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VERGE 18 Program

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See the Full VERGE 18 Program

Distributed Energy & Storage

Tuesday, October 16th, 2018
8:30am to 12:15pm
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Power Markets and Innovation 101: How They Work and What's Next

Tutorial

This tutorial is now full. Space may become available, so please plan to arrive early on Tuesday, October 16, to join a queue for available seats.

This four-hour course will explain the fundamentals of how power markets work, the changes that have taken place in the past decade, and the revolutionary change that is about to occur. We will cover:


1. The fundamentals of how power is generated and dispatched
2. Who does what in the new world (utilities, regulators, entrepreneurs, and interactive consumers)
3. Factors driving technological change and the critical role of information technology
4. The key technologies - including wind, solar, storage, and other distributed energy resources
5. Emerging winners and losers
6. Business models, and global trends, including carbon, financial trends and national economic development policies
7. Regulatory models and experiences worth examining (including New York, California, Texas, Australia, China, and Germany
8. Implications for the future and potential outcomes
9. The challenge for planners and investors, and options for creating potential no-regrets strategies in an increasingly volatile market 

Tracks

  • Renewables Procurement
  • Buildings & Efficiency
  • Distributed Energy & Storage
  • Grid Resilience
  • All-Access Pass Required
  • Sign-up Required

Speakers

  • Peter Kelly-Detwiler

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Creating a Smart City in the Real World

Tutorial

This tutorial is now full. Space may become available, so please plan to arrive early on Tuesday, October 16, to join a queue for available seats.

How can data contribute to the creation of a resilient, vibrant, safe and equitable community? Our experts will discuss how sensors are instrumenting cities around the world — collecting valuable insights about traffic, air quality and more. And they'll offer lessons learned from recent smart city deployments.

Tracks

  • Buildings & Efficiency
  • Distributed Energy & Storage
  • All-Access Pass Required
  • Sign-up Required

Speakers

  • Bob Bennett
  • HG Chissell
  • Stephan Feilhauer
  • Gary Leatherman
  • Danielle J. Harris
  • Fred Ellermeier
  • Devra Schwartz
  • Warren Logan
  • Jenna Agins
  • Shaun Hoyte
  • Ke Wei
  • Kip Harkness
  • Sienna Rogers
  • Jessica Lau

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Wednesday, October 17th, 2018
8:00am to 12:15pm
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Microgrid Summit

Summit

The Microgrid Summit is a half-day, invitation-only working session convening 100 key stakeholders to focus on how to accelerate the deployment of clean, grid-connected microgrids.

Refer to our Microgrid Summit page  for more information and to request an invitation. 

Tracks

  • Buildings & Efficiency
  • Distributed Energy & Storage
  • Grid Resilience
  • Invitation Only

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9:45am to 10:45am
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The Circular City

Breakout

The concept of the circular economy offers a framework through which city governments and policymakers, urban planners and designers, businesses and individuals can rethink urban systems — and begin to close the loop on the flow of materials. As cities embark on the transition towards a circular economy, information and digital technology will play a crucial role in helping them address these challenges. Data forms part of the “connective tissue” linking urban systems together — from the movement of traffic, to the health of buildings, to how citizens can produce and consume energy. This session will explore the role of data in transforming urban life and building long-term prosperity, resource sufficiency, economic viability and well-being in a circular city. 

Tracks

  • Distributed Energy & Storage

Speakers

  • Nicole Lombardo
  • Jessie Denver
  • Alex McDonough

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Energy Storage Technologies: How To Pick the Right Solution

Breakout

This session will evaluate potential energy storage applications, and what technologies make the most sense — technically and financially — for those solutions. The perspectives include a global technology company, a multi-national telecommunications company, a large investor-owned utility and a renewable and energy storage developer. The solutions that will be considered as part of this discussion: lithium ion, flow, thermal options and fuel cells as well as how and when to pair energy storage with renewable energy. 

Tracks

  • Distributed Energy & Storage

Speakers

  • Billy Grayson
  • RJ Johnson
  • Barbara Lockwood
  • Brandon Middaugh
  • John Schinter
  • Chelle Izzi

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11:15am to 12:15pm
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Turning Electric Vehicles into Grid Resources

Breakout

What are the policy, regulatory and business model implications of connecting millions of EVs to the power grid? This session will explore the challenges and opportunities from the perspective of utilities, regulators, technology providers and EV infrastructure providers.

Tracks

  • Distributed Energy & Storage

Speakers

  • Stuart Nachmias
  • Clay Collier
  • Kellen Schefter
  • Ucilia Wang
  • Gil Tal

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The Path to Holistic Energy Management

Breakout

This session will present the findings of a new GreenBiz Research project examining how companies with a global footprint set energy efficiency and clean power goals, demonstrate the value of those approaches, and use data to implement comprehensive energy management strategies. We will hear from panelists across health care, real estate and technology companies with recommendations on how to approach energy projects holistically across a range of internal and external stakeholders. 

