Advanced Energy United Webinars

A year and a half ago, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued Order 2222, which directed the grid operators under its jurisdiction (RTOs/ISOs) to remove all barriers to participation in their wholesale markets for aggregations of distributed energy resources (DERs). Since then, all seven RTOs and ISOs have submitted plans to FERC showing what they will do to comply. Are these gatekeepers of markets going to allow DERs to compete for all the services they are technically capable of providing — or do barriers still remain?

In this webinar, recorded live on June 6, 2022, industry experts discuss the breakthroughs in — and shortcomings of — the various plans to let DERs break into wholesale markets and provide value to both DER owners and the grid, including discussion of some of the key challenges that have emerged through the stakeholder process, such as locational requirements, addressing double counting, and setting metering and telemetry requirements.  

An advanced energy economy requires a modern and efficient electricity delivery network that can access the best sources of clean energy and support electrification of transportation, buildings, and industry. Expanding electric transmission infrastructure — the long-distance high-voltage lines that deliver electricity in bulk from generation resources to local distribution networks — is central to that vision. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), Congress, and the Department of Energy have devoted new attention and new funding to transmission expansion. But getting transmission built requires engagement at the state and local level, too, where siting and permitting decisions are made and local impacts are felt.  

In this on-demand webinar, originally recorded on May 3, 2022, hear from FERC Chairman Richard Glick about the agency’s vision for transmission development to handle a changing resource mix and new threats to the reliability and resilience of the grid. Plus, a panel of experts from industry and the states discuss the policies and technologies that can move transmission from drawing board to reality.  

With information technology a central focus of modern enterprise, many industries have shifted from traditional, on-premises IT solutions to cloud computing for scalability, flexibility, and efficiency. However, the regulated utility industry has been slow to make a similar switch. That’s in part because traditional rate regulation contains a bias for long-term, upfront capital investments, which give utilities an opportunity for a return over time, versus treatment of operating expenses, which contains no similar return, even if the expenditure serves the same purpose as well or better.

Based on the paper, Reaching for the Cloud: Solutions for Regulatory Parity for Cloud Services for Utilities, this webinar explored ways that different regulatory treatment of IT services can unlock customer options and savings while encouraging more utilities to seek cloud solutions.

Presented by AEE and the Edison Electric Institute. 

FERC Order 2222 directed regional grid operators to open their wholesale markets to distributed energy resources (DERs) but that will take more than action by RTOs/ISOs. Distribution utilities and their state regulators also have big roles to play in realizing all the benefits of distributed resources for customers and the power grid. In this webinar, which drew on FERC Order No 2222 Implementation: Preparing the Distribution System for DER Participation in Wholesale Markets, a report from AEE and GridLab, utility executives and DER companies explored what needs to happen locally to unlock the value of DERs at the grid edge.

Presented by AEE, GridLab, National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC), and the National Association of State Energy Officials (NASEO). 

Since the first utility “green tariffs” were introduced in 2013 to service the renewable energy demand of large commercial and industrial (C&I) customers, nearly 2 GW of deals have been done, with almost 1 GW more under negotiation. Along the way, much has been learned about how to make these programs most effective.