air around them.

Two experts at the intersection of cooling technology and building design discuss how a paradigm shift in our thinking about how we cool ourselves could make it possible for billions of people to stay comfortable in an increasingly hot world while minimizing additional electricity demand.

Dorit Aviv, director of the Thermal Architecture Lab at the University of Pennsylvania’s Weitzman School of Design and Adam Rysanek, director of the Building Decisions Research Group at the University of British Columbia, share insights from a Kleinman Center-funded research effort into sustainable cooling. Their work focuses on the development of systems that have the potential to meet a dramatic increase in cooling demand, and do so without putting energy systems and climate into further jeopardy.

Dorit Aviv is director of the Thermal Architecture Lab at the University of Pennsylvania’s Weitzman School of Design.

Adam Rysanek is director of the Building Decisions Research Group at the University of British Columbia.

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The Untapped Potential of ‘Repurposed Energy’ https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/research/publications/the-untapped-potential-of-repurposed-energy/

Energy Policy Now is produced by The Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. For all things energy policy, visit kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to cut support for clean power. Two guests from Bloomberg NEF weigh the likely impacts on clean energy development.

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President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to reduce federal support for clean power as soon as he takes office in January. Yet political realities may limit the extent to which incentives, such as those in the Inflation Reduction Act, may be rolled back, leaving open the possibility that the incoming president may seek surgical rather than sweeping cuts.

A more fundamental question nevertheless remains: How much would reducing federal support for clean energy actually slow its growth in the U.S.? On the podcast, two experts on clean power markets and policy explore the likely scope, and practical impacts of Trump’s stated energy positions.

Meredith Annex is an energy economist and Head of Clean Power at Bloomberg NEF. Derrick Flakoll is Bloomberg’s Policy Expert for the US and Canada. The two analyze the incoming administration’s plans for clean power manufacturing, project development, and trade policy. They also share their insights on how these policies might unfold and what they could mean for the future pace of clean power growth in the United States.

Meredith Annex is Head of Clean Power at Bloomberg NEF.

Derrick Flakoll is Bloomberg NEFs Policy Expert for the US and Canada.

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Energy Policy Now is produced by The Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. For all things energy policy, visit kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Byzantine governance structures and vested interests are slowing the greening of the U.S. electrical grid. Two grid policy experts discuss paths forward.

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The U.S. electrical grid faces declining reliability, often attributed to a rapidly evolving energy mix, surging demand, and more frequent severe weather. Yet a deeper issue lies in the fragmented governance of the grid, where conflicting visions from federal, state, and industry-level regulators hinder progress toward a clean and reliable energy future.

Shelley Welton of the Kleinman Center and Joshua Macey of Yale Law School examine the tangled web of grid governance in the U.S., and highlight inherent conflicts of interest and clashes between state and federal regulatory priorities. They also explore potential pathways for governance reform.

Shelley Welton is Presidential Distinguished Professor of Law and Energy Policy with the Kleinman Center and Penn Carey Law School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Joshua Macey is an associate professor of Law at Yale Law School.

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Energy Policy Now is produced by The Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. For all things energy policy, visit kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Carnot Prize recipient Jacqueline Patterson explores how the clean energy transition can drive meaningful progress toward energy and climate justice.

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In 2009 Jacqueline Patterson became the founding director of the NAACP’s Environmental and Climate Justice Program. It was a role that Patterson, who’s this year’s recipient of the Kleinman Center’s Carnot Prize, had expected to be short lived: she’d stay on just long enough to get the program underway.

By the time she did move on 12 years later, she had made significant progress in raising understanding of the connection between environmental damage and the lived experience in some of this country’s most impoverished and vulnerable communities. As an advocate for climate justice, she has worked to address the fact that environmental damage increases the economic and health burdens on disadvantaged communities, and makes it more challenging to break the cycle of poverty and marginalization.

Today Patterson serves as the executive director of The Chisholm Legacy Project, where her work empowers communities of color on the front lines of climate change, ensuring they have the resources, tools, and leadership to amplify their voices in policymaking. Her efforts focus on making the clean energy transition a genuine opportunity for justice and equity.

Jacqueline Patterson is executive director of The Chisholm Legacy Project and the 2024 recipient of the Kleinman Center’s Carnot Prize for distinguished contributions in the area of energy policy.

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Energy Policy Now is produced by The Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. For all things energy policy, visit kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Kleinman Center visiting scholar Kirsten Jenkins explores the concept of a just energy transition, and why it must be expanded beyond its labor roots to address broad energy system injustices.

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The term “just transition” has its roots in organized labor movements, and has traditionally referred to the idea that workers in the fossil fuel economy must find security in the green energy economy of the future as well. Yet, increasingly, this understanding of what a just transition entails is viewed as overly narrow, and failing to address broad structural realities in our energy system that, if not addressed, will perpetuate a range of social, environmental, and economic inequalities.

This lack of a common definition extends to the highest levels of the global climate effort, with the United Nations acknowledging that the perception of what a just transition entails varies from country to country, potentially impacting the outcome of just transition efforts at the local level.

Kleinman Center visiting scholar Kirsten Jenkins explores the definition of the term just transition and how varying interpretations of it might limit, or enhance efforts to address broader inequalities that are inherent in our energy system. Jenkins, who is a senior lecturer in energy, environment and society at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, also discusses the need to expand just transition beyond its labor roots to a broader view on justice, and explores policies to put this broader view into practice.

Kirsten Jenkins is a visiting scholar at the Kleinman Center and a senior lecturer in energy, environment, and society within the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland.

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 Energy Policy Now is produced by The Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. For all things energy policy, visit kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Virtual power plants can help electric grid operators address supply shortages and reliability concerns, but policy support is needed.

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The U.S. electrical grid is under growing stress, raising concern that recent widescale power outages may signal more grid challenges to come. In recent years, electricity demand has grown at an accelerating pace while, at the same time, power supply has tightened as existing power plants have retired and grid operators have struggled to bring new sources of power online.

Yet one promising solution to the grid’s challenges may already be in place, if grid operators and regulators can figure out how to use it to full advantage. ‘Virtual power plants’ can combine small, distributed energy resources such as rooftop solar and demand response into a single, virtual whole that grid operators can deploy like a traditional powerplant. VPPs hold the promise of delivering large amounts of readily available and reliable energy services, if a number of regulatory and technological challenges can be overcome.

On the podcast Ryan Hledik, a principal with electricity market consultancy The Brattle Group, explores the potential of virtual power plants. He explains how VPPs work, discusses hurdles to their development, and considers policy solutions to speed their growth.

Ryan Hledik is a principal with electricity market consultancy The Brattle Group.

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Energy Policy Now is produced by The Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. For all things energy policy, visit kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

David Spence explores the rise of identity politics in the U.S. and how it has fueled bitter partisanship over the transition to clean energy.

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Throughout American history, opposing political parties have at times set aside their differences to create “republican moments”— periods of bold, bipartisan action to address critical challenges. 

Today, such moments may seem unlikely, yet the need for collective action remains urgent. This is particularly true for accelerating the transition to a low-carbon energy system and tackling climate change.

On the podcast, David Spence of The University of Texas School of Law discusses his new book, Climate of Contempt, which explores the roots of the current political divide in this country, and how that divide has manifested in the politics of energy. Spence examines the growth of identity politics in the U.S., how even the best-intentioned of actors can stoke partisan flames, and opportunities to re-establish bipartisan dialogue to advance the clean energy transition.

David Spence is the Rex G. Baker Centennial Chair in Natural Resources Law at The University of Texas at Austin.

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Energy Policy Now is produced by The Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. For all things energy policy, visit kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.