Plenary: Will Distributed Energy Resources Ultimately Replace The Regulated Utilities?

Moderator:

Jim Kelly, Former Senior Vice President, Southern California Edison

Speakers:
Carla Peterman, Commissioner, California Public Utilities Commission
Robyn Beavers, Senior Vice President, NRG Energy
Jonathan Weisgall, Vice President for Legislative and Regulatory Affairs, Berkshire Hathaway Energy
Caroline Choi, Vice President, Vice President of Energy and Environmental Policy, Southern California Edison

Everywhere we turn, talk is about distributed energy resources — solar rooftops, fuel cells, microturbines, energy storage devices, and even vehicle-to-grid plans. For a number of reasons, some economic and some environmental, people are developing a desire for energy self-sufficiency that we’ve never seen before. In California, the Zero Net Energy residential goal is less than 6 years away. The obvious question is how these new technologies — and this new consumer sensibility — will affect the traditional regulated utilities. Will they be a partner or an adversary? An enabler or a roadblock? And how do we deal with the confluence of massive capital investment for utility infrastructure replacement and modernization with the potential for decreasing demand for the very products that infrastructure will provide? Do we need a new kind of utility ratemaking compact — or even a new kind of utility? 

Conference: 

Plenary - Will Distributed Energy Resources Ultimately Replace The Regulated Utilities-VXHD NEW