On Friday, November 15 the Technical Committee hosted a talk by Lorenzo Kristov, a visionary on the potential of distributed energy resources (DER) to enable a democratized, decentralized, and just electricity system. We had a great turnout of 57 participants from around New England and elsewhere. Quite a few joined from California, where Lorenzo has a big presence.
Abstract: A decentralized clean energy future is both necessary and inevitable. The centralized bulk power system, while still needed, is not capable by itself to meet today’s goals for decarbonization, resilience and energy justice. These goals all have local dimensions that require local solutions. Meanwhile DER technologies are rapidly improving in performance and cost just in time to enable cost-effective local energy solutions to be deployed for almost any type and scale of end-use need. This presentation will describe key elements of a decentralized, democratized future electricity system and offer practical strategies for building that future from the bottom up.
Speaker bio: Lorenzo Kristov is an independent consultant working on electric power system reform to integrate high levels of renewable generation and distributed energy resources (DER). With 18 years of experience as a Principal in market design and infrastructure policy at the California Independent System Operator (CAISO), Lorenzo’s areas of expertise include wholesale power market design, DER participation in wholesale markets, coordination of transmission and distribution operations, markets and planning, distribution system operator (DSO) models, distribution-level markets, local energy resilience and microgrids, and whole-system grid architecture.
Resources
- Speaker slides available here.
- Rough audio transcript available here.
- Video recording available on request to kentwitt@gmail.com.
- Announcement by Maine of availability of DSO study draft, webinar, and opportunities for comment.
Background
- Envisioning a More Democratic, Bottom-Up Energy System, VOLTS podcast, May 15, 2024.
- Testimony to Minnesota PUC re Xcel Minnesota rate case in 2022, provided by speaker.