When
Wed-Thurs, November 1-2, 2023
Where
EPRI Offices, Washington D.C
Dress Code
Business Casual
Now celebrating its 42nd year, this long-running annual EPRI seminar explores key topics and issues of growing urgency to electric company generation, transmission and distribution system planners, fuel and asset managers, and staff engaged in corporate sustainability, resource portfolio strategy, and risk management. For 2023, the seminar is again running as an in-person event (approximately 50 participants) at EPRI's Washington, DC offices.
The seminar is organized and hosted by EPRI's Program 178 on Resource Planning for Electric Power Systems. The event delivers and expands upon EPRI research, and features presentations by EPRI staff and external experts from government, industry, academia, and non-profit organizations along with facilitated discussion among all participants. This invitation-only, interactive event is designed to facilitate significant interaction between the participants and session speakers.
This year's seminar includes three sessions that address key themes of growing importance as the power system continues to transition to support a future deeply decarbonized economy, as well as educational lunch 'n learn sessions with technology developers and resource planning software experts to learn about advances in emerging technology and commercial planning models. Specifically, the seminar will cover:
- The Changing Policy Landscape & New Considerations for the Electric Company Resource Planner. This session will discuss details and status of recent landmark North American policies and regulatory proposals, such as the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)'s proposed standards for coal- and new natural gas-fired power plants, and Canada's Draft Clean Electricity Regulations, and will highlight recent research and company experiences around managing the challenges and opportunities they provide for resource planning.
- Bridging the Gap Between Planning Net-Zero Systems & Making Net-Zero Electrons. This session will address the often “messy middle” between long-term electric company resource planning and resource procurement, installation, and electricity production. Presentations will emphasize challenges such as regulatory delays, supply chains, permitting, interconnections, changing market designs and resource adequacy constructs, and other uncertainties, and discussion will focus on risk mitigation and other proactive measures the planner may consider.
- Accounting for Social Vulnerability and Environmental Justice in Long-Term Planning. This session will explore a range of metrics and approaches for evaluating concepts of social vulnerability and environmental justice in the context of long-term resource planning. There are growing and practical incentives for utilities to begin more explicitly considering aspects of equity in planning their system's long-term asset portfolio, including access to government funding, improved stakeholder engagements, and overall risk mitigation. Presentations and discussion will focus on education and opportunities around these topics, and current electric company experiences.
- New for 2023! Lunch 'n Learn with Emerging Technology and Planning Tool Developers. There is general agreement that meeting electric sector net-zero decarbonization goals will require planning for and installing new technologies—some of which are still either very nascent or under development. This year's seminar will include an opportunity for participants to attend extended lunches led by select technology developers and planning software companies to learn about the state of technologies and emerging planning modeling methods and capabilities to incorporate these technologies into resource planning exercises.
Goal:
The goal of this annual EPRI seminar is to explore critical topics and issues of direct interest to electric company system resource planners, asset managers, and staff engaged in sustainability, portfolio strategy, and corporate risk management.
Who Should Attend?
Members of EPRI Program 178 (Resource Planning for Electric Power Systems), Project Set 178A (Energy System Technology Cost and Performance), and Project Set 178B (Integrated Energy Systems Planning).
EPRI members and others who participate in this seminar include investor-owned utilities (IOUs), electric generation and transmissions cooperatives (G&Ts), independent power producers (IPPs), public power agencies, and regional transmission organizations (RTOs) and Independent System Operators (ISOs).
All participants are typically engaged in conducting long-term system resource planning analyses, acquiring fuels for power plants, managing power plant operations, advising on corporate sustainability strategy, and/or developing corporate risk management strategies.
Additional participants typically include invited federal agency staff from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), EPA, and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), state public utility commissions (PUCs), academic experts, and representatives of national environmental and other public interest organizations.
Past Keynote Presentations
Judith Jagdmann, President, NARUC and Commissioner, Virginia SCC (2022)
Richard Glick, Chairman, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (2021)
Bernard McNamee, Commissioner, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (2020)
Melanie Kenderdine, Principal, Energy Futures Initiative (2018)
Catherine Jereza, Deputy Assistant Secretary, U.S. DOE (2017)
Event Committee
2023 Presentations
These presentations represent a subset of the presentations from the seminar that EPRI has permission to share publicly.
Keynote
The Changing Policy Landscape & New Considerations for the Electric Company Resource Planner
Bridging the Gap Between Planning Net-Zero Systems & Making Net-Zero Electrons
- Robin Bedilion – EPRI - Supply Chain Considerations for Clean Energy Project Development
- Abe Silverman – CGEP - Turning Plans for Green Electrons into Green Electrons
Lunch ‘n Learn with Emerging Technology Developers and Energy Systems Modeling Experts
- Chris Namovicz and John Taber – EIA - AEO 2025 Model Enhancements for the Power Sector
- Chad Spring – EnerVenue - Long Lasting Nickel-Hydrogen Batteries for Grid Flexibility
Accounting for Social Vulnerability and Environmental Justice in Long-Term Planning
