Sessions

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The industry is undergoing a fundamental change faced with unpredictable climate change and move towards electrification, non-traditional energy sources and providers. But the investments in infrastructure have failed to keep pace leading to catastrophic results in some cases. Electricity has also gone from a novelty to a necessity in the last 100+ years, and we’ve seen a varied response, often dependent on geography, socioeconomics, and the partnerships and vision of individual utilities to address the challenge of re-imaging the very nature of the grid. Utilities must establish a comprehensive and strategic vision to re-building the grid with resiliency, sustainably and with affordability in mind. Integrating modern technologies within existing infrastructure, testing them in real time while maintaining current services. These organizations, historically slow moving and risk adverse must learn to turn (and innovate) fast. At the same time, some utilities are well ahead of the curve, topping the leader board in supporting sustainable energy. However, these frontrunners also serve as our frontline, dealing with the pain of first-time issues and new challenges unique to early adopters. Join us for an insightful panel discussion that will explore the challenges and some real-world examples of how utilities, state and local governments are rising to meet these challenges head on.The industry is undergoing a fundamental change faced with unpredictable climate change and move towards electrification, non-traditional energy sources and providers. But the investments in infrastructure have failed to keep pace leading to catastrophic results in some cases. Electricity has also gone from a novelty to a necessity in the last 100+ years, and we’ve seen a varied response, often dependent on geography, socioeconomics, and the partnerships and vision of individual utilities to address the challenge of re-imaging the very nature of the grid. Utilities must establish a comprehensive and strategic vision to re-building the grid with resiliency, sustainably and with affordability in mind. Integrating modern technologies within existing infrastructure, testing them in real time while maintaining current services. These organizations, historically slow moving and risk adverse must learn to turn (and innovate) fast. At the same time, some utilities are well ahead of the curve, topping the leader board in supporting sustainable energy. However, these frontrunners also serve as our frontline, dealing with the pain of first-time issues and new challenges unique to early adopters. Join us for an insightful panel discussion that will explore the challenges and some real-world examples of how utilities, state and local governments are rising to meet these challenges head on.

Sponsored by Eaton

This session will explore how utilities, integrators, and EPC firms can optimize EV charging infrastructure through the use of Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) – including the uses of energy storage for peak shaving in DC Fast charging applications. Learn about techniques and tools to enable smart charging to minimize the impact on electrical infrastructure, including key infrastructure considerations to support large fleet electrification projects using both AC and DC chargers.

Connexus Energy, a large distribution cooperative in Minnesota, has deployed a grid-scale solar + storage system, recently commissioned in 2018. The deployment includes two sites with a portfolio of 10 MW of solar coupled with 15 MW of storage, all interconnected with 12.5 kV distribution feeders down the line. A key aspect is that all energy stored and dispatched via the batteries is from solar generation. This presentation will walk through the life cycle of the project from planning, deployment, and operation. Key points will include an overview of business objectives, operational strategy, operational experience gained, and results to date. Technical considerations to avoid "breaking the grid" will be shared for operating within contractual and operational constraints when implementing a project of this scale interconnected to distribution feeders. Key elements of automation included are battery charging, voltage control, and curtailment (if and when needed). And oh yes; it snows in Minnesota… how about charging batteries from solar to meet a required dispatch schedule in the winter??font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;

Sponsored by Bidgely 

The demand for customer-centric sophisticated solutions has been rapidly increasing across the globe in various sectors. With growing awareness, end-consumers not only expect impeccable service but also look for the most detailed and accurate insights into the product they’re consuming. Hence, it becomes imperative that the data-driven models are approached in a way that’s easy to explain to individuals while simultaneously being algorithmically flawless. In this session, we’ll explore how AI is used as a foundation to develop flexible solutions to demand-side management challenges in the energy sector, pulling from case studies, industry trends, and cutting-edge research on AI-powered customer segmentation for utilities.