Tracks

  • Renewables Procurement
  • Buildings & Efficiency
  • Distributed Energy & Storage

Speakers

  • Rick Rodriguez
  • Jerry Meek
  • Vince Digneo
  • Maya Henderson
  • Paul Carp

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Will Blockchain Technologies Disrupt Energy Markets?

Breakout

Large companies, utilities and startups have invested significant funding and resources to investigate ways blockchain technologies could disrupt traditional energy distribution models and services. This session will explore real-world blockchain deployments across regulated and non-regulated markets focused on applications including transactive energy, supply traceability and other use cases.

Tracks

  • Distributed Energy & Storage
  • Grid Resilience

Speakers

  • Peter Kelly-Detwiler
  • Michael D'Aurizio
  • Lydia Krefta
  • Neil Gerber

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12:30pm to 1:15pm
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Guru Lunch: How Do We Make Saving Electrons Sexy?

Lunch

You already know that one of the best ways your organization can reduce its impact on the environment is to reduce your energy use — via energy efficiency and renewables. The good news is, consumers, customers, employees and others expect the companies they buy from or work for to do right by the planet — and they expect you to use clean energy as a major piece of that effort. The bad news is, packaging up a sexy, compelling story about energy consumption reduction is hard. So what's the best way to tell that story?  This Guru Lunch will be facilitated by Suzanne Shelton, President and CEO of Shelton Group, the nation's leading marketing and communications focused exclusively in energy and the environment.

About VERGE Guru Lunches: Join like minded attendees for interactive moderated lunch discussions around a particular topic. Each table discussion will be led by an expert or thought leader, held at roundtables of up to 10 participants. These are freeform discussions, so bring your own challenges, questions, and ideas to talk through and get to know your fellow conference participants.

Tracks

  • Renewables Procurement
  • Buildings & Efficiency
  • Distributed Energy & Storage
  • Grid Resilience

Speakers

  • Suzanne Shelton

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Guru Lunch: Now We’re Cooking With(out) Gas

Lunch

Evidence is increasingly pointing to dramatically reducing or eliminating fossil fuel combustion in order to meet carbon targets and improve health outcomes. While the utility-scale shift to decarbonizing electricity is well underway, natural gas use is still predominant for heating and cooking. There are many examples of all-electric buildings, but this shift counters years of consumer outreach to go away from electrical resistance heating (powered by a dirty grid).  Ben Galuza is an expert on high performance building design with Integral Group.  He recently designed a ZNE all-electric medical office building for $1M less than the conventional design budget. This roundtable will discuss decarbonization and all-electric buildings, particularly in the context of high performance building design.

About VERGE Guru Lunches: Join like minded attendees for interactive moderated lunch discussions around a particular topic. Each table discussion will be led by an expert or thought leader, held at roundtables of up to 10 participants. These are freeform discussions, so bring your own challenges, questions, and ideas to talk through and get to know your fellow conference participants.

Tracks

  • Buildings & Efficiency
  • Distributed Energy & Storage

Speakers

  • Ben Galuza

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Guru Lunch: Really!?!? Electric Trucks? - An Insider's, Unbiased View

Lunch

This table discussion will be led by Rick Mihelic, Director Future Technologies Studies for the North American Council for Freight Efficiency — who works to scale technologies for efficiency and is now guiding future change in electric and automated trucks.  There are many arguments for and against electric trucks, some very loud and persuasive, but the success of these innovative trucks will occur under the scrutiny of the marketplace who is charged with delivering our goods every day.  The benefits and challenges of adoption are broad and difficult to monetize. Rick will facilitate a pragmatic discussion on commercial battery electric trucks.


About VERGE Guru Lunches: Join like minded attendees for interactive moderated lunch discussions around a particular topic. Each table discussion will be led by an expert or thought leader, held at roundtables of up to 10 participants. These are freeform discussions, so bring your own challenges, questions, and ideas to talk through and get to know your fellow conference participants.

Tracks

  • Distributed Energy & Storage

Speakers

  • Rick Mihelic

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Guru Lunch: PropTech 2020 — Exploring the Most Promising Commercial Building Technologies

Lunch

Join Billy Grayson, Executive Director, Center for Sustainability and Economic Performance at The Urban Land Institute (ULI) for a discussion of emerging technologies that leading real estate companies are piloting TODAY that will likely be rolled out across portfolios soon. We will discuss some of the most promising near-term technologies in smart buildings, on-site energy production and storage, and advanced building materials.

