By the Power Department
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The podcast currently has 114 episodes available.
A party of special significance to celebrate the eleventy-first and final episode with an energy system analogy world cup championship tournament, celebrity guests, and stump speeches
Friends-of-the-Underground participated in a special, in-person recording of the eleventy-first and final episode of Public Power Underground celebrating our community of electric utility enthusiasts. The episode includes a live performance of Roll On, Enthusiasts with special musical guest Daryl Wayne Dasher joining Arin Guillory and Ian Bledsoe. It also closes the Season 6 Energy System Analogy World Cup with celebrity judges Debra Smith and Daniel Kirschen picking winners in an 8-analogy, single elimination Championship Tournament. And, just like Bilbo Baggins ended his eleventy-first birthday celebration giving a speech on a stump, the season ends with open-mic stump speeches from electric utility enthusiasts.
07:11 - Short-to-Ground, Analogy Edition
15:51 - Energy System Analogy World Cup Championship Tournament
37:01 - Kurt Miller Stump Speech
40:05 - Crystal Ball Stump Speech
42:42 - Debra Smith Stump Speech
44:02 - Pamela Sporborg Stump Speech
45:50 - Robb Davis Stump Speech
48:54 - Sarah Edmonds Stump Speech
50:34 - Megan Capper Stump Speech
52:16 - Scott Corwin Stump Speech
54:01 - Farhad Billimoria Stump Speech
55:48 - Eric Hiaasen Stump Speech
59:07 - Matt Schroettnig Stump Speech
1:01:44 - Kieran Connelly Stump Speech
1:03:21 - Mary Wiencke Stump Speech
1:05:42 - Doug Marker Stump Speech
1:09:08 - Nicole Hughes Stump Speech
1:10:29 - Conleigh Byers Stump Speech
1:12:00 - Chris Roden Stump Speech
1:15:02 - Ryan Neale Stump Speech
1:16:47 - Humaira Falkenberg Stump Speech
1:20:20 - Closing thoughts from Ian Bledsoe, Arin Guillory, and Ahlmahz Negash
1:24:00 - Closing thoughts from Paul Dockery
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Public Power Underground, for electric utility enthusiasts! Public Power Underground, it’s work to watch!
A discussion of the building blocks of a just energy transition with Professor Erin Baker, the Faculty Director of the Energy Transition Institute at UMass Amherst.
Professor Erin Baker visited with Ahlmahz Negash and Paul Dockery in-person at the office of the Pacific Northwest Utility Conference Committee (PNUCC) about energy justice, meaningful metrics, and the Holyoke Community Energy Project. The discussion is wrapped by insightful commentary on energy justice from hosts Conleigh Byers, Farhad Billimoria, Paul Dockery, and Ahlmahz Negash.
You can find the podcast on Apple Podcast, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Share with friends that are energy enthusiasts, like us!
2:58 - 30 seconds of theory
Jenkins, K., McCauley, D., Heffron, R., Stephan, H. and Rehner, R., 2016. Energy justice: A conceptual review. Energy research & social science, 11, pp.174-182.
Jenkins, K., McCauley, D., Heffron, R., Stephan, H. and Rehner, R., 2016. Energy justice: A conceptual review. Energy research & social science, 11, pp.174-182.
Baker, E., Carley, S., Castellanos, S., Nock, D., Bozeman III, J.F., Konisky, D., Monyei, C.G., Shah, M. and Sovacool, B., 2023. Metrics for decision-making in energy justice. Annual Review of Environment and Resources, 48(1), pp.737-760.
11:31 - Interview with Prof. Erin Baker
58:22 - Debriefing from interview w/ hosts Conleigh Byers, Farhad Billimoria, Paul Dockery, and Ahlmahz Negash
1:33:00 - Closing Thoughts from Conleigh Byers & Farhad Billimoria
Public Power Underground, for electric utility enthusiasts! Public Power Underground, it’s work to watch!
