Excerpts of remarks from the Institute for Electric Innovation’s Powering the People annual conference.

“These two systems have become interconnected, rather than just Interdependent. A new reliability paradigm, the Interconnected Bulk Energy System, emerges with this evolution, reflecting the increased interrelationship between the gas and electricity sectors.”

“We always start with what our customers want. Our customers want a resilient, clean, affordable grid. All our investment plans are designed to meet the goals in our various jurisdictions.”

“An interesting investment we’ve made on a sizable part of our grid in Florida, and about half of it in the Carolinas, is called smart, self-healing technology. It functions similar to a GPS system or Waze on your phone, rerouting power to avoid the areas of congestion and getting customers the quickest route to get the lights back on.”

“One of the most vital resources in New Jersey in the energy space, and that is our nuclear units. Those units are dispatchable, carbon-free generators that produce close to forty percent of the energy that New Jersey uses.”

Resilience conversations with PSEG CFO Dan Cregg, Duke Energy CFO Brian Savoy, and Exelon CFO Jeanne Jones.

“Utilities, reliability entities, researchers, and regulators are focused on exploring advanced resource adequacy frameworks that leverage multiple metrics to evaluate the ability of power systems to minimize various outage events while balancing costs. Panelists are going to discuss the motivation behind a multi-metric analysis.”

“For projects that use these newer technologies that might have longer-term benefits with shorter-term costs or that build their value from preventing high-cost catastrophes from occurring like wildfires or increasing global temperatures, how can those costs be properly assessed?”

“Talk about the gas-electric harmonization challenges. We’re going to start a task force. We’ll be asking for RTOs to be involved, hopefully NERC will support our efforts with tactical assistance.”

NARUC held its Annual Meeting and Education Conference in California inNovember, closing out three years of the theme, “Connecting the Dots, Innovative/Disruptive Technology and Regulation.” NARUC President Michael Caron passed the torch on to North Dakota Commissioner Julie Fedorchak, who as NARUC’s new President will make history with the first all-female leadership of the Association, with Georgia’s Tricia Pridemore as First Vice President and Washington’s Ann Rendahl as Second Vice President.