Dr. Webber is the Chief Science and Technology Officer at ENGIE, a global energy and infrastructure services company. In addition, he is the Josey Centennial Professor in Energy Resources at the University of Texas at Austin. Webber’s expertise spans research and education at the convergence of engineering, policy, and commercialization on topics related to innovation, energy, and the environment. He also is a well-known author in the energy industry. His latest book Power Trip: The Story of Energy was published in May 2019 and shortly thereafter was made into a six-part companion series that aired on PBS in Spring of 2020. The full series is now available on PBS or Amazon Prime. In this keynote address, Dr. Webber will present his perspective on “energy done the right way.” He will talk about tradeoffs, managing various energy options, the next innovations in energy, his ideas on how create a sustainable future and more. Dr. Webber was a keynote speaker at DISTRIBUTECH 2018 and was a featured speaker in a mega-session at DISTRIBUTECH 2020.

Be it community solar or rooftop solar, utility customers are waking up to the promise of making and using their own solar energy and yet challenges in program design and interconnection remain. This session will review the results of an NREL solar interconnection timeline study and highlight a set of best practices that can help utilities to more efficiently interconnect systems. Attendees will also learn how NYPA works with New York distribution utilities and renewable energy developers to help C&I customers use renewable energy to meet their sustainability goals.

The economic and social consequences of today’s uncertain world have impacted almost every aspect of utility operations, especially budgets as customers struggle to pay bills. But climate change is still upon us and carbon reduction goals remain in place. In this session Smart Electric Power Alliance’s Julia Hamm moderates a panel of utility executives to hear how they are approaching carbon reduction in an uncertain world.

It has been determined by the highest office of the United States that utility supply chains are at risk of cyberattack because certain equipment in use on the electric grid could contain software or hardware that originated in countries that wish to do us harm. But how should the industry go about identifying at risk equipment and subsequently replacing it? Some experts believe that a regulatory office should be created to ensure that all equipment on the grid is safe but should such an organization live within the Department of Energy, the Department of Defense, FERC or another governing agency? How would it be structured and what liabilities and responsibilities would it have? In this panel, experts from utilities and the government will discuss how to establish a protocol for supply chain cybersecurity in the US.

This presentation will analyze the market for DER management software technologies, including DER management systems (DERMSs), virtual power plant (VPP) management systems, and DER analytics. It aims to enable current and prospective electric utility solutions and service providers to understand the drivers for projected demand and likely investment by utilities in DER integration solutions and services.

The use of microgrids, customer back-up generation, grid hardening, and modernization are all potential solutions to achieve a resilient power system. Achieving resilience involves rethinking the design and operation of electric distribution systems, including the role of customer-developed and independently-developed solutions. Microgrids are often designed to export energy and provide resource adequacy, ancillary, and other grid services in order to support the project economics. and as a result, market, program and/or tariff mechanisms should be considered as a means for qualified microgrids to provide energy and grid services, including resilience, in return for compensation. This panel will provide insight into multi-customer microgrid interconnection and coordination with utilities, highlighting two recently filed utility tariffs in California and Hawaii.

Fayetteville Public Works Commission implemented batteries for peak shaving and customer programs. This case study will explain how this technology fits into power supply planning.Lessons learned from the operational challenges also will be shared. Finally, Fayetteville PWC will explain how it shaped a customer program around its Battery + Solar project. (THIS HAS CHANGED SLIGHTLY)

It has been determined by the highest office of the United States that utility supply chains are at risk of cyberattack because certain equipment in use on the electric grid could contain software or hardware that originated in countries that wish to do us harm. But how should the industry go about identifying at risk equipment and subsequently replacing it? Some experts believe that a regulatory office should be created to ensure that all equipment on the grid is safe but should such an organization live within the Department of Energy, the Department of Defense, FERC or another governing agency? How would it be structured and what liabilities and responsibilities would it have? In this panel, experts from utilities and the government will discuss how to establish a protocol for supply chain cybersecurity in the US.

