Time: 3pm Norway (CET), 9am Ricmond, USA (EDT)
Join the Webinar:
This webinar will be hosted on zoom.
Join here: https://uio.zoom.us/j/65092804813
Documentation on how to use Zoom can be found here: Video Meetings and digital lectures - University of Oslo (uio.no)
About the topic and the speakers:
America runs on electricity. But the electric industry’s outdated business model and regulatory framework are failing. For the last century and-a-half, we have relied on ever larger power plants to generate the electricity we consume, often hundreds of miles away from the point of production. The outsized carbon footprint of these power plants and the need to transmit their output over long distances threaten the electric grid’s reliability, affordability, and long-term sustainability.
There is hope, however. Advances in solar and wind power, battery storage, as well as other novel technologies are bringing energy generation to our doorstep. Scale aside, these energy resources can often mimic larger power plants so closely that we refer to their multi-faceted value creation as “virtual energy.” The benefits of virtual energy resources (VERs) range from less need to build costly, often delayed new transmission lines to relief of grid congestion to a lower carbon footprint. To realize virtual energy’s full potential, however, requires a radical rethinking of how the electric grid is managed, and by whom. While large-scale power plants connect to high-voltage transmission networks run by independent system operators, most VERs tap into the low-voltage distribution grid. For much of the United States, that grid is owned and operated by electric utilities who view virtual energy as a threat to their business model of delivering electricity they generate inhouse. After all, why should you buy power from your utility company when you can purchase cheaper, cleaner electricity from a nearby solar plant?
To renew America’s ailing electricity sector, VERs must gain easier access to the grid. This webinar builds ongoing research that lays out the promise of virtual energy and explains its inherent conflict with existing utility regulations and institutions. Moving from description to prescription, the authors propose a novel approach for grid governance: the creation of “Independent Distribution System Operators” (IDSOs) to level the playing field and promote competition among traditional and virtual sources of energy. Deeply entrenched utilities may be reluctant to embrace such radical change but, we argue, can be persuaded to enter into a grand bargain modeled after the great compromise over workers’ compensation that reshaped relations between employers and employees at the dawn of the 20th century.
The speakers:
Joel B. Eisen - Professor of Law, University of Richmond School of Law
Felix Mormann - Professor of Law, Dean’s Research Chair, Texas A&M University School of Law Professor of Engineering, Texas A&M University College of Engineering
Heather Payne - Associate Professor, Seton Hall University School of Law