The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is greatly about energy and climate related investments. The main political sausage compromise of the broad policy debate is now a done deal: no carbon tax but a methane fee! Attention must shift to implementation and consequences. Expanded subsidies will be here for the immediate future and the money will be spent. The implied Federal policy does not yet resolve many differences among the states, and the thorny issues related to transmission and grid reliability remain. The debates about the impact on the climate will continue without resolution for many years to come. The implications for energy policy, electricity market design, and evolving regulation will be more immediate. What could go wrong? The increasing attention to the reliability issues arises from greater reliance on intermittent green resources, but what will be done to keep the lights on, or recover when the reliability problems become as frequent as bad weather stories? How will or should electricity market design evolve in this new environment? What is the proper balance of regulation, prescription and market discretion? How must regulation at the Federal, state and local levels change to accommodate the hoped-for rapidly changing technology mix? What will happen in the ongoing debates and possible legislation about transmission expansions approvals? How can we best prepare for the surprises? What should be the agenda for the HEPG in the immediate future, to anticipate problems that are just over the horizon?
Panelists
Amanda Conner, Vice President, FERC & RTO Strategy and Policy, American Electric Power
Anna Foglesong, Director, Strategy and Policy Coordination, Midcontinent ISO
Abram Klein, Managing Partner, Appian Way Energy
Ann McCabe, Commissioner, Illinois Commerce Commission
Moderator
William Hogan, Research Director, Harvard Electricity Policy Group, Harvard Kennedy School
Speaker Bios
Amanda Riggs Conner is vice president, FERC and RTO Strategy and Policy for American Electric Power. She is responsible for representing AEP's generation and grid development businesses in policy matters at FERC and the RTOs. Previously, Conner served as managing director in AEP's Washington DC office, focusing on FERC and federal legislative issues. She began working for AEP in PJM transmission owners committees and handling transmission formula rate and market-based rate issues before FERC. Prior to joining AEP, Conner spent eight years as an associate attorney with Wright & Talisman, where she represented Southwest Power Pool and the MISO transmission owners in numerous FERC matters, including those involving energy market implementation and compliance with open access transmission directives. Later, in her role as counsel with Orrick, Conner represented renewable developers in project finance and related matters before FERC, including market-based rate applications, qualifying facility self-certifications, applications for approval of transactions involving jurisdictional facilities, and interconnection of renewable generation. Conner received her bachelor's degree from Purdue University and her law degree from Indiana University.
Anna Foglesong is the Director of Strategy and Policy Coordination within MISO’s Strategy & Business Development organization. She has been with MISO since 2020 and is focused on the Reliability Imperative – MISO’s efforts to address the changing resource mix and more extreme weather through modifications to our planning, markets, operations, and systems. Foglesong is also involved in the calculation of MISO’s Value Proposition and offers strategic support for other MISO analyses and reports. Prior to MISO, Foglesong spent 10 years at Pacific Gas and Electric Company in various roles in the Energy Policy and Procurement group, including leading policy formulation for legislative, regulatory, and market (CAISO) venues on a range of clean energy, resource adequacy, and distributed energy issues. Foglesong has undergraduate and business degrees from Dartmouth College.
Abram Klein is Managing Partner for Appian Way Energy Partners, a leading financial marketer in US RTO markets. He is recognized as an industry expert on issues of electricity market design, price formation and "uplift," and transmission congestion trading. Klein has testifed at FERC in numerous proceedings related to these issues and presented at industry confereces on these topics. Prior to co-founding Appian Way, he was Head of Trading for Edison Mission Marketing and Trading (EMMT), responsible for EMMT's proprietary trading in US energy markets, including over-the-counter trading of financial power and gas forward contracts, as well as trading in ISO congestion and FTR markets in PJM, NYISO, MISO, ERCOT, CAISO and SPP. Prior to joining EMMT in 2001, Klein was a Principal with Putnam, Hayes and Bartlett, and its successor companies, PHB Hagler Bailly and PA Consulting, focusing on market design, price forecasting, and market power analysis. Klein has over 25 years of experience working in the electricity systems of the US and Canada. Klein received an MPP degree from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and an A.B. in Political Science from Brown University.
LOCATION:Virtual Session. Meeting time EST STATUS:CONFIRMED DTSTART:20221014T170000Z DTEND:20221014T200000Z END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR