Today’s guest, Dr. Julieta Giraldez, is Director of Grid Planning at Kevala, where she focuses on solving integrated grid planning challenges and the way distributed energy resources (DERs) interact with the grid. Prior to joining Kevala, Dr. Giraldez worked for the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) where she led DER grid integration related projects. She brings a holistic view of grid integration related issues, acknowledging the importance of including multiple perspectives in the evaluation of new emerging technologies, from developers and customers to technology providers, regulators and utilities.

Dr. Giraldez holds a P.h.D. in Systems Engineering from Colorado State University, an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the Colorado School of Mines, and a B.S in Technical Mining and Energy Resources from the Polytechnic University of Madrid, Spain.

The episode walks through: 

• How large-scale renewables and DERs intersect to manage the energy system;
• What regulators and utilities need to be aware of to effectively manage large-scale and distributed resources;
• How DERs can help shape electrical demand and make the energy system more efficient.

Highlights: 

• Distributed energy resources, such as rooftop solar and battery storage, are changing the way we think about electricity demand and managing the electric grid. Historically, power has always been generated at large-scale power plants and delivered one-directionally to consumers. Now, individuals and businesses who adopt solar, for example, can export power back to the grid, and we are moving toward more complex grid management, involving more control points and the need to balance more intermittent resources. We can shape electricity demand in a way that maximizes both large-scale and distributed energy resources and allows us to tap into renewables when they are available.
• We are making major strides in the level of granularity with which we can conduct distribution system planning (see, for example, the California Electrification Impacts Study referenced below).
• We don’t have to make an “either-or” choice between large-scale and distributed energy resources—we need an all of the above approach to support energy sector decarbonization.

Resources and Further Readings:

• Kevala, on behalf of the California Public Utilities Commission, completed the California Electrification Impacts Study in 2023, in order to “determine the distribution grid requirements of state transportation electrification targets. Kevala analyzed over 100 terabytes of data from Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E), Southern California Edison (SCE), and San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) to explain when, where, and how much utilities will need to invest in grid upgrades.” 
• A 2021 report by Vibrant Clean Energy showed that deploying optimized DERs can save $515 billion by 2050 compared to using utility-scale only resources, and that a mix of DERs and utility-scale energy (rather than utility-scale alone) can provide greater greenhouse gas reductions.