Managing the Renewable Grid: A Transatlantic Dialogue

The Guarini Center on Environmental, Energy and Land Use Law at NYU School of Law, held a discussion on, “Managing the Renewable Grid: A Transatlantic Dialogue.”

In 2015, renewable energy resources supplied approximately 33% of Germany’s electricity demand. Yet, despite the influx of intermittent resources, grid reliability does not seem to have declined at all. If anything, it has improved. What regulatory and technical innovations has Germany implemented to accomplish this feat and what challenges has it encountered along the way? The Guarini Center event examined the German experience and the lessons it may hold for New York State. The panel provided an update on initiatives underway in New York to help manage an increasingly renewable power system.

2 credits of CLE were available in the Areas of Professional Practice category. The credit was both transitional and non-transitional. 

Special remarks by:

Audrey Zibelman, Chair, New York Public Service Commission, ‎New York Department of Public Service

Audrey Zibelman was confirmed as a Commissioner of the New York State Public Service Commission on June 19, 2013, and was named Chair on September 3, 2013. Her term turns through February 1, 2018. Ms. Zibelman has extensive experience in the public, private and notfor-profit energy and electricity sectors. She is a recognized national and international expert in energy policy, markets and Smart Grid innovation.

As PSC Chair, Ms. Zibelman oversees the regulation and safety of New York’s electric, gas telephone, cable, water and steam utilities. During her tenure, Ms. Zibelman has been responsible for designing and leading the regulatory and retail market changes of the electric industry under Governor Andrew M. Cuomo’s Reforming the Energy Vision, New York’s comprehensive plan to modernize and transform the State’s electric industry.

Ms. Zibelman is a Founder and past President and Chief Executive Officer of Viridity Energy, Inc., which she formed after more than 25 years of electric utility industry leadership experience in both the public and private sectors. Previously, Ms. Zibelman was the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of PJM, a Regional Transmission Organization that operates the power grid and wholesale power market serving 14 states throughout the eastern United States. Ms. Zibelman also held legal and executive positions at Xcel Energy, served as General Counsel to the New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission, and was Special Assistant Attorney General in the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office.

During her career, Ms. Zibelman has served on numerous industry-related and non-profit boards, including, but not limited to the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic Reliability Councils. She currently is Chair of the New York State Board on Electric Generation Siting and the Environment. She also sits on the State Energy Planning Board; the board of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), the board of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative Inc. (RGGI), the Audit Committee of RGGI, the New York State Disaster Preparedness Commission, and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management Task Force. Ms. Zibelman was appointed to the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) Board of Directors, and is a member of NARUC Committee on Electricity. She is a member of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Electricity Advisory Committee; a member of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s Future Electric Utility Regulation Advisory Group. She is also a board member of the Advanced Energy Research and Technology Center (AERTC).

Ms. Zibelman received her B.A. from Pennsylvania State University and her J.D. from Hamline University School of Law. Ms. Zibelman, who resides in Albany, and her husband, Phillip Harris, are the proud parents of four children.

Dr. Annegret Groebel, Director, International Coordination, German Federal Network Agency

Dr. Annegret Groebel has studied economics at the University of Heidelberg and Paris-Dauphine and was a researcher at the University of Mannheim where she also got her doctorate in 1996.

Dr. Groebel has worked for the German Regulatory Authority for Telecommunications and Post since 1997 (renamed in 2005 to Federal Network Agency for Electricity, Gas, Telecommunications, Post and Railway).

Dr. Groebel has held the post of Head of Section “International Co-ordination” in the German Regulatory Authority for Telecommunications and Post since 2001 and was promoted Head of Department International Relations/Postal Regulation in 2009. She also holds key positions at the Independent Regulators Group (IRG). She is actively involved in the work of the European Regulators Group (ERG) and of the newly created Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC). She is responsible for all contacts to other European and non-European regulatory bodies as well as for the contacts with the European Commission, including CEER, ACER in the energy field, ERG-Post and IRG Railways. In March 2012, she was appointed Vice-President of the Council of European Energy Regulators (CEER) and became the alternate member of the ACER Board of Regulators representing BNetzA at the BoR Plenary meetings. Since August 2013 she is co-chairing the Market Integrity and Transparency Working Groups of ACER and CEER. In November 2013 she was appointed to be a member of the NER Bureau supporting the NER Chair Luigi Carbone (AEEGSI). On 27 April 2016 she was elected Vice Chair of the ACER Board of Regulators.

