Thursday, March 6th
Panel 1 – Load: What’s in a Name?
This panel will explore the shifting landscape of electricity demand and its implications for reliability and system integration. Topics will include the rising trend of electricity-intensive operations, such as data centers, crypto mining, and fracking sites, developing their own power infrastructure to ensure energy security and autonomy and the rise of virtual power plants and small-scale backup generation as decentralized energy solutions.
Featuring:
- Prashant Kansal, Director – Grid Transformation, ERCOT
- Anant Kumar, Vice President, Charles River Associates
- Julia Matevosyan, Associate Director, ESIG
- Samuel Siegel, VP – Wholesale Strategy, Vistra Corp
- Frank Wolak, Professor, Stanford University
Afternoon Keynote
Featuring David Livingston, Chief Strategy Officer, Galvanize Climate Solutions
Panel 2 – Transmission Challenges and Governance for a Reliable Grid
Focusing on the backbone of the electricity system, this panel will discuss the development of transmission lines in supporting reliability and integration. The potential of DC technologies, from large-scale systems to smaller back-to-back solutions, will also be discussed. Governance challenges, including the shift from federal to more localized coordination and the balance between expansive regional grids and localized microgrids, and “who pays” will be key themes.
Featuring:
- Will Gorman, Research Scientist, Berkeley Lab
- Jeff Makholm, Consulting Economist, National Economic Research Associates
- Robert Schulte, Managing Member, Power from the Prairie LLC
- Tiffany Wu, Consultant, McAdams Energy Group
Friday, March 7th
Panel 3 – (Re-)Emerging Technologies Transforming the Electricity Sector
This panel will explore emerging, resurgent, and transformative technologies in the electricity sector, including the potential of demand response and virtual power plants, geothermal energy’s production trends, nuclear energy’s resurgence, advancements in electricity storage, GHG mitigation in fossil-based thermal generation, and the electrification of transportation systems.
Featuring:
- Vijay Betanabhatla, Head of Power, SLB
- Dale Klein, Reese Endowed Professor in Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin
- Drew Nelson, VP – Policy, Strategy, and Programs, Project InnerSpace
- Arushi Sharma-Frank, Principal, Luminary Strategies
Afternoon Keynote
Featuring Lori Cobos, President, CobosStrategies
Panel 4 – Innovation and Competition in the Evolving Energy Market
Focusing on innovation and competition, this panel will examine where innovation is most needed, where it’s currently emerging, and how new business models are disrupting the traditional electricity sector. It will analyze the interplay between established players and new entrants driving change.
Featuring:
- Peter Cramton, University of Maryland and Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods
- Marty Luby, Associate Professor, The University of Texas at Austin
- Robin Lunt, Chief Commercial Officer, Guzman Energy
- Jeremy Twitchell, Energy Research Analyst, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
