offshore wind

The GT Power Hour: Episode 33 (All Eyez on Md.: MD PSC Chair Jason Stanek's big task)

The GT Power Hour: Episode 33 (All Eyez on Md.: MD PSC Chair Jason Stanek's big task)

MOPRs, ROFRs and NOPRs, oy vey! In which we welcome back Jason Stanek, who chairs Maryland’s Public Service Commission, to discuss the tensions and challenges presented by Maryland’s Climate Solutions Now Act of 2022. Becoming effective on June 1 this year, the legislation is considered arguably the most ambitious climate-change law adopted by any state in the country, and Stanek’s commission will be tasked with getting the state on the right path to accomplish it — all without hiring any additional staff. It’s probably fair to think of Maryland over the next nine years as a bellwether for how feasible, given local objections to the necessary infrastructure development, rapid decarbonization in the power industry is. They’re the “canary in the coal mine,” as Chair Stanek notes, so “keep an eye on Maryland…”

Other topics include PJM’s recently released Grid of the Future study, the FERC/NARUC Joint Federal-State Task Force on Transmission, FERC’s NOPR on transmission, New Jersey’s evaluation agreement with PJM on offshore wind, food recommendations at the diner by the Buffalo airport, hot takes on college mascots, criticizing the U.S. Postal Service’s decision to not purchase EVs for its fleet, New Jersey officials for subsidizing nuclear plants and every overly-confident clean-energy activist on the Internet, thoughts about Maryland politics, its capital city and that big horse race it holds each year.

The GT Power Hour: Episode 32 (N.J.'s Path to Carbon-Free Power, w/ Princeton U. Prof. Jesse Jenkins)

The GT Power Hour: Episode 32 (N.J.'s Path to Carbon-Free Power, w/ Princeton U. Prof. Jesse Jenkins)

In which we… well, honestly, we talk a lot more about basketball than most episodes — but such comparative analysis fits well given that our guest is Jesse Jenkins, a Princeton University professor, energy-system analyst and modeler and all-around deep-thinker on the best and most-frugal paths to power-industry decarbonization. We dig into a study recently published by his ZERO Lab on pathways to a 100% carbon-free electricity in New Jersey (spoiler alert: you’ll still need natural gas, imports from other states will be key and offshore wind is perhaps too expensive), but also discuss life in the Ivy League in the time of COVID, technology tribalism in the energy-transition community, the media’s value in energy research, the good professor’s confession that he might be “a bad Duck” and much more!

The GT Power Hour: Episode 30 (Planning for Renewables and the Grid of the Future, w. PJM's Ken Seiler)

The GT Power Hour: Episode 30 (Planning for Renewables and the Grid of the Future, w. PJM's Ken Seiler)

In which we ask Ken Seiler, PJM’s vice president of system planning, to unbox transmission-planning issues and how PJM is preparing for a grid of the future that’s dominated by intermittent-renewable resources. Generator interconnection is front and center, but we also get into the New Jersey BPU’s SAA and offshore wind, FERC’s transmission-focused ANOPR, cost allocation, system reliability, fly-tying, various books: A River Runs Through It by Norman MacLean, Power Hungry by Robert Bryce and Shorting the Grid: The Hidden Fragility of Our Electric Grid by Meredith Angwin, Penn State, THON and Glen’s recent visit to NARUC.

The GT Power Hour: Episode 18 (Capacity-Market Deep Dive)

The GT Power Hour: Episode 18 (Capacity-Market Deep Dive)

In which Glen and Rory dig deep to break down PJM’s capacity construct: where it’s been, where it’s going, how it compares to other regional grids and the major forces at play in shaping its future.
But that’s not all! (It never is.) TB12 and the Calvin and Hobbes comic strip make appearances in the conversation as Glen coins the phrase “that warm barn of regulation” and presages the devastating blackouts in Texas that would occur just hours after recording the episode. What should become of the MOPR? Are PJM and its member states still invested in competitive markets? What’s the deal with monopsony market-power? Can state statutes play nice with market forces? How does the new-look FERC impact all of this? Does New Jersey’s new market-design idea have legs? No questions barred and all things considered, it’s a discussion about electricity supply and system reliability that you don’t want to miss!