This seminar will focus on
Microgrid
commercialization, where renewable energy fits into this equation, and
what’s on the horizon for investor owned utilities in this space.
Microgrids
are emerging into a commercialization phase and present an opportunity
as distributed energy resources are now rising to prominence. To date,
knowledge of
microgrid market
developments has been highly dispersed in technical publications and
restricted to academic, utility industry, government and equipment
manufacturing audiences.
Microgrids
are now creating value by aggregating distributed energy resources,
bringing private capital to the market, and improving energy efficiency
as they are sited close to end use.
Superstorm Sandy and other
weather related occurrences have focused more attention on “hardening”
the grid infrastructure. These occurrences also offer a unique
opportunity to look at the electric utility infrastructure and a
reversion to an older model of onsite electric power generation through
smaller scale power generation. The
Microgrid is actually more cost effective and is a competitive strategy for small scale electric power production close to end use. The
Microgrid offers increased electricity reliability, operational flexibility and more intelligent load management.
The
challenge to electric utilities is load and revenue erosion. Their
focus of attention has been primarily on small scale solar energy
projects under power purchase agreements and net metering. The utility
cost recovery model is turned on its head in this new electric power
world. In a perfect world, large investor owned utilities and municipal
utilities would build out this small scale infrastructure; but most
today are purchasing the power generated under traditional power
purchase agreements. Some estimates are that the US could lose one major
utility per year due to the
microgrid.
This may be wildly optimistic but the competitive threat is real as
microgrid technology gets better with energy efficiencies rising and
costs coming down. The key breakthrough may be to allow
Microgrid to participate in wholesale power markets.
What You Will Learn
- What is a Microgrid
- The present state of commercialization of Distributed Generation resources
- The Microgrid challenge at present
- Scaling multiple Microgrid projects
- How Renewable energy fits into this equation
- How close we are to grid parity for renewables
- Investment opportunities
- Examples of viable projects
- LCOE: How the economics have changed
- Bending the cost curves for distributed energy
- The shifting of capital costs for new Microgrid generation
- Rebuilding for resiliency and climate change
- Where Commercial PACE fits into this equation
- Where Combined Heat and Power (CHP) fits in
- Some new technologies on the horizon
Your Instructor
Peter C. Fusaro - Chairman of Global Change
Peter
C. Fusaro has been involved in utility deregulation, new technologies,
wholesale power markets, and risk management since the 1980s. He has
been both a regulator and entrepreneur in energy markets. Today he
focuses on renewable energy project finance, cleantech and emissions
trading. He teaches a very popular Renewable Energy Project Development
and Finance course at Columbia University each fall.
Peter has
worked on various microgrid projects in India, the Philippines and the
US using different electric power generation technologies. He has
presented at the UN Foundation’s workshop on Microgrid as well as NYU’s
Microgrid Forum in New York. He is also very active in small scale
commercial projects for PV solar, Combined Heat & Power, and biomass
in the US as a project originator.
Peter is the bestselling
author of “What Went Wrong at Enron” and coauthor of Energy &
Environmental Project Finance: New Investment Techniques (Oxford
University Press, 2010), a keynote speaker and thought leader on
emerging energy and environmental financial markets. He is Chairman of
Global Change Associates an energy and environmental consultancy in New
York since 1991. He previously worked at the U.S. Department of Energy,
the NYC Mayor’s Energy Office, Petroleos de Venezuela and ABB Financial
Services where he was head of energy consulting.
He coined the
term “Green Trading” and “Green Finance” and holds the annual Wall
Street Green Summit XIII each spring (www.wsgts.com). He is on the
advisory board of six cleantech startup companies in the U.S. and
Australia.
He holds an MA in international relations from Tufts
University and a BA from Carnegie-Mellon University. He is on the
Advisory Board of the ERB Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise, a
dual degree program in finance and natural resources at the Ross School
of Business, University of Michigan as well as on Bard College’s
Advisory Board for its MBA Program in Sustainability.
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Venue
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Who Should Attend this Seminar
Professionals from natural gas
and electric utilities, investors, banks and hedge funds, venture
capitalists, real estate executives, entrepreneurs, attorneys;
government regulators, traders & trading support staff, energy
producers and marketers, government regulators, accountants &
auditors, industrial trade groups, equipment manufacturers and
suppliers, environmentalists, and anyone needing a solid overview and
foundation of what the Microgrid is, where it is going and what
opportunities there are for investors, technologies, and end-users.
Prerequisites and Advance PreparationThis fundamental level group live seminar has no prerequisites. No advance preparation is required before the seminar.
Program LevelBasic level. This fundamental course begins with basic material and then proceeds to the intermediate level.
Delivery MethodGroup-live.
Hotel and Seminar Information
This
one-day seminar will be held at the hotel listed below. The seminar
will start promptly at 8:30 AM and will finish at 4:30 PM. The program
includes continental breakfast, lunch, and coffee breaks. Attendees also
receive a professionally produced seminar manual that can serve as a
valuable office reference. Dress is casual for all seminars.
NYU Kimmel Center for University Life (NYU Campus)60 Washington Square S
New York, NY 10012
Telephone: (212) 998-4900
View Seminar Location WebsiteBecause
of the diversity of hotels found in the area, we will not be holding a
block of sleeping rooms with one particular hotel.