The electric sector is evolving like the eras of Taylor Swift; at least that's the hypothesis that Commissioner Ann Rendahl and Gen-Z-Swiftie Scholar, Sherry Zuo, consider in a special episode.
Commissioner Ann Rendahl and Sherry Zuo join hosts Paul Dockery and Crystal Ball to consider how the electric sector is evolving like the eras of Taylor Swift. Paul and Crystal joined Commissioner Rendahl at the offices of the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission and Sherry joined remotely from Cornell University where she is a PhD candidate in the Mays Group.
Agreeing on the eras of the electric sector and how they map to the eras of Taylor Swift is no small task. To facilitate the conversation we put together some reference materials including a summary of the proposed timeline with sector milestones and representative songs.
The discussion considered how the eras of the electric sector fell on a quadrant map that mapped along vectors of structured ←→ chaotic and building ←→ optimizing.
The quadrant mapping was compared to the eras of Taylor Swift mapped along the vectors of career ←→ romantic and confident ←→ pensive.
The conversation also used a 40”x30” histomap of organizing activities across the eras of the electric sector that I presented at the 2024 Macro Energy System workshop.
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For additional reading, Commissioner Rendahl recommends the following:
You can also listen to our eras of the electric sector playlist on Spotify!
Public Power Underground, for electric utility enthusiasts! Public Power Underground, it’s work to watch!
a special, bonus episode recorded at the Western Power Pool with celebrity guests Sarah Edmonds, Bob Rowe and Debra Smith
Crystal Ball and Matthew Schroettnig host a conversation with Sarah Edmonds, Bob Rowe and Debra Smith about their “Theory of Change” for expanding high voltage, long distance transmission in the West.
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Western Transmission Expansion Coalition (WTEC) is a West-wide effort to develop an actionable transmission plan to support the needs of the future energy grid.
The Western Transmission Consortium aims to support the development of transmission infrastructure in the West through a collaborative process involving infrastructure owners and investors.
Public Power Underground, for electric utility enthusiasts! Public Power Underground, it’s work to watch!
A trip to the Skagit River Hydroelectric Project to talk about power system inertia with Seattle City Light operators, plus a discussion of popular fallacies and unpopular opinions with the hosts.
To experience the visceral sounds and sights of big synchronous generation, an interview with Mike Haynes, Will Andersen, and Brandt March was recorded in-person at Seattle City Light’s Skagit River Hydroelectric Project. To start the episode Ahlmahz, Paul, Farhad, and Conleigh discuss popular fallacies of the energy system and share some of their own unpopular opinions.
You can find the podcast on Apple Podcast, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Share with friends that are energy enthusiasts, like us!
03:17 - Popular Fallacies & Unpopular Opions
52:08 - Big Synchronous Generation - Seattle City Light’s Skagit River Hydroelectric Project
Public Power Underground, for electric utility enthusiasts! Public Power Underground, it’s work to watch!
Ben Serrurier returns to Public Power Underground to share some maybe-good-maybe-bad-but-definitely-not-thought-out ideas with Ahlmahz Negash, Paul Dockery, and Farhad Billimoria in a returning segment, Half-Baked Ideas. Then Irina Rasputnis, Madeline Kostic, and Eric Strandberg from the Seattle City Light’s Lighting Design Lab sit down to talk with Paul Dockery about innovation in building electrification.
13:19 - Half-Baked Ideas
52:51 - The Lighting Design Lab
1:30:25 - Invitation to the Eleventy-First and Final episode of Public Power Underground
Public Power Underground, for electric utility enthusiasts! Public Power Underground, it’s work to watch!
A discussion about public goods and what classifying services as common pool resources, congestible public goods, or club goods means for grid planning and market design.
Lynne Kiesling joins Ahlmahz Negash, Conleigh Byers, Farhad Billimoria, and Paul Dockery to discuss the classification system used in economics to distinguish public goods from private goods and what classifying some services as common pool resources means for grid planning and market design.