This panel will explore data governance and safeguarding customer information in the context of cybersecurity; Utilities have historically limited the PII data that is kept. Given heightened customer service expectations, regulatory sensitivity, and stakes to drive insights from data, how are utilities balancing imperatives (data, privacy, security) in the next normal? What are the strategies, processes, and new approaches utilities are leveraging to keep their consumer data safe.

In order for electric utilities to evaluate the pros and cons of electric vehicles, a strategic approach to their potential impact on utility load shapes, marginal revenues, and distribution impact is necessary. ElectriCities of North Carolina is working with a consultant, Sagewell, to help its public power members evaluate both the short term and long term impact of electric vehicles. These strategic plans use Sagewell’s broad experience evaluating smart meter data of residential accounts where customers own an electric vehicle. Where smart meter data is available, Sagewell uses algorithms to find accounts with electric vehicles and maps them, helpful for distribution analysis. The plans also detail EV availability within a 50 mile radius and the economic impact of EV penetration at varying rates. Presentation will be co-presented by Gary Smith, Director of Programs, Sagewell.

Consumers are more ready than ever to engage in smart energy programs, as long as their most pressing needs and wants are adequately addressed by industry stakeholders. This session is designed to help industry stakeholders better understand today’s energy consumers – their perceptions, attitudes and needs – and develop programs and services to effectively meet these needs.

Akan Ismaili has a unique perspective on responding to emergencies ranging from the natural disasters in North America to wartime efforts in the Balkans. Former Kosovo Ambassador to the United States (and Canada), Akan currently serves as CEO of the California based utility vegetation management (UVM) company AERI. His company’s growth and experience include all aspects of routine UVM work and considerable direct experience in addressing the aftermath of the California wildfires. In this presentation, Akan will address utility and vendor efforts associated with the aftermath of recent historic fires in the west. Dramatically different in scope than traditional UVM, Akan will discuss how can utilities be better prepared in the event of a wildfire in their service territory.

PG&E has leveraged LiDAR and GIS data, along with Finite Element Analysis (FEA) capabilities to develop two asset risk models. First is a model that identifies the individual trees, which if fell would break the distribution system nearby. The model output is a risk heatmap of relative vegetation risk for each span. The second model utilizes circuit orientation, line sag, and asset information, along with wind dynamics to determine the line slapping risk of each span as a function of wind velocity and orientation. The two models are utilized to make PSPS and asset risk reduction decisions.

This session will explore how utilities are planning for and developing eco-friendly infrastructure. It will present drivers of smart city initiatives and the essential role played by infrastructure and technology; the development of action plans that converge the utility’s evolutionary path with that of their cities; and how utilities are creating a vision and roadmap to drive the change needed to meet the smart cities challenge.

California has been faced with a dramatic increase in the number and intensity of wildfires. Regulators and other stakeholders demand solutions. Explore the new fire mitigation programs across California and the West that include weather stations and forecasting, real-time monitoring, enhanced vegetation management, re-inspections of critical electric infrastructure and the potential for proactively shutting down power based on extreme conditions. Discover state of the art mitigation techniques for the 2021 fire season in the West. Learn the costs and benefits of a fire mitigation and resiliency program. Explore the challenges of planning, permitting and executing these initiatives and get your questions answered.

Central Hudson experienced exponential growth in community distributed generation (CDG) projects in its service territory resulting in large numbers of customers subscribing to these community solar PV offerings. These customers pay the CDG project developer, or host, a subscription fee and in turn receive credits for their allocated portion solar generation. The customers are not directly connected to the projects like customers who own residential solar panels. Central Hudson must track electricity generation and consumption from these community solar projects in aggregate, as well as keep track of each subscriber’s individual credit allocation.
Each month, Central Hudson calculates the value of the generation produced by each ‘host’ account, calculates the allocation of that generation through credits to each subscriber and distributes those credits to each account. On average, these projects have approximately 800 subscribers. With the growing number of CDG projects and the exponential growth of subscribers, manual billing with a limited staff was not a viable solution. Due to complexity, resource constraints and costs associated with creating custom programming in its existing customer information system, Central Hudson selected Robotic Process Automation (RPA) to shoulder the additional workload.