A Day at the Indiana Commission WHAT IF Effective Grid Management Could Help You Manage the Changing Energy Landscape?
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JULY 2019 PUBLIC UTILITIES Special Feature: Fortnightly FORTNIGHTLY Smartest Communities Impact the Debate A Day at the Indiana Commission WHAT IF effective grid management could help you manage the changing energy landscape? Our in-depth knowledge of operations and asset management can streamline your system for lasting success. At Navigant, we help turn what if into what is. Consulting | Outsourcing | Advisory Visit Navigant.com/energy PROFIT FROM EXPERIENCE PUBLIC UTILITIES FORTNIGHTLY Impact the Debate July 2019 • Volume 157, No. 9 6 From the Editor: Why Some Communities are Smartest ARTICLES 8 A Day at the Indiana Commission Conversations with Chair Jim Huston, Commissioners Sarah Freeman, Stefanie Krevda, Dave Ober and David Ziegner, and Loraine Seyfried, Chief Administrative Law Judge, Beth Heline, General Counsel and Dale Thomas, Chief Technical Advisor, Policy and Planning Division, Jane Steinhauer, Director, Energy Division, Pam Taber, Director, Communications Division, Bill Boyd, Director and Dan Novak, Program Manager, Pipeline Safety Division, Curt Gassert, Director, Water and Wastewater Division, Kenya McMillin, Director, Consumer Affairs Division 22 Fortnightly Smartest Communities 2019 Austin, Columbus, San Antonio, Spokane, suburban Birmingham Introduction by Clint Vince and Jennifer Morrissey, Dentons. Conversations with Jackie Sargent, General Manager, Austin Energy, Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther, Nick Akins, CEO, AEP, Alex Fischer, CEO, Mark Patton, VP, and Jordan Davis, Director – Smart Columbus, Columbus Partnership, Mike Stevens, Chief Innovation Officer, Columbus, Kimberly Britton, CEO, EPIcenter, Spokane Mayor David Condon, Heather Rosentrater, VP – Energy Delivery, Avista, Sharelynn Moore, SVP – Networked Solutions, Itron, Jim Leverette, Todd Rath and Shon Richey, Southern Company, Joe Gammie, PowerSecure 58 State Legislators’ Smart Communities Summit Conversations with Florida State Senator Jeff Brandes, South Carolina State Representative Gilda Cobb-Hunter, (also president, National Black Caucus of State Legislators), Utah State Representative Stephen Handy, and Washington State Representative Jeff Morris 66 Engineering Smart Communities Conversations with Chrissy Carr and Kyle Pynn, Burns & McDonnell 70 Canada’s Regulators Gather at CAMPUT 2019, Part 1 Conversations with CAMPUT Chair Louis Legault, Director, Legal Services, Régie de l’énergíe, NARUC Executive Director Greg White, and western and northern Canadian regulators: Chair Mark Kolesar, Commissioner Kristi Sebalj and Kristjana Kellgren, Alberta Utilities Commission, Chair David Morton and Commissioner Anna Fung, British Columbia Utilities Commission, Commissioner Graham Lock, Nunavut Utility Rates Review Council, Board Member Duane Hayunga, Saskatchewan Rate Review Panel (Cont. on page 5) Cover photo: During our visit to the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission, from left to right, Commissioner Sarah Freeman, Chair Jim Huston, and Commissioners David Ober, Stefanie Krevda and David Ziegner. Inside the Indiana Statehouse. JULY 2019 PUBLIC UTILITIES FORTNIGHTLY 3 July 29 - August 1, 2019 Grand Hyatt Washington D.C. Register at GridSummit.org Why Attend? Non-Decision Makers: 28% unique254 companies Decision attendees400+ Makers: 72% 13hrs featuring INDUSTRY ROCKSTARS: networking David Eves - Group President, Utilities, Xcel Energy Jennie Potter - Commissioner, Hawaii Public Utilities Commission Mary Kipp - President and Chief Executive Officer, El Paso Electric Arlen Orchard - CEO and General Manager, SMUD Bring Insights Home % hrs tracks of90 attendees education30 3 • Grid Innovation said the knowledge received was ‘relevant Bring •Insight Market Innovation Home and applicable.’ • Customer Innovation What They’re Saying It really creates a community where terrific new and unique ideas that benefit everyone can be generated. MARY KIPP President and Chief Executive Officer El Paso Electric PUBLIC UTILITIES FORTNIGHTLY Impact the Debate 88 Ameren Missouri Grid Modernization Conversations with Michael Moehn, President, Ameren Missouri, Missouri Public Service Commission Chair Ryan Silvey, Missouri State Senator Ed Emery, Dan Mehan, CEO, Missouri Chamber of Commerce, TJ Berry, Executive Director, Clay County Development 98 Monica’s Take on the PUF Annual Survey of Utility Operations and Digitization Conversation with Monica Yeung, Managing Director for Utility Transmission and Distribution Services, Accenture 102 Jeremy’s Take on the PwC Quarterly Power and Utilities Deals Report Conversation with Jeremy Fago, PwC 104 Run-up to Fortnightly Top Innovators 2019 Conversation with Mahyar Ghorbanian, LG&E and KU Energy, and Kirk Ellison, Electric