Agenda | Note: Subject to change |
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07:30 - 08:30 Registration and Continental Breakfast
08:30 - 10:00 How Microgrids Are Transforming Business
Today's businesses are seeing increasing uncertainty in the electric grid with cost, reliability, and resilience. This is a concern. Businesses are asking deeper questions about their energy options. The panel will discuss how microgrids contribute new options to businesses.
- Cases where businesses have exercised different options (distributed energy)
- Key technologies that enable these new energy options
- Key financial approaches that enable these new energy options
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10:00 - 10:30 Networking Coffee Break
10:30 - 11:00 Keynote Address:
Transactive Energy @ The Grid Edge
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11:00 - 12:30 How Utilities are Leveraging Storage & Microgrids
This session will explore how utilities are looking to the future and ways both investor-owned and municipal utilities are exploring the role energy storage and microgrid projects will play in their portfolios. Southern Company will share lessons learned from their Birmingham Smart Neighborhoods ® Initiative which incorporates a community-scale microgrid, rooftop solar, battery storage, energy efficiency and smart home technologies. Xcel Energy will provide an overview of their Pe ña Station NEXT connected community powered by a microgrid, renewables and enhanced mobility solutions. Finally, Lansing Board of Water will provide the municipal utility perspective on how they are investing in community solar and energy storage projects.
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12:30 - 1:30 Networking Lunch
1:30 - 3:00 Innovations in Large Scale Implementation EV Charging and EV Energy Storage Infrastructure
This panel will focus on innovations in EV charging infrastructure which are bringing about market transformation and the drivers behind the dramatic growth of the industry. Panelists will also discuss integration of EV charging infrastructure into microgrids and the new industry being created around the reuse of EV batteries into grid-scale energy storage systems.
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3:00 - 3:30 Networking Coffee Break
3:30 - 4:00 A Model-Based Approach for Analysis of Microgrid Systems
Microgrids are often seen as a promising technology to increase the power systems' reliability at a relatively low cost and environmental impact. They are however challenging systems to design and operate due to the various possible configurations, the multiple KPIs, the rapid fluctuations in the boundaries and the multiple stakeholders. A complete design requires multiple analyses ranging from failure scenario simulations to the long-term assessment of operational cost, system operability and environmental impact.
In this session, we will present a model-based approach that allows for a consistent analysis of microgrid systems, from early component design to detailed system verification including controls. We will illustrate elements of the workflow through concrete design and control examples for installations that include electrical, thermal and storage systems.
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4:00 - 4:30 Intelligent Microgrid Case Studies
This presentation examines microgrid development in agriculture, as well as advancements in CAISO and customer side development. The focus is on enabling resilience and reliability in a vulnerable grid through the use of intelligent microgrids. We will examine the use of AI to control aggregated generation and energy storage assets, resulting in an efficient ecosystem. Will also look at how the ability to load-follow solar and wind, dispatch storage, and fill in the gaps with firm cogeneration is an advancement in the power supply business.
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4:30 - 5:00 The Value of Microgrids at the Grid Edge
In many cases, microgrids have struggled in business case evaluation as they are primarily considered for their capability in provisioning resilience which is inherently difficult to value. What has gone often unnoticed is the measurable economic value that microgrids can bring through monetization of the microgrid assets relative to regional electricity markets and local utility and end user ancillary service interaction. Grid-connected microgrids spend the majority of their time connected to the grid which results in underutilization of the assets. The distributed energy assets in the microgrid can and should be utilized and economically dispatched beyond their inherent role in resilience. This session will explore this topic and leverage actual microgrid installations globally to bring real world experience to bear.
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5:00 - 6:00 Networking Drink Reception
8:00 - 9:00 Continental Breakfast
9:00 - 10:15 Changing The "Rules Of The Road" To Capture Microgrid Value
Technically, microgrids have the potential to help re-shape the infrastructure and operational parameters of our electric grid and communities. Equipped with "smart" information, communications and control technologies, as well as data management and analytical capacity, microgrids can combine, manage and optimize multiple supply, demand and storage assets to provide integrated energy solutions to the Grid, Market and Communities. However, electric utility regulators have been slow to recognize the value of microgrids in modernizing the grid.
This panel will discuss:
- What are the technical capabilities of advanced microgrids to co-optimize benefits for the grid, markets and communities?
- What are the drivers and barriers with respect to reforming our electric utility "rules of the road" to recognize the value of microgrids?
- What kinds of regulatory changes should be pursued to support the long-term market development of microgrids versus short-term project development?
- What type of institutional support is needed for regulators, including technical assistance on demonstrations to advance learning?
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10:15 - 10:45 Networking Coffee Break
10:45 - 12:15 VPP International Case Studies & Lessons for N. America
The virtual power plant (VPP) model of DER aggregation and optimization is spreading around the globe to respond to the need for increased grid reliability and to lower the cost of renewable energy integration. What can projects being deployed in Germany, Japan and Australia reveal to the U.S. market, which centered its initial forays into VPPs around demand response? How can electric vehicles, residential rooftop solar PV systems and new kinds of batteries all help balance the grid - while also providing discreet resiliency services to project hosts?
This panel will offer participants the following:
- A peek at cutting edge VPP being deployed around the world - and projections of future global growth
- Examine what kinds of market reforms are opening the door to more sophisticated VPPs
- The growing role of energy storage in the VPP space
- How artificial intelligence and advanced software platforms are evolving to expand VPP use cases.
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12:15 - 1:45 Networking Keynote Lunch
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Dr. Mohammad Shahidehpour Distinguished Bodine Chair Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Illinois Institute of Technology; Director, Robert W. Galvin Center for Electricity Innovation Associate Director, Wanger Institute for Sustainable Energy Research (WISER) bio |
1:45 - 3:15 DERMS and VPP for Future Smart Grids
The massive integration of renewable energy resources (DER) with dispatchable (CHP, diesel and battery storage systems) and non-dispatchable (PV and wind generators) technologies will definitely change the power system's reliability and robust-optimal operation measures, indices and software solutions (for contingency analysis, economic dispatch and optimal power flow analysis).
ISOs such as California-ISO, ERCOT, and ISO-New England as well as several major U.S. utilities are looking for new software tools such as integrated distribution planning (IDP), DER Management System (DERMS), and Transactive Energy Market platforms for evaluation of DER effects on power distribution grid planning, reliability, control & protection and energy price tariffs.
This interactive panel session will discuss 1) existing pilot projects in north America that involve VPP & DERMS for optimal planning and operations of smart distribution grids, and 2) the VPP-DERMS commercialization roadmap in north America.
Panel Takeaways:
- Clear definition of VPP & DERMS within the context of Smart Energy Grids
- The importance of VPP & DERMS to Future of Energy in north America
- The current pilot VPP & DEMRS projects in north America
- The VPP & DERMS commercialization roadmaps in north America
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