The Energy Optimist

By: The Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC)
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  • Summary

  • Welcome to The Energy Optimist, a monthly podcast brought to you by the Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC). Each episode, we tackle a thorny energy policy challenge in bite-sized interviews with leading experts. We start with the bad news and end with what increasingly feels like a radical idea: that there are reasons for optimism. If you're new to how we regulate the energy system, we'll demystify it for you. If you're a seasoned practitioner, we'll hopefully leave you with renewed optimism to keep doing the work to improve our energy system.
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Episodes
  • Episode 05: A Tale of Two Grids (Distribution vs. Transmission System)

    Episode 05: A Tale of Two Grids (Distribution vs. Transmission System)
    Nov 21 2023
    Today’s guest, Lorraine Akiba, is President/CEO of LHA Ventures. Lorraine is a recognized thought leader with technical expertise and knowledge in the development of Hawaii’s renewable and clean energy policy and regulatory framework. Previously, she was Commissioner at the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission, which presides over all regulated public utility matters in the state. Prior to this appointment, she was a partner at McCorriston Miller Mukai MacKinnon LLP and at Cades Schutte LLP, and led the environmental practice teams at both firms. Lorraine co-chairs the Low Income Consumer Solar Working Group of the Low Income Energy Issues Forum, a diverse national consortium focused on innovations that make utility service more affordable. Specifically, the solar working group is addressing actions and recommendations for successful integration of community solar. She is also a member of the Resiliency Strategy Steering Committee for the City and County of Honolulu and is a member of the U.S.-Japan Council. Lorraine holds a JD from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law and graduated with honors from the University of California at Berkeley with a BA in political science. For a more in-depth background on how the traditional U.S. electric grid works, see the Energy Information Administration’s Electricity Explained: How Electricity is Delivered to Consumers. For more on how the system is changing with grid modernization and the integration of distributed energy resources, see the Interstate Renewable Energy Council’s A Playbook for Modernizing the Distribution Grid. For an in-depth primer on how the energy system is regulated in the U.S., read the Regulatory Assistance Project’s Electricity Regulation in the United States. The episode touches on microgrids, which are “a group of interconnected loads and distributed energy resources that acts as a single controllable entity with respect to the grid. It can connect and disconnect from the grid to operate in grid-connected or island mode” (from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory). Put simply, a microgrid connects one or more customers to a local energy resource (which could be renewable, like solar or storage, or fossil-fired) and can be operated independently from the grid. The episode walks broadly through:  what the electric distribution system is;what the electric transmission system is; and how they intersect and why it's important to operate them in coordination with one another. Key Takeaways: We need closer coordination between the transmission and distribution systems “Both the transmission and the distribution system have to work in concert with each other in order to ensure a safe and reliable energy system. That synergy is becoming increasingly complex as distributed energy resources, like local solar and storage, grow. But this is also one of the most exciting areas of policy and technical innovation…” Climate change and extreme weather events make it even more imperative to have better coordination between the distribution and transmission systems: “As we can see, just this month across our country, extreme weather climate change impacts are wreaking havoc on the energy system. From a management perspective, to be able to deal with outages or to be able to bring power back up again, there needs to be that integration. There needs to be some redundancy and to be able to have resilience to address these challenges.That's why I'm a firm believer that it is important to really be able to utilize the distributed energy resources, the distribution system, which is closer to where the demand is, so the supply actually can meet the demand. But with more climate impacts—whether it's wildfires, or hurricanes, or typhoons, or what have you, floods—it is more important to be able to keep communities and smaller areas energized. We have the technology to do it, if we can make sure to coordinate between the two systems of delivery of energy.” DERs and microgrids can serve as resilience and reliability resources: “There has to be enough reliability, resilience, should something like a hurricane occur, an earthquake occur that disrupts that system. You can make better usage of the distributed energy resources. And in fact, they can actually be the means to have resilience. If something's happening climate-wise or a storm comes in, you could maybe power stuff locally through a microgrid and isolate off pockets of a larger transmission system so that the whole system doesn't go down. That's kind of the concept in Hawaii.”  
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    28 mins
  • Episode 04: Teaching an Old Grid New Tricks

    Episode 04: Teaching an Old Grid New Tricks
    Oct 19 2023

    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. 
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    28 mins
  • Episode 03: Centering Energy Equity in Utility Regulation

    Episode 03: Centering Energy Equity in Utility Regulation
    Oct 2 2023
    Today’s guest, Melanie Santiago-Mosier, is an attorney whose career has centered on clean energy policy and regulation. Over the past seven years, she has focused on the field of energy equity and justice. She enjoys working with teams to embed equity principles into their work, with the goal of advancing a just transition to a clean energy future. Currently, she fills that role as the Equitable Energy Transition Advisor for The Nature Conservancy. She has led similar work at organizations like Green & Healthy Homes Initiative, Vote Solar, and others. The episode walks through: What is energy equity and a just transition;How the existing energy system leads to chronically unjust processes and impacts;And key considerations, policies, and principles for supporting an equitable and just clean energy transition, including both procedural and energy regulation solutions. Highlights: “Understanding how to support an equitable and just clean energy transition should involve learning and understanding the impacts of our current system, which are deeply inequitable, and then, from there, learning and understanding the principles for how to change course.”“Allies should approach this work with humility and authenticity. Allies, regulators, and policymakers should make it a practice to ask community leaders what their needs are and what their vision is for an equitable energy future. They should seek out the voices and perspectives of energy justice leaders on the front lines and be in listening mode.”“Energy equity is about hope. It’s about the opportunity to make our clean energy future just and inclusive. We have the opportunity right now to get this right, to not replicate the mistakes of the past.”“Just transition is a way to think about how a lot of different systems work together, and how to transition away from a system that supports an extractive economy and disinvestment in frontline, environmental justice, and communities of color, and toward a system that supports a regenerative economy—it’s about economic justice, environmental justice, energy justice, climate justice.” Resources and Further Readings: The Justice40 Initiative is the first-of-its-kind federal program that requires “that 40 percent of the overall benefits of certain Federal investments flow to disadvantaged communities that are marginalized, underserved, and overburdened by pollution.” As part of Voices from the West, “The Nature Conservancy interviewed leaders from Tribal and Indigenous communities to learn about their experiences with energy development. The report provides a perspective on the importance of including Tribal voices in planning for energy and infrastructure.” The Initiative for Energy Justice has a suite of resources on energy equity and justice, from foundational definitions of key principles to scorecards, briefs, and toolkits. The University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability hosts the Energy Equity Project, which offers a “framework for measuring equity across energy efficiency and clean energy programs among utilities, state regulatory agencies, and other practitioners, while engaging and centering BIPOC and frontline communities.” The NAACP’s Environmental and Climate Justice Program offers a number of resources for advocates, regulators, and other stakeholders. Just Solutions Collective partners with communities disproportionately impacted by climate change to turn their priorities and ideas into policies and laws, and has many useful resources.  The Just Transition PowerForce, launched by Emerald Cities Collaborative and the NAACP Environmental and Climate Justice Program collaborates in pursuit of a just transition from an extractive economy to a regenerative economy, and has a number of related resources.   
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    46 mins
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