Lynne Kiesling is an economist focusing on regulation, market design, and the economics of digitization and smart grid technologies in the electricity industry. She is Director of the Institute for Regulatory Law & Economics in the Center on Law, Business, and Economics, and is an Adjunct Professor in the Master of Science in Energy and Sustainability program, both at Northwestern University. She is also a Research Professor at University of Colorado Denver, a member of the External Faculty of the Santa Fe Institute, and a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
In addition to her academic research, she is currently a member of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Electricity Advisory Committee, has served as a member of the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Smart Grid Advisory Committee, and is an emerita member of the GridWise Architecture Council. Her academic background includes a B.S. in Economics from Miami University (Ohio) and a Ph.D. in Economics from Northwestern University.
You can find the podcast on Apple Podcast, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Share with friends that are energy enthusiasts, like us!
05:07 - 30 seconds of theory
39:02 - What is and what is not a public good in the electric system
Billimoria, F., Mancarella, P. and Poudineh, R., 2022. Market and regulatory frameworks for operational security in decarbonizing electricity systems: from physics to economics. Oxford Open Energy, 1, p.oiac007.
51:06 - Is transmission a Public Good?
1:16:22 - Implications for planning and market design
1:40:06 - National Treasure, Public Good, or Excludable - a Public Power Underground game
Public Power Underground, for electric utility enthusiasts! Public Power Underground, it’s work to watch!
Ari Peskoe describes himself as an electric utility critic and has advice for electric utility enthusiasts.
Ari Peskoe is the Director of the Electricity Law Initiative at the Harvard Law School Environmental and Energy Law Program and a prolific writer about regulation of the U.S. power sector on issues ranging from constitutional challenges to states’ energy laws to interstate transmission development. The interview is wrapped in commentary from co-hosts Paul Dockery, Ahlmahz Negash, and Farhad Billimoria.
You can find the podcast on Apple Podcast, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Share with friends that are energy enthusiasts, like us!
03:11 - 30 seconds of theory
11:01 - Ari Peskoe on Governance
51:10 - Ranking Governance, Configuration, and Market Design
59:37 - Ari Peskoe’s Energy System Analogy
1:04:48 - Debriefing on transmission, governance, and public power with Ahlmahz Negash and Farhad Billimoria
Public Power Underground, for electric utility enthusiasts! Public Power Underground, it’s work to watch!
Rich Glick initiated the proceedings that led to Order 1920 as Chair of FERC, he returns to Public Power Underground with experts Prof. Jacob Mays and Pamela Quinlan to reflect on its adoption
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Paul Dockery and Crystal Ball bring their curiosity to an in-depth discussion of transmission planning, transmission investment, and transmission policy with Rich Glick, Pamela Quinlan, and Prof. Jacob Mays.
You can find the podcast on Apple Podcast, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Share with friends that are energy enthusiasts, like us!
08:48 - Rich, What were you hoping for?
32:33 - Pamela, Does this do what you wanted?
1:05:15 - Jacob, What is missing?
1:15:48 - Rich Glick’s Energy System Analogy: The energy transition is like the 1973 Mets.
1:17:55 - Jacob Mays’s Energy System Analogy: The 2005 Royals, never say it can’t get worse.
1:19:09 - Pamela Quinlan’s Energy System Analogy: The energy transition is like Game of Thrones.
BONUS: Ke Xin (Sherry) Zuo, a PhD candidate at Cornell University in the Mays Group, provided her reflections onTaylor Swift’s newest album, The Tortured Poets Department, and its application to the Power System. My (Paul’s) favorite: the brilliant insight that “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart” is actually about how the power grid has to be resilient during forced outages and extreme weather events.
