People In Power

“There’re significant investments being made in transmission. Yesterday, I cited the work MISO is doing. We have ten billion dollars of projects moving forward. As I walked out, folks with other ISOs said, hey, wait a minute. SPP is doing things. CAISO is doing things.”

“We must find ways into resources that provide baseload power. If we can define a real path to the future, perhaps we can slow down the transition to where we can protect the consumer, not just residential consumers but the commercial and industrial consumers, and keep the economy flowing.”

“If I had one wish, we would have more interregional transmission planning and be addressing the seams issue. That is a need and can be the solution for the number of renewables that need to come online across our country, particularly to address reliability issues and extreme weather events.”

“The one issue bringing all western Commissioners together is being asked to engage on how to design markets in the west. There are two organizations proposing competing day-ahead markets.”

Fourteen Guidehouse experts hit their buzzers and answer our questions: Chris Rogers, Raquel Malmberg, Britt Harter, Ed Batalla, Robyn Link, Graham Dickson, Nicole Wobus, Shaun Fernando, Danielle Vitoff, Lisa Frantzis, Patrick Di Gregory, Peter Shaw, Jenny Hampton, and Erik Larson.

“We submitted two concept papers for the GRIP programs aimed at grid resiliency infrastructure. One for grid modernization and infrastructure enhancement to reduce wildfire. We were invited to apply on two concept papers, which is remarkable because about 50% were requested to apply for a grant.”

“With the Infrastructure Act, the State of Idaho can receive about $25 million over five years to make investments in grid hardening and modernization. We’ve never done that before. The State relies on utilities and specifically the PUC, to decide when and how to shape those investments. Now, we’ve got an opportunity to help facilitate investments.”

“Although grant funding is speculative, the sums available for eligible projects are significant and that is a driver. A lot of the funding is open to innovative solutions that are on the cusp of commercialization, such as the distributed energy startup we have at Emera called BlockEnergy.”

“GRIP received more than 700 concept papers for the first round of funding. That’s an extraordinary level of interest and signals that the direction we’re going in standing up the Grid Deployment Office and implementing these programs, is resonating with the broader public.”

“As soon as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law passed, EEI quickly shifted our focus to becoming the central hub where our member companies can learn about and keep track of all the funding opportunities.”