Last Friday, at the Newseum in Washington D.C., EEI hosted a celebration of 1 Million EVs on U.S. Roads. Yesterday, on Capitol Hill, GridWise Alliance hosted the annual gridConnext conference.
You weren’t there at either event? It’s ok. The PUF team was. Here’s a taste, three more brief video excerpts:
I. Alan Oshima, CEO, Hawaiian Electric Company, at EEI’s Celebration of 1 Million EVs on U.S. Roads, November 30
“That's a real issue that we all have to address. So that people can depend upon the charging infrastructure to make a decision. For us in a small market, short driving distances, on Oahu at least, workplace charging is a big deal. And for that we don't have to have many fast chargers.
We need ubiquitous sipping [slow charging]. . So as you park your car for six to eight hours, you can get enough of a charge to get home and run your errands. And then charge at home.
Customer behavior is the biggest thing, I think, that we have to look at. I stress in my organization that the technology side is going to happen. We really have to get deep into the soft sciences and really understand marketing and customer behavior.”
II. Anne Pramaggiore, Senior Executive Vice President and CEO, Exelon Utilities, keynote begins on a light note, gridConnext 2018, December 5
“The deep dish pizza and remote control. And we infer from those inventions that the couch potato was also invented in Chicago.
Those are suggestive of things that you would need and want in long winters. And I think electricity sort of folds right in there. So I am right at home with the reinvention ethos of my hometown.
Second, I was a kid in the 1960s. And I found all the 60s talk of social change and revolution, intoxicating. And I'm sure there's some compatriots out there on this.
But when I grew up and was in a position to take action, it was the 1980s. And somehow the world had shifted from natural fibers, bell bottoms, to polyester white suits. From the Woodstock festival of love to disco fever and discos. And from the authenticity of Jimi Hendrix to the biggest fraud perpetrators in music history, Milli Vanilli.
So the closest thing we had to a rebellion in the 1980s was Disco Demolition Night when fans threw and set fire to disco records at a White Sox doubleheader.”
III. And more from Anne Pramaggiore, Senior Executive Vice President and CEO, Exelon Utilities, keynote continued, gridConnext 2018, December 5
“Despite my certainty that the grid is central to meeting our futuristic demands, there are two world views being offered. The connected view. And the disconnected view of the world.
There are some who suggest not only that the old energy system is obsolete, but so too is the electric grid. And they imagine a totally disconnected system.
To this course of the disconnected, I simply paraphrase Mark Twain, "reports of the grid's death are greatly exaggerated."
In a world where private power sits on roofs, and batteries sit in basements, where there are more electric vehicles on the road, where power is coming to and from many different places, where meeting climate change imperatives means electrifying more and more sectors of the economy, the grid becomes more important, not less. Because at its most basic level the grid is a big network.
According to UC Berkeley professor Carl Shapiro, there's a central difference between the old and new economies. The old industrial economy was driven by economies of scale. The new information economy is driven by the economics of networks.
The internet network is one of the most important and imposing pieces of infrastructure of the 21st century. But it's the platform business model that effectuates that network. Platforms that rationalize assets like Airbnb, match buyers and sellers like eBay, and create new markets like Amazon.
The internet is impressive network infrastructure. But it's a recent vintage, a newcomer to the stage.
The grid is the original network. It is the ultimate platform performing all the classic platform functions.”