She has expertise in the European regulatory framework for electronic communications and implementation, as well as the regulatory framework for the internal energy market and is lecturing at universities in Germany, the FSR in Italy, and Switzerland. She has advised public authorities on regulatory reform and sector specific regulation.

Other confirmed speakers include:

Jens Acker, Counselor, Energy and Climate Policy, Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany

Jens Acker, studied law and joined the regional administration of the Land of Saxony in 2000 taking care of regional funding programs, later of the relations to the federal state. Since 2007 he is working in the Federal Ministry for Economics and Energy. After Fukushima he joined the energy department where he was concerned with security of supply issues and CHP. Since April 2016 he is posted at the German Embassy in Washington DC where he is responsible for energy and climate issues.
David Edelson, Manager, Operations Performance and Analysis, New York ISO

Mr. Edelson is the Manager of Operations Performance and Analysis for the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO), which operates New York’s high­ voltage transmission system, manages the state’s wholesale electricity markets, and conducts comprehensive power system planning.

Mr. Edelson started his career in software development and joined the NYISO in 2006. During his time at NYISO, he has held various roles in product management, energy market design, and operations.  He led the projects that put in place a centralized wind forecasting system, which resulted in NYISO becoming the first ISO/RTO to implement rules and processes to integrate wind resources into its 5-minute economic dispatch.  In his current position, Mr. Edelson leads several teams responsible for analyzing and validating NYISO’s wholesale Day-Ahead and Real-Time energy market outcomes.  His groups also have responsibility for administering the production wind forecasting program and regional market coordination programs between NYISO and its neighboring Control Areas.

Mr. Edelson earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration/Information Systems from the University at Albany.
Damian Sciano, Director, Distributed Resource Integration at Consolidated Edison

Damian Sciano is Director of Distributed Resource Integration at Con Edison where he oversees the company’s evolving Distributed System Implementation Plan (DSIP) and Distributed Service Platform (DSP) designed to integrate distributed energy renewables like solar energy into the traditional electric distribution business.

Damian has over 25 years of utility experience working as a developer of cogeneration projects for Trigen Energy as well as working in Con Edison’s large power plants, electrical engineering groups, corporate planning and, prior to his current position, as a Senior System Operator responsible for overseeing the operation of the bulk electric system. Damian is a professional engineer and holds a doctorate degree in Electrical Engineering from NYU-Polytechnic School of Engineering and an MBA in Finance from Baruch College.

Eleanor Stein, Visiting Professor at Albany Law School and SUNY Albany; expert for America’s Power Plan; and former project manager for NYS Public Service Commission’s Reforming the Energy Vision initiative

Eleanor Stein served as an Administrative Law Judge at the New York State Public Service Commission from 1994-2014; until November 2015 she was Project Manager for the Commission’s Reforming the Energy Vision (REV) initiative for a more customer-centered, renewable, and distributed energy future.  In 2015 she received a Master of Laws degree with distinction in climate change law and policy from the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland.  She teaches Law of Climate Change: Domestic & Transnational at Albany Law School and the Power Dialog at the State University of New York.  While at the NY PSC, she presided over or mediated the Renewable Portfolio Standard (2004), the Energy Efficiency Portfolio Standard (2007) and the Con Edison Resiliency Collaborative (2013-14).  Her areas of interest include public policy dispute resolution, mobilizing public participation in energy matters, and climate justice.  She is on the Board of EcoViva, a US-based project in solidarity with climate adaptation and sustainability in rural El Salvador.  She is an expert with America’s Power Plan.

This event was made possible through the generous support of: