Thursday, March 6th
Panel 1 – Load: What’s in a Name?
This panel explored the shifting landscape of electricity demand and its implications for reliability and system integration. Topics included 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:
- Christoph Graf, New York University (View Presentation)
- Anant Kumar, Charles River Associates (View Presentation)
- Julia Matevosyan, ESIG (View Presentation)
- Eric Padilla, Vistra Corp (View Presentation)
- Agee Springer, ERCOT (View Presentation)
- Moderated by Carey King, UT Energy Institute
Afternoon Keynote (Virtual Presentation)
Featuring David Livingston, Galvanize Climate Solutions
Panel 2 – Transmission Challenges and Governance for a Reliable Grid
Focusing on the backbone of the electricity system, this panel discussed the development of transmission lines in supporting reliability and integration. In addition, it also focused on the potential of DC technologies, from large-scale systems to smaller back-to-back solutions. Key themes included governance challenges, including the shift from federal to more localized coordination and the balance between expansive regional grids and localized microgrids, and “who pays.”
Featuring:
- Will Gorman, Berkeley Lab (View Presentation)
- Jeff Makholm, National Economic Research Associates (View Presentation)
- Robert Schulte, Power from the Prairie (View Presentation)
- Tiffany Wu, McAdams Energy Group (View Presentation)
- Moderated by Ross Baldick, Cockrell School of Engineering
Friday, March 7th
Panel 3 – (Re-)Emerging Technologies Transforming the Electricity Sector
This panel explored 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, SLB (View Presentation)
- Dale Klein, The University of Texas at Austin (View Presentation)
- Drew Nelson, Project InnerSpace (View Presentation)
- Arushi Sharma-Frank, Luminary Strategies
- Moderated by Dana Harmon, Juniper Advising
Afternoon Keynote
Featuring Lori Cobos, CobosStrategies
Panel 4 – Innovation and Competition in the Evolving Energy Market
Focusing on innovation and competition, this panel examined where innovation is most needed, where it’s currently emerging, and how new business models are disrupting the traditional electricity sector. It also analyzed 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 (View Presentation)
- Marty Luby, The University of Texas at Austin (View Presentation)
- Robin Lunt, Guzman Energy
- Jeremy Twitchell, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (View Presentation)
- Moderated by Varun Rai, LBJ School of Public Affairs