About the guests:
Rich Glick is a Principal with GQ New Energy Strategies – a consulting firm he co-founded with Pamela Quinlan. Rich is a former Chair of Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). As Chair, Rich initiated several reforms to more efficiently and cost effectively accommodate the evolution of the electric grid. Before being appointed to FERC, Rich was General Counsel for the Democrats on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. He has worked for Iberdrola, PPM Energy and PacifiCorp and is also known in the West for his current work with the Committee on Regional Electric Power Cooperation (CREPC) Western States Transmission Initiative (WSTI) and CREPC Transmission Collaborative (TC). Rich’s prior appearance on Public Power Underground can be found below.
Pamela Quinlan co-founded GQ New Energy Strategies with Rich. She is an expert in energy market regulation and policy. She started at FERC as a Senior Energy Industry Analyst in the Office of Energy Market Regulation. In 2017 Quinlan went to work in then-commissioner Glick’s office as a Technical Advisor and was appointed Chief of Staff in January 2021. As Chief of Staff, she was responsible for developing and implementing the strategy behind the Commission’s policy initiatives. Before leaving FERC in 2023, Quinlan advised Chair Willie Phillips on Energy Markets and Resource Adequacy. She has also worked for Consolidated Edison (ConEd) and Standard and Poor’s.
Prof. Jacob Mays is an Assistant Professor in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Cornell University where his research focuses on the design and analysis of electricity markets. Jacob holds an AB in chemistry and physics from Harvard University, a MEng in energy systems from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a PhD in industrial engineering and management sciences from Northwestern University. His seminal work (Paul is editorializing by describing it as seminal) on the sequential pricing of electricity was the subject of a stand-alone episode on Season 5 of Public Power Underground, and his collaborations with Jesse Jenkins, Farhad Billimoria, and Rahmat Poudineh have informed our listeners perspectives on electric markets under deep decarbonization. Jacob’s prior appearances on Public Power Underground can be found below.
Public Power Underground, for electric utility enthusiasts! Public Power Underground, it’s work to watch!
Conleigh, Farhad, Ahlmahz, and Paul debrief on coverage of FERC Order 1920 then discuss resource adequacy, hedging tail risk, and preview business capability models.
Ahlmahz Negash, Conleigh Byers, and Farhad Billimoria scan news stories after FERC’s release of Order 1920, then Conleigh Byers explains Resource adequacy, and Farhad Billimoria explains Hedging & Tail Risk in Electricity Markets.
You can find the podcast on Apple Podcast, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Share with friends that are energy enthusiasts, like us!
03:17 - Short-to-Ground (FERC Order 1920 Edition)
41:03 - Hedging and Tail Risk in Electricity Markets By: Farhad Billimoria , Jacob Mays , Rahmat Poudineh
Abstract: A concern persistent in scarcity-based market designs for electricity over many years has been the illiquidity of markets for long-term contracts to hedge away volatile price exposures between generators and consumers. These missing markets have been attributed to a range of factors including retailer creditworthiness, market structure and the lack of demand side interest from consumers. Using a stochastic equilibrium model and insights from insurance theory, we demonstrate the inherent challenges of hedging a legacy thermal portfolio that is dominated by volatile fat-tailed commodities with significant tail dependence. Under such conditions the price required for generators to provide such hedges can be multiples of the expected value of prices. Our key insight is that when the real-world constraints of credit and financing are considered, the volatility of thermal fuels and their co-dependence under extremes may be a key reason as to why electricity markets have been incomplete in terms of long-term hedging contracts. Counterintuitively, in the context of the energy transition, our results show that, ceteris paribus, increasing the penetration of low carbon resources like wind, solar and energy storage, can add tail-diversity and improve contractability.22:16 - The Future of Resource Adequacy in a Decarbonized Grid w/ Conleigh Byers
Conleigh Byers Resource Adequacy Harvard Energy Policy Seminar 25 4.93MB ∙ PDF file DownloadDownload
1:02:23 - Institutions in the electric sector are evolving like the eras of Taylor Swift, but are their business models evolving with them?
Public Power Underground, for electric utility enthusiasts! Public Power Underground, it’s work to watch!
The podcast currently has 114 episodes available.
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