About VERGE Guru Lunches: Join like minded attendees for interactive moderated lunch discussions around a particular topic. Each table discussion will be led by an expert or thought leader, held at roundtables of up to 10 participants. These are freeform discussions, so bring your own challenges, questions, and ideas to talk through and get to know your fellow conference participants.

Tracks

  • Buildings & Efficiency
  • Distributed Energy & Storage

Speakers

  • Billy Grayson

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Guru Lunch: Can Buildings Solve the 'Duck Curve?'

Lunch

In commercial-scale electricity generation, the 'duck curve' is a graph of power production over the course of a day that shows the timing imbalance between peak demand and renewable energy production. In many energy markets the peak demand occurs after sunset, when solar power is no longer available. As renewable electricity becomes more and more plentiful at midday, what strategies could to be considered next to solve the daily generation/consumption mismatch, and what are the next challenges coming after we solve the duck curve problem? Join David Kaneda, Principal and Thought Leader at Integral Group, in this substantive, solutions-oriented lunch discussion.

About VERGE Guru Lunches: Join like minded attendees for interactive moderated lunch discussions around a particular topic. Each table discussion will be led by an expert or thought leader, held at roundtables of up to 10 participants. These are freeform discussions, so bring your own challenges, questions, and ideas to talk through and get to know your fellow conference participants.

Tracks

  • Buildings & Efficiency
  • Distributed Energy & Storage
  • Grid Resilience

Speakers

  • David Kaneda

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Guru Lunch: Stacking Benefits — Innovation in Solar and Agriculture

Lunch

Learn about the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s InSPIRE study into low-impact solar development and pollinator-friendly solar from two leaders involved in the work. Meet previous VERGE presenter Rob Davis of the Center for Pollinators in Energy at Fresh Energy and Organic Valley’s Stanley Minnick and discuss the NREL study’s results to date and opportunities for new partners.

About VERGE Guru Lunches: Join like minded attendees for interactive moderated lunch discussions around a particular topic. Each table discussion will be led by an expert or thought leader, held at roundtables of up to 10 participants. These are freeform discussions, so bring your own challenges, questions, and ideas to talk through and get to know your fellow conference participants.

Tracks

  • Distributed Energy & Storage

Speakers

  • Rob Davis

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Thursday, October 18th, 2018
8:30am to 9:30am
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The Business Value of Pairing Onsite Renewables with Energy Storage

Breakout

This session will provide insights into how companies can make the business case for integrating onsite renewables with energy storage. This discussion will cover the latest technical and policy considerations, best practices in pairing energy storage with renewables and offer perspectives from major retailers, car manufacturers and other industry leaders.

Tracks

  • Distributed Energy & Storage

Speakers

  • Janice Lin
  • Aaron Daly
  • Andrew Goldstone
  • Rob Threlkeld

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1:30pm to 2:30pm
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Building the Microgrid of the Future with Next-Gen Technologies

Breakout

Recent technology advancements have paved the path for clean, resilient microgrids across a range of applications. This session will explore distributed energy resources deployments including fuel cell, energy storage and renewable technologies that are being integrated to create microgrids for entire corporate campuses or portions of cities. Our panelists will discuss the economic, reliability and sustainability benefits of embracing these technologies as well as the challenges in the accelerating growth of  microgrids. This session will tie into the half-day, invitation-only Microgrid Summit being hosted at the VERGE conference.

Tracks

  • Distributed Energy & Storage
  • Grid Resilience

Speakers

  • Peter Asmus
  • Asim Hussain
  • Lonnie Mattison
  • Alicia Benson

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Financing the Clean Economy for All

Breakout

Our experts will discuss ways to promote various financing tools across clean energy and transportation initiatives. Specifically, we'll review challenges and opportunities in providing funding to urban, rural and international communities and discuss ways to engage communities directly via market-based, utility-led and government-based options. 

Tracks

  • Renewables Procurement
  • Buildings & Efficiency
  • Distributed Energy & Storage

Speakers

  • Ken Alston
  • Rose McKinney-James
  • Holmes Hummel
  • Donnel Baird
  • Emily Kirsch
  • Anthony Robinson

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3:00pm to 4:00pm
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Community-Based Clean Energy: An Oakland Case Study

Breakout

This case study will evaluate the Oakland Clean Energy Initiative which will use local clean energy solutions to replace a 40-year old fossil fuel generating station in Oakland with up to 45MW of energy storage, energy efficiency and electric-system upgrades. The project will ensure transmission grid reliability in Oakland when the current power plant is retired. This session will provide perspectives from PG&E, East Bay Community Energy, environmental justice leaders and nearby customers about the objectives, challenges and timing of the project.

Tracks

  • Distributed Energy & Storage

Speakers

  • Nick Chaset
  • Brian Beveridge
  • Charlie Post
  • Robert Ellsworth
  • Paul Carp

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