Conversations with NARUC’s Greg White and Michelle Malloy, Southern Company’s Noel Black, McGuireWoods’ Ryder Rudd, and Commissioners Emeritus’ Ed Salmon.

“In Washington and Oregon, there is a larger push for decarbonization of our gas stream. We’re looking at purchasing RNG and providing both to all customers, and also providing that as a separate program for people who are interested in taking RNG at a slightly higher price.”

“The impact of internal fraud goes beyond dollars, leading to wide-spread reputational harm. Fraud is not a new problem for utilities but is rapidly growing.”

“The utility, a stakeholder that often flies a bit under the radar, will be an essential part of a sustainable zero-emission vehicle future.”

“Utilities have a unique opportunity to make strategic upgrades and investments to address not only concerns around grid resiliency and cybersecurity, but growing social equity concerns and competitive threats on multiple fronts.”

“We still are the most oil-dependent state in the nation and the most oil-dependent electricity systems. Our cost of energy remains extremely high. The sweet spot for these new technologies is it’s easier for them to be cost competitive here.”

“At the end of the day, companies are going to have to reliably be able to say, this is the situation from a full ESG standpoint in terms of the supply chains being utilized.”

“I don’t think this move to a more decarbonized grid happens unless we do it at the edge of the grid. That’s my first belief. Tightly coupled to that is the understanding that it’s one thing for us all to have solar or electric cars. But if you can’t manage those assets in a coordinated way, it’s kind of useless.”

“What we’re starting with is a form of automation and to be able to interact with the DER. That’s our bedrock. With that platform capability, what those algorithms are doing can be for capacity management or for more classical microgrid-type applications.”

“Maybe we need to change distribution system to some other name because distribution used to be, I have a substation and the power flow is going to flow one way. But there are bidirectional power flows when the sun is rising or setting, or the wind is blowing.”