As if you were there, in Houston last Thursday, Power Day, at “CERAWeek at IHS Markit,” check out these four brief videos:
Electrifying Transportation: How Far, How Fast? “CERAWeek by IHS Markit” Panel
Patti Poppe, CMS Energy’s CEO:
“[The grid has been based on a] pretty basic flow. But in the future, the future that Pedro [Pizzaro, Edison International CEO] is experiencing faster than we're experiencing in Michigan, that future [of the grid] looks a lot more like downtown Chicago. Where you've got multi-modes of transportation: different sizes, different systems, pedestrians to trains. We're going to have to be able to optimize that system.
So, today, two things are true that were never true before. Number one, we're retiring these aging central station power plants. That's happening. We have a choice right now to determine whether we replace them like for like, or we create a new clean and lean energy future.
The other second factor that is happening is the advancement of computing power. AI, machine learning, and the digitization of the information that we never had before.
Look, two years ago, I had guys walk in through backyards figuring out how much energy you used since the last time we were at your house. One data point per month per customer. We [have now] went from thirty-six million data points a year to two hundred and seventy million data points a day. We have information we never had before.
So, if we do not take advantage of it right now and create this opportunity to optimize both demand and supply, we can have the opportunity. Because demand isn't climbing like it was post-World War Two. It is flat to declining. Let's make sure we don't replace like for like infrastructure and have this heavy burden of an expensive electric system for all citizens. Let's have a clean and lean energy system for the future. It is possible today like never before.”
New Frontiers for Power: Serving the Customer of the Future, “CERAWeek by IHS Markit” Panel
Scott Prochazka, CenterPoint Energy’s CEO:
“They demand capabilities to alter their energy usage. Either through programmatic set-ups, or through the ability to make decisions as necessary. They're somebody that wants to be able to take advantage of market dislocations. So take advantage of the opportunity to deal with, or to manage higher prices effectively through real time. It could be energy conservation.
They just want to know, generally, what is going on. Our systems today are such that we can provide that. We can provide more of that. And it's only to going to become, I think, more prevalent as we go forward.
The customer wants to be in control. The customer wants to have the tools necessary to make good decisions. The customer wants recommendations and information from their energy providers so that they can manage their homes, their environments, their equipment, their appliances in a much more thoughtful way.”
New Frontiers for Power: Serving the Customer of the Future, “CERAWeek by IHS Markit” Panel
Anne Pramaggiore, CERAWeek 2019:
“[There are] probably a dozen states who have built performance incentives or performance metrics into their regulatory models. And that is only growing.
I think it's really important. Because we're basically redesigning the system. We're going to be making tremendous investments over the next ten years, in order to adapt this grid to the new expectations that are made of it. It's a way to demonstrate that it kind of resets the regulatory compact. We're going to make this kind of investment.
Here's what you expect out of it. We've delivered on those metrics. So, to the extent you can build them into the regulatory model, you've actually reset the compact.
You've got something to go back and point to stakeholders, and say, ‘this is what we agreed was important, and this is what we've delivered on with this investment.’
I think that transparency, and that resetting of the compact and understanding, is really important as we go forward.”
Electrifying Transportation: How Far, How Fast? “CERAWeek by IHS Markit” Panel
Greg Scheu, CERAWeek 2019:
“We're enabling this new electrified transportation with charging of automobiles, with charging of buses, the trains (electric trains). And electric propulsion of ships, now, with electric ships and the storage on board.
So, it's the early days of what we think is going to be a rapid development going forward. Let me tell you a little bit specifically about what we're doing on fast-charging. Patti [Poppe, CMS Energy CEO] and I were talking about this as well.
We have charging in the home that ABB can provide. That's typically the fallback position. People will charge just like they do with their phone overnight. Utilities may have something to say about when you actually turn that on and activate it.
In densely-populated markets, we see a lot of demand response between the home and the utility. But on fast-charging with our technology – we’re the market leader around the world – enabling fast-charging of automobiles now in over fifty countries with more than ten thousand fast chargers that are built by ABB.
We're doing it through all kinds of business models. Sometimes the utilities. Sometimes the operators coming in between the utility.
There might even be a filling station. As you look at where [drivers] may have got their gas tank filled before, doing it at up to three hundred and fifty kilowatts.
Electrical engineers still have to go into these terms. But what that basically means is that you can now, with a car that can handle that much charge at once, and the new models are certainly designed for that, you can charge your battery in the same amount of time that it would take to fill your gas tank.
So, this idea of, first of all, cars with a greater range. Second, where do I go?
Now, the infrastructure has got to continue to be built out. We're seeing that happen very fast in China, and starting to happen more and more in the U.S. Then you'll be able to approximate that same experience and still have a chance to go ahead, buy your snacks and your soda, come back and you'll have a charged car.”