Pacific NW Energy Community Takes On The Flexibility Challenge

CUB’s third annual energy policy conference, The Flexibility Challenge: Renewables, Efficiency, and Demand Response, took place on October 25th and by all accounts, it was a rousing success! Continuing our partnership with the University of Oregon School of Law, many of the region’s brightest minds in energy policy, law, engineering, home performance, utility regulation, ratemaking, and other related fields gathered for a day of rigorous debate and discussion at the historic White Stag Block in Old Town Portland.

After sparking a robust conversation around smart grid issues in 2011 and then focusing on energy efficiency in 2012, this year’s conference brought those themes together to look toward the future of energy flexibility in the Pacific Northwest. Our breakfast keynote speaker, John Savage, Commissioner at the Oregon Public Utility Commission (OPUC), kicked off the event with an overview of the OPUC’s new Flexible Resource Planning Guideline, and outlined opportunities for utilities to use flexibility measures to mitigate uncertainty and maximize usability and profitability of all available energy resources.

Commissioner Savage’s presentation set the stage for CUB’s Executive Director Bob Jenks’ morning presentation, which detailed the specific challenges facing utilities in the Northwest in meeting customer demand for variable resources and distributed generation. Bob discussed the accomplishments Oregon has already wrought in decreasing residential electrical usage in the past two decades. He also pointed to a number of existing and emerging technologies and techniques that can be employed to continue this trend, including energy imbalance markets, improvements in wind forecasting, flexible gas generation, energy storage, and demand response enabled by the smart grid.

Bob’s closing assertion, which set the tone for the rest of the day’s discussions, was that in order to make full use of intermittent, variable, and renewable resources, utilities will have to adapt old technologies and possibly their profit model, and the model used by OPUC and other regulatory bodies may have to change to facilitate that adaptation.

The opening panel convened a gathering of some of the foremost thinkers and decision-makers shaping our flexible future: CUB’s own Bob Jenks was joined on the dais by John Savage (OPUC Commissioner); Lisa Schwartz (director of the Oregon Department of Energy, Director); Jim Piro (president and CEO, Portland General Electric); and Rachel Shimshak (Executive Director, Renewable Northwest Project). The panelists discussed some of the projects utilities are taking up to build flexibility in the state and the region, and then answered a vigorous round of questions from the audience.

Prior to lunch, we welcomed Andrew Mills, Staff Research Associate in the Electricity Markets and Policy Group at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories (LBNL). Mr. Mills introduced newly completed research from LBNL that ways for utilities to manage increasingly flexible resources through strategies such as bulk power storage, demand response, and more flexible new generation. We were honored to host Mr. Mills as he unveiled the results of this exciting research that, as this blog is posted, has not yet been published!

After lunch, attendees could choose between two breakout sessions: Flexibility and Industrial/Agricultural Consumers, and Flexible Resources: Wind Generation, Demand Response, and Energy Storage. Participants in the Industrial/Agricultural Consumers session discussed a variety of perspectives on the applications of flexible resources and technologies that are being implemented in these critically important sectors. The Wing Generation/Demand Response session focused on renewable resources, exploring how flexibility is facilitated through the use of demand response projects, the smart grid, energy efficiency measures, and electric vehicles.

The second set of breakout sessions turned attention to the issues of Flexibility and Distributed Generation, and Flexibility Through Imbalance Markets. The Distributed Generation session tackled some of the big challenges facing stakeholders in the development of distributed generation, exploring the potentially shifting role of the utility and how to keep rates affordable for all customers. The session on Imbalance Markets examined how a Pacificorp/California Independent System Operator (ISO) project compares with the NW Power Pool. The session also highlighted a range of opinions on how imbalance markets might deliver benefits from advocates’ and other industry perspectives.

Our closing panel wove together the themes of the day through valuable insights from OPUC Chair Susan Ackerman, Charlie Black (Power Planning Division Director at the NW Power and Conservation Council,) Carl Linvill (Principal at the Regulatory Assistance Project,) and CUB’s own Organizing Director Jeff Bissonnette, with legal perspective and panel moderation provided by Katherine McDowell, Partner at McDowell Rackner & Gibson PC.

This conference was made possible by the generous support of our sponsors, the invaluable contributions of our panelists and presenters, and all our other friends and colleagues who offered feedback as we put together the agenda. CUB is deeply appreciative to all our supporters for their tireless dedication to our third annual conference. It is our hope that this event continues to inspire and motivate its participants to work together toward a flexible and fair energy future for all.

We wish to extend a special thanks to Ninkasi Brewing Co and Eat Your Heart Out catering for once again facilitating a delightful and relaxing networking reception for our attendees and staff. And of course we would not be able to put on this event without the dedicated support of the following sponsors and community partners: PacifiCorp, PGE, NW Power and Conservation Council, Bonneville Power Administration, Conduit NW, Energy Trust of Oregon, The Home Performance Guild of Oregon, NW Natural, Oregon Department of Energy, Clean Energy Works Oregon, Energy Savvy, McDowell Rackner & Gibson, Northwest Energy Coalition, Renewable Northwest Project, Cascadia Green Building Council, Climate Solutions, The Climate Trust, Community Action Partnership of Oregon, Drive Oregon, Energy Policy Institute at Boise State University, Green Sports Alliance, Northwest Environmental Business Council, Oregon BEST, Oregon Solar Energy Industries Association, Research Into Action, Smart Grid Oregon, Solar Oregon, and Women In Sustainability and Environment. Additional thanks to our media partners who helped get the word out through extensive online marketing: Conduit NW, Sustainable Business Oregon, and Sustainable Industries.

The complete agenda for the conference can be viewed on the CUB Policy Center website; we welcome you to visit the site to learn more about this year’s topics, speakers, and sponsors. We look forward to gathering again in 2014!

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