Far too often the voice of the customer is lost when it comes to traditional IT projects. Seeking to remedy this, utilities are embracing an approach to development that begins with design thinking, a process that takes a human-centered, agile process to tackle the toughest problems.

In this session, BGE and Mindgrub Technologies will provide an overview of how to put design thinking into practice through the case study of the development and enhancement of an engaging customer mobile application. The goal will be to demonstrate how you can apply design thinking to your next project, ensuring that the voice of the customer is heard and incorporated into the final design. 

The model of electric utility organizations has not successfully accommodated necessary investments in grid innovation. This session will explore pathways to accelerate grid modernization and innovation through evolved models of grid operators. Lessons from the Utility Business Model Working Group discussion that Grid Forward co-organizes with SEPA, Grid Wise Alliance, and EPRI will be leveraged. 

Sponsored by Microsoft

Join Jon Guidroz, Director of Business Strategy at Microsoft; Brian Hurst, VP & Chief Analytics Officer at Exelon; and Nipesh Patel, Director of Sales at Itron in the Utility of the Future Knowledge Hub (booth #1041) on Monday, May 23 from 1:00 pm-1:30 pm CT as they discuss "Digital Partnerships that Deliver Analytics Outcomes." They will speak to the partnership and the growing value of analytics integrated into the meter to support utility outcomes in outage management, customer engagement, DER and EV integration, distribution automation, and much more.

The future of energy in Texas and the US is one of carbon-free promise, but numerous challenges face us in designing and operating an electrical system to meet the growing demand for power while ensuring resiliency, reliability, and security. How do we manage these challenges within a changing regulatory regime and with an evolving threat environment? Deepa Poduval, Vice President & Global Advisory Leader at Black & Veatch kicks off the Leadership Summit with a short introduction. Following his remarks will be a conversation with former US Secretary of Energy and former Governor of Texas, Rick Perry, Massoud Amin, professor of Electrical Engineering at the University of Minnesota, and Julia Matevosyan, Chief Engineer at ESIG Energy. This give-and-take discussion will offer a candid assessment of the policy, technology, and cybersecurity issues that are crucial to the bulk power system’s future.

More residences and small-to-medium commercial buildings are adopting smart, internet-connected devices that could enable simple, scalable, and low-cost interactions between utilities and residential electrical loads and generation sources. These residential distributed energy resources (DERs), if aggregated and efficiently cost-controlled, could help balance grid operations, thus improving operational efficiency, reliability, and resiliency of the power grid. The challenge is that these loads are widely dispersed, relatively small, and operate under user constraints. Some utilities use third-party companies to sign up customers for voluntary curtailment programs for specific appliances such as air conditioners. But those services can be costly for utilities, they typically use proprietary software, and don’t take advantage of the range of multi-vendor devices available in the emerging smart appliance world. To address this industry challenge, the Department of Energy, working through the national laboratories of the Grid Modernization Laboratory Consortium (GMLC), has sponsored a research project to provide electric utilities with the necessary software and hardware, all based on open standards, to bring intelligent, coordinated control of residential DERs. The team has developed and validated a home energy management system (HEMS), which provides a standardized grid interface with a utility. The system serves as a platform for deploying intelligent algorithms to execute grid-responsive functionality of a broad portfolio of residential multi-vendor devices. The project team developed hierarchical, decentralized control and optimization technology capable of providing the response needed to deliver guaranteed grid services to utilities. The team has partnered with utilities in the Southeast, including Southern Company, Duke Energy and Tennessee Valley Authority, to identify, test and validate grid-responsive services including peak demand reduction and renewable responsive load shaping using residential loads. The project team has tested control signals and interactions in a laboratory environment and has deployed devices for five appliance types in several locations with utilities across the region. The project team has used these field trials to validate advanced control functions that support distribution resiliency and end-to-end interoperability, using open standards and open-source platforms. This presentation will report on the results.