Power Research Institute on landfill sequestration 108 EPRI Tech Transfer Award for Safer Manhole Covers Conversation with Drew McGuire and Brian Green, Electric Power Research Institute 112 Illinois’ Future Energy Jobs Act at Work By Commissioner Sadzi Martha Oliva, Illinois Commerce Commission 116 Rush to Modernize By Paul Alvarez, Sean Ericson and Dennis Stephens, Wired Group 122 2018 Carbon Dioxide Emission Trends By Dan Klein, Twenty-First Strategies ESSAYS 144 Building Next Generation Utility – Energy Services Orchestrator By Jan Vrins and Mackinnon Lawrence, Navigant 147 Energy Efficiency in Cannabis Cultivation An Association of Energy Services Professionals conversation 150 Picture Energy: American Public Power Association National Conference 154 Picture Energy: American Association of Blacks in Energy National Conference JULY 2019 PUBLIC UTILITIES FORTNIGHTLY 5 FROM THE EDITOR Why Some Communities are Smartest Austin, Columbus, San Antonio, Spokane, suburban Birmingham BY STEVE MITNICK, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF t rst, it was smart cities. at was the term that everyone used. en, some thought leaders complicated the concept, broadening it from smart cities A smart city uses tech A to smart communities. I get why. Utility service territories are typically a and data for faster city combination of urban, suburban and rural. So it’s hard to pursue initiatives that pri- services, safer streets, marily bene t urban customers. And it’s hard for state government to endorse such smoother traffic flow, initiatives for the same reason. easier parking, more Still, when faced with de ning what this movement is about and why it’s impor- ways to get around, tant, I prefer to go back to the simpler term, smart cities. It, smart cities, is clearer. 5G everywhere, We can more easily make the case for it. Yes, using the term smart cities rather than cleaner air and water, smart communities acknowledges, openly, that the bene t will be enjoyed by urban customers primarily. But utilities often invest, and state government often supports sustainable energy. investment in some geographical areas – like a transmission upgrade – and then provide balance with projects elsewhere. twenty-seven words: To improve the quality of life and business climate in roughout the history of utility reg- development magnet after becoming the city. And to attract the best and the ulation, we’ve invested in projects that smarter – whatever that is, stay tuned brightest and fastest growing businesses don’t bene t a utility’s customers uni- – then much of the remaining service to the city. versally and equally. ough we strive territory will likely bene t too. Indeed, So the goal of smartening cities is to bene t all of a utility’s customers over whole states gain, if only through simply to make them better places to time with a diverse mix of projects. greater tax revenues, when their big live and work. Which is now within our And if a city in a service terri- cities grow and especially when they grasp and even economical because of tory emerges as a thriving economic grow rapidly. rapid developments in tech and data. So, smart cities it is, in this column What does all this have to do with Steve Mitnick is President of Lines Up, Inc., at least. Well then, what is a smart city? utilities? is is after all the magazine of Editor-in-Chief of Public Utilities Fortnightly, Here’s my de nition, in thirty-one utility regulation and policy. author of “Lines Down: How We Pay, Use, words, focusing on what smartening a It turns out it’s essential to involve Value Grid Electricity Amid the Storm,” for- city would do, tangibly, for real people: utilities. e governments of cities merly an expert witness that testified before A smart city uses tech and data for faster rarely have the resources on their own utility regulatory commissions of six states, city services, safer streets, smoother traf- to smarten. ey can partner with pri- the District of Columbia, the Federal Energy c ow, easier parking, more ways to get vate concerns, but they too rarely have Regulatory Commission, and in Canada, and around, 5G everywhere, cleaner air and su cient resources at scale. Utilities a faculty member at Georgetown University water, sustainable energy. on the other hand, when supported by teaching undergraduate microeconomics, And, with this pretty succinct utility regulators, are fundamentally macroeconomics and statistics. Which sug- de nition, the question is then begged, investment machines that can raise and gests he’s as smart as a smart city though the why is it important to be a smart deploy large quantities of capital in the PUF staff sometimes has its doubts. city? To answer this one, I just need public interest. 6 PUBLIC UTILITIES FORTNIGHTLY JULY 2019 For instance, to hasten the transi- tion to electric buses with the neces- sary bus charging stations. To install