Technical Conference to Discuss Electrification and the Grid of the Future

Panel 1: Projections, Drivers, and Risks of Electrification
This panel will explore the future and current state of electrification in the United
States. Panelists will discuss how electrification could unfold, including the major
drivers of electrification, the sectors and key technologies implicated, and the likelihood
and magnitude of change to electricity demand under various electrification scenarios.
Panelists will also discuss the environmental justice considerations and cybersecurity
risks associated with electrification. The panel may include a discussion of the following
questions:

1. What are the main drivers of electrification? Is the shift from using non-electric
sources of energy to using electricity more pronounced in certain sectors or
industries? How might public policy, energy costs, and technology drive
electrification in the future?

2. What technologies are commercially available and currently being deployed to
electrify different sectors or industries? What sectors and industries are driving
the implementation of these technologies and how are they implementing them?
How quickly are these technologies being deployed, and are there regional
differences in the scope and rate of deployment?

3. How is electrification expected to affect electricity demand growth in the short
term and the long term? How might electrification change electricity demand in
the future in terms of daily and seasonal demand patterns, absolute magnitude of
electricity demand on average, and during peak periods?

4. How might electrification affect marginalized communities? What are the
environmental justice considerations associated with electrification?

5. What are the cybersecurity, reliability, and operational risks and/or benefits
associated with specific technologies and industrial processes solely dependent on
electricity and the corresponding change in electricity demand?

Panelists:

• Rob Chapman, Senior Vice President for Energy Delivery and Customer Solutions, Electric Power Research Institute
• Katherine Hamilton, Chair, 38 North Solutions; Executive Director, Advanced Energy Management Alliance; and Co-Chair, World Economic Forum Global Future Council on Clean Electrification
• Jeff Dennis, General Counsel and Managing Director, Advanced Energy Economy
• Matthew Tisdale, Executive Director, Gridworks
• Adrienne Mouton-Henderson, Deputy Director of the Renewable Energy Buyers Alliance (REBA)
• Carlos Casablanca, Managing Director, Distribution Planning and Analysis, American Electric Power
• Ella Zhou, Senior Modeling Engineer, National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)
• Glenn Blackmon, Manager, Energy Policy Office, Washington State Department of Commerce

Panel 2: Infrastructure Requirements of Electrification
This panel will focus on how transmission owners and system operators in both
regional transmission organization (RTO) and independent system operator (ISO) regions
and non-RTO/ISO regions are planning to cost-effectively and reliably integrate changes
in electricity demand due to electrification and whether there are any existing challenges
in transmission, interconnection, and resource adequacy planning processes that need to
be addressed. Beyond planning, the panel will explore the types of infrastructure
investments electrification may require, including additional generation; local, regional,
and interregional transmission; and distribution investments. The panel may include a
discussion of the following questions:

1. What type of infrastructure investments are required to address the respective
challenges of electrification (i.e., additional generation, local, regional or
interregional transmission, and distribution investments)?

2. What approaches are transmission owners and system operators taking to costeffectively
meet the infrastructure requirements of projected electrification in the
current transmission, interconnection, and resource adequacy planning processes?
How do these approaches consider reliability, and what impacts do those
considerations have on the need for infrastructure investment for electrification?

3. What measures are being taken to identify and align the costs of investments
needed for electrification with the beneficiaries?

4. What, if any, existing regulatory and/or tariff requirements act as barriers to, or
otherwise do not consider, electrification and its associated growth in demand?
For example, does the scenario modeling in current regional transmission planning
processes reflect increased demand due to electrification driven by market trends
and public policies?

Panelists:

• Pedro Pizarro, Vice Chairman, Edison Electric Institute; President and CEO, Edison International
• Jordan Bakke, Senior Manager of Policy Studies, Midcontinent Independent System Operator, Inc.
• Rachel Huang, Director of Energy Strategy, Research & Development, Sacramento Municipal Utility District
• Dr. Asa Hopkins, Vice President, Synapse Energy Economics
• Ric O’Connell, Executive Director, Gridlab
• Larry Gasteiger, Executive Director, WIRES
• Gary Rackliffe, Vice President of Market Development and Innovation, Hitachi ABB Power Grids
• Roger Kranenburg, Vice President of Energy Strategy & Policy, Eversource Energy
   

Panel 3: Transmission and Distribution System Services Provided by Flexible Demand
This panel will explore transmission and distribution grid services that can be
provided by newly electrified resources (e.g., electric vehicles, smart thermostats, heat
pumps, etc.) and the technology required for these resources to provide grid services. It
will also discuss whether any barriers exist to these resources providing grid services they
are technically capable of providing. The panel may include a discussion of the
following questions:

1. What grid services can newly electrified resources provide or otherwise facilitate?

a. For example, what grid services can consumer electric vehicles or electric
vehicle fleets most effectively provide today? What is the current state of
development for vehicle-to-grid technologies, and will further
advancements enable consumer electric vehicles or electric vehicle fleets to
provide additional grid services in the future?

b. What other types of newly electrified resources can currently provide grid
services, and what grid services can they most effectively provide? For example, can grid-interactive buildings be meaningful sources of flexible demand?

c. What, if any, newly electrified resources cannot currently provide grid
services, but may be able to in the future? What barriers must be overcome
for that to occur?

2. What technological capabilities (e.g., interoperability)11  are required for newly
electrified resources to provide grid services? What is the current state of
development for these capabilities? What could speed up or slow down such
development?

3. What challenges exist to deploying newly electrified resources to provide grid
services in the RTO/ISO and non-RTO/ISO regions?

4. What barriers, if any, exist to newly electrified resources providing grid services in
wholesale or retail markets?

Panelists:

• Adrianne Collins, Senior Vice President of Power Delivery, Southern Company
• Pamela MacDougall, Senior Manager of Grid Modernization, Environmental Defense Fund
• Maria Bocanegra, Commissioner, Illinois Commerce Commission; Chair, NARUC EV Working Group
• Garrett Fitzgerald, Principal of Electrification, Smart Electric Power Alliance
• Peter Klauer, Senior Advisor Smart Grid Technology, California Independent System Operator Corporation
• Anne Smart, Vice President of Public Policy, ChargePoint
• Jeff Deason, Program Manager in Electricity Markets and Policy Department, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
• David Nemtzow, Director of the Buildings Technology Office, U.S. Department of Energy

Panel 4: Local, State, and Federal Coordination
This panel will explore the roles of local, state, and federal governmental entities, with regard to electrification moving forward. This panel will focus on how local, state, and federal governmental entities can coordinate to ensure the grid is prepared to handle additional load from electrification and to ensure that newly electrified sources of energy demand provide the grid services they are technically capable of providing. The panel may include a discussion of the following questions:

1. What role can coordination among local, state, and federal governmental entities
play with regard to electrification?

2. What planning and coordination among local, state, and federal governmental
entities is necessary to facilitate the provision of grid services by newly electrified
resources in a way that maximizes benefits to the grid while decreasing the
potential reliability, operational, and cybersecurity risks that electrification could
pose?

3. Regional initiatives and multi-state cooperation efforts have formed in recent years
to coordinate EV charging infrastructure deployment. What can we learn from
those efforts and what role, if any, does the federal government play in supporting
those efforts?

4. How can interoperability protocols and standards be coordinated across local,
state, and federal jurisdictions?

5. What coordination efforts among local, state, and federal governmental entities
have been most effective in addressing electrification? How could those
coordination efforts be improved?

Panelists:

• Norman C. Bay, Partner, Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP
• Ann Rendahl, Commissioner, Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission; Chair, NARUC Committee on Electricity
• Bob Ethier, Vice President of System Planning, ISO-New England Inc.
• John Williams, Vice President of Policy and Regulatory Affairs, NYSERDA
• Emeka Anyanwu, Officer, Energy Innovation & Resources Business Unit, Seattle City Light
• Phil Jones, Executive Director, Alliance for Transportation Electrification
• Sara Baldwin, Director of Electrification Policy, Energy Innovation
• Abigail Anthony, Commissioner, Rhode Island Public Utility Commission