ICYMI: Fall/Winter 2022 with the WATT Coalition
2022 was a huge year for the WATT Coalition and Grid Enhancing Technologies. We officially incorporated as a trade association, and almost doubled our membership. The Department of Energy launched programs to fund GETs deployments, and FERC developed proposed rules to integrate GETs into transmission planning and generator interconnection.
GETs are at an inflection point – the electricity industry recognizes that these are proven tools with the potential to reduce costs and accelerate the energy transition. Federal regulators have developed and vetted proposals broaden GETs adoption. The stage is set for action and GETs vendors, renewable energy developers, clean energy finance, and transmission companies are working through WATT to get the best outcome for the future of the U.S. electricity system.
In 2022, these messages were front and center at many industry events. See highlights below.
NARUC Annual Meeting and Education Conference
New Orleans, LA, November 13-16, 2022
FERC Commissioner, Allison Clements, spoke about Grid-Enhancing Technologies at the Electricity Committee session:
“We have to figure out as regulators at both the state and the federal level how to help utilities take advantage of this opportunity. It’s real and it’s exciting – we can take these big old clunky not-smart wires and turn them into more dynamic assets on the system. It will save customers money, and now is the time to do it as we are thinking about larger investments in bigger, more expensive, backbone transmission”.
WATT applauds Commissioner Clements for championing GETs at the annual meeting of state utility regulators.
IEEE ISGT Conference
Washington, D.C., January 16-19, 2023
Hilary Pearson, VP of Policy & External Affairs for LineVision–and WATT’s Chair, moderated a panel for crowdsourcing a Grid-Enhancing Technologies Application Guide. The panel looked at examples of how GETs can be applied to facilitate renewable energy interconnection and reduce customer costs.
Two other WATT members spoke on the panel: Carlos Rodriguez, Sr. VP of Interconnections and Grid Analysis for Invenergy LLC, and Ted Bloch-Rubin, the Director of Business Development for SmartWires Inc. Dr. Elizabeth Cook of Duquesne Light Company shared her experience initially using Dynamic Line Ratings to collect system data, and later making use of the additional transmission capacity.
Check out our LinkedIn page to see videos of the panel!
NARUC Winter Policy Summit
Washington, D.C., February 12-15, 2023
WATT Coalition Chair Hilary Pearson spoke at the NARUC Winter Policy Summit about how Grid Enhancing Technologies can overcome transmission bottlenecks for clean energy.
Maryland Public Service Commission Chair Jason Stanek moderated the discussion with other experts from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Eversource Energy, and a utility using GETs in the United States today: National Grid.
