THE QUICKLY EVOLVING POWER GRID: HOW TO POSITION YOUR COMPANY TO SURVIVE AND THRIVE
The risks and the opportunities are both unprecedented. The only way to win this game is to understand what drives it and anticipate the emerging trends before they occur.
Just a few years ago, a common refrain in the power industry was that Thomas Edison would still recognize the power grid of today, and that not much had changed in the past century. Not anymore! The pace of change has never been more rapid.
At the utility scale, solar and wind projects now represent the majority of new resources entering the grid. After a decade of growth, the U.S. solar industry just surpassed 100,000 megawatts of installed solar, with an additional 150,000 MW expected in the next five years. Just the Texas grid - which is sized at approximately 80,000 MW of peak generating capacity - now has an additional 130,000 MW of solar, wind, and storage projects lined up in its interconnection queue.
The customer’s personal relationship with power is also evolving quickly. It seems there’s a story every day about power use, outages, or outrageous bills. Consumers are increasingly aware of where their power comes from, how they use it and how it is impacting life on our planet. Today, California boasts over a million solar rooftops, while the island of Maui already gets 22% of its electricity supply from rooftop solar panels. In addition, residential batteries are just beginning to flood the energy landscape, even as the next generation of pick-up trucks is being designed to provide emergency power, and school buses will soon hook up directly and sell services to the grid. In 2021, Pew Research reported that more than a million electric cars were on the road in the USA.
This rapidly accelerating pace of change represents both a threat and opportunity to every company in the electricity space. The evolving trends are often complex, intertwined, and very difficult to predict. Positioning your company to take advantage of these changes can yield huge benefits, while guessing wrong can spell disaster.
In this eye-opening, frank presentation using well-documented data and use cases from cutting edge projects and markets, energy industry adviser Peter Kelly Detwiler explains the fundamental dynamics driving this accelerating pace of change. The audience will be able to better understand:
• How companies will be affected.
• Where the greatest vulnerabilities and potential exposure are today.
• The risks associated with a “wait and see” strategy.
• How to think about the growing problem of carbon.
• Which proactive strategies could be adopted now, not only for the short-term benefits to companies and their stakeholders, but for the long term sustainability of their business and its effects on our planet.
• How pressure to deliver cleaner energy will change relationships with investors and increasingly savvy customers.
• The effect of corporate sustainability platforms on talent hiring and retention.
• The most important steps any company can take to stay competitive and improve their positioning in the years to come
The grid is already changing, but that change has thus far been minor compared with what will happen in the next few years. Attendees will better understand these drivers of change and develop appropriate strategies to position their companies for success.
Peter’s clear, eye-opening and thoroughly researched presentation will help companies tied to the electric industry to understand how to think about increasing levels of uncertainty and improve their odds of developing effective and profitable strategies.