People In Power

“It’s resource adequacy, supply chain headwinds, and also market development. Those are the key issues in the west, regardless of whether you’re a state with clean-energy policies or not.”

“There is an evolution from where we were when solar was an upstart and disruptive technology. We’re on that cusp of being an incumbent, and a mainstream technology. We’re the lowest marginal cost energy out there.”

Panelists discuss technologies, financing options, and regulatory mechanisms states have pursued to break down barriers to facilitate microgrid development.

“How do you create the balance between the necessary upgrades and the anticipatory upgrades you need to do? That’s on the mind of all regulators. We think about threading the needle.”

“The need to secure social acceptance of the energy transition is pushing policymakers and energy companies to engage with previously unnoticed social aspects of energy policy. The energy transition won’t happen if energy democratization doesn’t happen.”

“The EU, UK, Norway, and others surrounding Europe have to consider the whole security of supplies, also based on maybe not shutting down coal or all nuclear yet. We need to speed up power generation from new renewables.”

“Inflation, supply chains disrupted, and the Ukraine being invaded by Russia. We’re living this new normal on disruption, so much so that we have seen countries in Europe and others having underlying energy policies affected that are needed to get to net zero.”

“We’re seeing an appreciation by our customers to vary their load, from some of the largest industrial customers to mid-size businesses, cold-storage facilities, many others, where they can shift the times of use of their energy. They like the economic benefits.”

“The western region is 5 to 7 years away from a serious capacity shortfall. The major utility in Montana is predicting a 750-MW shortfall in capacity within 5 or 7 years, unless we come up with additional baseload generation.”

“The water and wastewater utility industry is similar to the gas utility industry. We’ve been successful in core competencies building and operating pressurized pipe, delivering a product underground, and working in a highly-regulated environment.”