On Wednesday, November 6, Concentric will host a webinar on the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA). Enacted in 1978, PURPA was meant to reduce energy demand by promoting energy conservation and increase energy supply by promoting greater use of both domestic and renewable energy. Forty years later, the act faces scrutiny as new technology emerges and energy consumption changes. The energy landscape has changed dramatically over the past four decades.  PUPRA and its application in the current industry context faces an uncertain future.  Meredith Stone will moderate a discussion with Danielle Powers and Emma Nicholson as they discuss state policy trends, current state implementation approaches, challenges to the existing PURPA regulations, proposed reforms under the FERC NOPR, and what this means to stakeholders in the future.

There are only 24 hours left to register for this webinar. To join us, please visit the registration link below.

Our Panelists:

Danielle Powers, Senior Vice President, has over 29 years of experience in the wholesale and retail electricity markets, power generation, and energy consulting fields with considerable expertise in wholesale electric market operations and analysis, transmission system planning and operations, generation asset sales and acquisitions, asset valuation, wholesale and retail energy planning and procurement, and power plant operations. She has experience in executing both regulated and unregulated fossil and renewable generation asset sale transactions in the areas of regulatory analysis, policy development, due diligence analyses, energy market assessment, and business unit strategy. With her significant experience in preparing market assessments and forecasts, Ms. Powers has advised several clients on the procurement of competitive electricity in deregulated markets by developing strategic procurement strategies, preparing solicitation packages, evaluating supply and service proposals, and negotiating contracts with retail energy suppliers.

Ms. Powers has been extensively involved in the design, implementation, and operation of the ISO New England Forward Capacity Market as well as the operation of existing wholesale markets in the New England power region. Part of her role in this project was to manage the market design effort, which included designing several processes and procedures pertaining to resource qualification, capacity requirements, and market power mitigation and settlement. Ms. Powers drafted several sections of the Market Rules and presented the draft rules to market participants during approximately 20 meetings over a six-month period.

Emma Nicholson, Senior Project Manager, is an economist with over 15 years of experience in the electric utility industry. Her expertise lies in wholesale electricity, ancillary services, capacity market design, competition, market power mitigation, and retail cost allocation and rate design. Most recently, Dr. Nicholson served as an economist at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), where she played a key role in the Commission’s Price Formation effort. She was also involved in the May 2017 technical conference on integrating state policies with RTO/ ISO energy and capacity markets and numerous filings related to RTO/ISO energy, ancillary services, and capacity market design issues. While at FERC, Dr. Nicholson served as a technical advisor to then-Chairman Norman Bay, and was designated by FERC to assist PJM and its stakeholders with a proposal to revise PJM’s capacity market to integrate resources that receive out-of-market support from states.

Prior to joining FERC, Dr. Nicholson was a consultant at Exeter Associates where, among other things, she testified on retail cost allocation and rate design matters before state public utilities commissions in Indiana, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island. Dr. Nicholson holds an M.A. and Ph.D. in Economics from Georgetown University and a B.A. in Economics and Government from the University of Maryland at College Park.

Meredith Stone, Project Manager, has experience providing analytical and research support on various wholesale market, regulatory and arbitration projects that often involve expert witness testimony. Ms. Stone has extensive experience in the North American power markets, with a focus in wholesale market design, analysis, and operations. Ms. Stone has provided analysis on the net Cost of New Entry in the ISO New England wholesale capacity markets, as well as the recalculation of Offer Review Trigger Prices. Ms. Stone also has experience in multiple elements of the regulatory ratemaking process, including incentive regulation, targeted infrastructure replacement plans, cash working capital/lead-lag studies, revenue requirement modeling, earnings sharing and marginal cost studies. She holds a Master of Public Policy from Brown University and a B.A. in Political Science from Middlebury College.

Note: All opinions expressed by the Webinar Hosts are solely their current opinions and do not reflect the opinions of Concentric Energy Advisors, Inc., its affiliates, subsidiaries, or related companies.  The Webinar Hosts’ opinions are based upon information they consider reliable, but neither Concentric Energy Advisors, Inc., nor its affiliates, subsidiaries, and related companies warrant its completeness or accuracy, and it should not be relied upon as such.