Wood Mackenzie has estimated the U.S. could have up to 380GW of DERs connected to the grid as soon as 2025, which represents tens of millions of new DERs. There's also the question of the impact that the biggest DERs of all might have: the surge in electric vehicles. PLMA has invited two industry experts to help us explore these questions, as well as other changes and opportunities they have on their radars for the year ahead. Join us to learn more about: 

• policy and regulatory changes that do/don’t accommodate DR/DERs
• FERC 2222
• how the utilities’ role will continue to evolve
• the continued promise of decarbonization
• developments in the wholesale markets and SEEM, and 
• the ongoing impacts of the war in Ukraine.

Speakers:
Peter Kelly-Detwiler, Northbridge Energy Partners
Ethan Howland, Utility Dive
Rich Barone, Get Smart, LLC (moderator)

Join us for a "fireside chat" with Kim Harriman, SVP, State Government Affairs and Corporate Communications at Avangrid, a sustainable energy company and PLMA member. Kim's extensive background in the development of energy policy from both a governmental and vendor perspective has provided her with a unique point of view on the ways in which all parties can work together effectively to advance the energy transition. With her deep legal and technical expertise, and her public and private sector work experiences, Kim will discuss valuable lessons around career changing, working inside complex technological environments, and her efforts to build effective, collaborative teams.

Speakers:
Kim Harriman, Avangrid
Sangeeta Ranade, Alphastruxure (moderator)

Enjoy this "fireside chat" with Kim Harriman, SVP, State Government Affairs and Corporate Communications at Avangrid, a sustainable energy company and PLMA member. 
 
Kim's extensive background in the development of energy policy from both a governmental and vendor perspective has provided her with a unique point of view on the ways in which all parties can work together effectively to advance the energy transition. With her deep legal and technical expertise, and her public and private sector work experiences, Kim will discuss valuable lessons around career changing, working inside complex technological environments, and her efforts to build effective, collaborative teams. 

Speakers:
Sangeeta Ranade, Vice President - Energy as a Service, AlphaStruxure
Kim Harriman, SVP, State Government Affairs and Corporate Communications, Avangrid

Opinion Dynamics and Extensible Energy partnered with PG&E to complete an analysis of the charging patterns of 71,000 PG&E Electric Vehicle (EV) owners and a survey of 3,000 PG&E EV owners. By integrating research findings from the customer and grid perspectives, we will share insights on common customer segments of PG&E EV chargers along with survey results that explain differences in charging patterns.

This will include sharing novel insights about EV owners’ perceptions of benefits, concerns, and overall attitudes towards allowing their utility to manage their charging. As EVs gain traction as a load management resource, insights from this study will provide practitioners with key takeaways for designing managed charging programs in ways that meet customer and grid needs from the region with the highest EV adoption in the country.

This Dialogue will also include a discussion of where the industry needs to grow to support the scaling of EVs as a grid resource. 

Duke Energy was recognized by PLMA for its Thought Leadership in advancing numerous successful demand response programs across its territory. Its DR team manages these programs for all rate classes in five states, each on its own path to achieve the company’s goal to be carbon neutral by 2050. Demand response will play a critical role in getting there, balancing load against intermittent renewable generation and pushing usage from peak. Join us to learn more about Duke's work in DR and energy reliability.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has competitively awarded a total of $61 million dollars to 10 comprehensive large-scale projects through its Connected Communities initiative to help accelerate decarbonization of buildings and the electric grid.

Connected communities of grid-interactive efficient buildings (GEBs) employ energy efficient end uses, distributed energy resources (DERs), coordinated controls and smart technologies (e.g., smart thermostats, smart water heaters, batteries) to interact with the electric grid and coordinate load flexibility to support the grid with emerging issues related to the growth of renewable energy generation.

The awardee project teams include a cross-section of buildings industry stakeholders including utilities, local governments, aggregators, technology firms, home-builders and end-users. These demonstration projects are intended to demonstrate the capabilities of GEBs across an expanded range of technologies, locations, and building types than have been implemented to date, and to provide new information that will empower utilities, aggregators, technology providers, and others to scale grid flexibility and decarbonization of buildings. The projects address a range of aspects critical for scaling, including: customer engagement and retention with a focus on LMI, occupant engagement, technology interoperability, rate design, utility business models, regulatory considerations, and valuing integrated DERs and GEBs.

Join us for a lively interview with Dr. Brian Walker, Technology Manager at the U.S. DOE’s Building Technologies Office. We will learn about DOE’s vision for this program and for leveraging its outcomes to help the industry scale load flexibility, GEBs, and decarbonization of buildings and the grid.

It’s been almost two years since FERC approved Order 2222 requiring RTOs & ISOs to figure out how to give DERs access to wholesale energy markets. Now, the first RTOs and ISOs are starting to review their regional plans. These discussions are prompting utilities to consider the implications of DER aggregation on their businesses, including the role of utilities in enabling local customer programs to aggregate DERs to provide load modifying grid services, or other system benefits, that can accrue to all customers.

This moderated discussion will include perspectives from four different experts in the cleantech/climate tech investment community. The discussion will revolve around energy industry innovation, business models, value streams and customer experience, as it relates to FERC 2222 and DERs over the next few years. This session may be relevant for early stage companies thinking about gaps and opportunities in the market, as well as utilities and other practitioners thinking ahead about where start-up funding is headed to build innovative cleantech solutions in years to come.

In 2021, Southern California Edison (SCE), San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) and Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) completed a coordinated trio of projects, under the “Demand Response Emerging Technologies (DRET) Collaborative,” effectively demonstrating that smart speakers offer a highly promising channel for utilities to reach residential customers and facilitate beneficial changes in the way they use energy. 

The three utilities each used “smart speakers” as a voice-activated gateway to create an intuitive interface between the smart speakers, the utility, in-home connected smart appliances, and the customer. The voice-activated assistant created a pathway for two-way instantaneous verbal communication between the utility and the customer about energy usage, outages, and alerts. It also made it possible for customers to manage their own smart devices at home to maximize energy savings without having to individually control or program each end use. 

Join us and our utility guest speakers to learn more about this award-winning initiative.

Join us for a "fireside chat" with Patty Durand, Past President of the Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative based in Atlanta, Georgia, in which we will discuss the role and significance of U.S. Public Services Commissions (PSCs) and Public Utilities Commissions (PUCs) in determining the cost of energy, as well as how these state commissions participate in addressing important utility issues including energy equity and energy burden.

Enjoy this "fireside chat" with Patty Durand, Past President of the Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative based in Atlanta, Georgia, in which we will discuss the role and significance of U.S. Public Services Commissions (PSCs) and Public Utilities Commissions (PUCs) in determining the cost of energy, as well as how these state commissions participate in addressing important utility issues including energy equity and energy burden. 

Speakers:
Moderated by Jessie Peters, Senior Product Marketing Manager, Generac Grid Services
Patty Durand, Former President, Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative