Is the Price Right? Valuing and Compensating Distributed Energy Resources
This webinar brought together leading research and policy experts to discuss ways to value and compensate distributed energy resources for their services, how these different approaches affect outcomes of interest, and where the policy discussions are headed. The recording is available here.
Speakers:
- Dr. David Brown (moderator) is an Associate Professor at the University of Alberta’s Department of Economics. He holds a Canada Research Chair in Energy Economics and Policy and is the President of the Canadian Association for Energy Economics. His research lies at the intersection of energy economics, industrial organization, and regulatory policy. His recent work considers questions in the electricity sector ranging from market design, market power, and pricing mechanisms for demand-side management and emerging technology adoption.
- Dr. Michael Caramanis is Boston University Professor of Mechanical and Systems Engineering. He researches complex stochastic production systems and decision support in real-time electric power markets. He currently focuses on the Cyber-Physical-Energy-System/Smart Grid that (i) is open to developers and users to render it capable of supporting real-time market at the wholesale and retail levels, and (ii) enables load and distributed resource management to mitigate T&D and Ancillary Services congestion and realize synergies among market-ready sustainable energy technologies including wind generation, distributed storage, roof-top PV and Hybrid Electric Vehicles.
- Dr. Beia Spiller is a Fellow and the Director for RFF's Transportation Program. Beia is an energy economist, with experience working on electricity and transportation issues and a particular focus on electricity pricing for achieving greater adoption of distributed energy resources. She has participated in many electric utility proceedings in NY and CA with the goal of ushering in a cleaner, more efficient and equitable energy system. She also has many years of experience working in the transportation sector, exploring some of the most pressing issues around electric car, truck and bus adoption. Her publications range across the energy space, with a focus on identifying environmental, community and health impacts of renewable energy resources and energy policies.
- Dr. Burçin Ünel is the Energy Policy Director at the Institute for Policy Integrity at New York University School of Law. She is an expert in utility regulation and environmental and energy policy. She leads Policy Integrity’s stakeholder involvement both at the federal and state level in front of regulatory agencies such as public utility commissions and FERC. She also oversees Policy Integrity’s involvement in multiple carbon pricing initiatives around the country. Dr. Ünel has authored over 80 papers, policy briefs, public comments, and reports to improve the quality of governmental decisionmaking in numerous energy and environmental policy areas.
- Paul Phillips has significant advocacy and advisory experience in California energy and communications policy. He oversees the Retail Rates group in the CPUC Energy Division, evaluating statewide pricing strategies for an evolving grid, including the design and implementation of time of use, dynamic, and real time pricing to promote electrification and affordability. Earlier in his career, Paul focused on utility cost modeling and served as an energy advisor on renewable procurement, net energy metering, natural gas markets, and gas and electric rates.
This webinar is co-sponsored by Policy Integrity and the Environmental Defense Fund, and is the final event in a series highlighting research funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation in the electricity transmission and distribution space. You can watch the previous events here.
