Oregon’s Energy Future: Pushing the Needle Forward
Posted on May 5, 2017 by Mike Goetz
Tags, Conference & Events
On April 18, 2017, I had the opportunity to represent CUB at the Oregon’s Energy Future Conference, organized by the Northwest Environmental Business Council (NEBC). A mainstay in Oregon for the past eleven years, the conference connects energy professionals from utilities, policy stakeholder groups, consultants, municipalities, state and federal government agencies, nonprofits, regulatory bodies, and various clean energy businesses. This year, attendees represented a diverse array of backgrounds, from renewable independent power producers, to climate change-driven activist groups and utility executives. Attendees were united by their desire to advance Oregon’s clean energy economy.
The day opened with remarks by Congressman Earl Blumenauer, a federal environmental and clean energy champion representing Oregon’s 3rd Congressional District. Congressman Blumenauer’s remarks set the tone for a shared sense of optimism surrounding clean energy that would pervade much of the day’s discourse. Despite impediments from the current federal administration, Congressman Blumenauer noted that science and facts will ultimately prevail, and citing the burgeoning clean energy sector and the decaying coal industry as factors to provide hope for a clean energy future. Blumenauer made a bold prediction that the federal government will be placing a price on carbon at some point in the next ten years.
Dave Robertson, the VP of Public Policy & Corporate Resiliency at Portland General Electric (PGE) gave the morning’s keynote. After giving a rundown of PGE’s background and history as an Oregon-owned utility, Dave spoke in depth about how PGE has worked with stakeholders to advance renewable energy through its integrated resource plan (IRP) process. Citing individual meetings with CUB’s own Bob Jenks and Rachel Shimshak of Renewable Northwest, Dave reiterated PGE’s commitment to complying with the vision of Oregon’s SB 1547 Clean Electricity and Coal Transition Act through retiring its Boardman coal plant, incrementally stepping up its renewable portfolio, and advancing the transportation electrification and community solar portions of the bill.
Speaking of SB 1547, the conference’s opening panel offered a view of how the law has fared and been implemented in its first year from the perspectives of key stakeholders and regulators that CUB routinely works with, such as: NW Energy Coalition, PGE, the Oregon Public Utility Commission, Oregon Department of Energy, and Renewable Northwest. The conversation centered on long-term goals of the bill—such as the elimination of coal from rates and the increased renewable energy standard—as well as near-term progress that has been made in transportation electrification filings, the ongoing community solar rulemaking, and investigations into the competitive bidding processes that the utilities must undergo in their RFP analysis for resource acquisitions.
The following panel touched on next generation solar farms, and how the advancement of energy storage technologies can help integrate intermittent renewable resources. With continuing advances in battery technology, coupled with decreasing costs of lithium ion batteries, the energy industry should see continued advancement in the capability and feasibility of batteries as storage. Taking into account that load growth has generally been flat in the region and more solar should continue to enter the resource portfolio, this burgeoning technology has tremendous potential.
The larger takeaway from Oregon’s Energy Future 2017 is that this region is continuing to push the needle to advance the clean energy economy. Through advancing technology and policy innovation, we should continue to see the upward trajectory of the industry. The future certainly looks bright for Oregon.
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05/05/17 | 0 Comments | Oregon’s Energy Future: Pushing the Needle Forward