Greetings from NARUC

I am writing from the Winter Meeting of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC).  I arrived on Sunday, and I've attended some very interested discussions on utility issues (I'll write more about them individually.)

Today I participated on a panel on the future of the electric distribution market.  We discussed the changing distribution system, particularly with respect to integrating new and emerging technologies such as solar panels, wind power, small-scale hydro, and energy storage systems into the mix.  The challenge is that the electric grid has to be in constant balance -- you have to be putting in the same amount you are taking out.  Because most of these new technologies are intermittent -- wind turbines only make electricity when the wind blows, for example, which can come in bursts -- they have to be managed very carefully.  We also can't just turn power plants on and off like light switches to balance intermittent resources, as they take time, sometimes days, to power up and down.  It's far beyond my expertise as a lawyer to figure out the technological aspects of how do to all that, but I do see how our desire for renewable energy needs to be carefully managed.  We also are struggling as a society with how to pay managing the various resources.  Virtually every technology will need the grid at least as a backup, and the cost of maintaining the grid is getting more expensive, as we have to pay for storm damage, system resiliency and hardening (to make the grid better protected for the next storm), and grid modernization (upgrades to create a "smart grid," for example).  On the other hand, people get understandably upset with too many fixed charges on their electric bill -- we have to pay for all these various items before we've even used a kilowatt hour of electricity? 

This doesn't mean I'm feeling negative on renewable energy -- far from it.  I believe, especially with the strong storms we've seen in the last few years, and the changing climate, that we need to invest in cleaner technologies, but we need to make sure they are reasonably priced, and that we are supporting the grid at the same time. I see in the near future a "grid plus" world, i.e., one where many (or most?) people need the grid as their primary source of power, and virtually everyone needs it as backup.  (I won't attempt to opine on what's "past the horizon" for technology, as some future development could eliminate many of these issues, but we can only do our best to plan based on available data.)  Unfortunately, none of us on the panel had any concrete vision of how to accomplish all of these things, but we all acknowledged that these were at least some of the challenges.  Once we catalogue the issues, we can then better develop pilot programs, working groups, and other avenues to explore solutions that balance these varying needs.  My main point, I think, is that we need to be aware of all the challenges, and not just rush quickly in any one direction in our industry, lest we end up with a raft of unintended consequences.