Competitive Power Summit: LS Power's Nathan Hanson on Managing a Reliable Grid

What will it take to meet the nation’s rising power demand? NARUC President and North Dakota Public Service Commissioner Julie Fedorchak joins EPSA President and CEO Todd Snitchler for this episode, where she shares the initiatives that she has taken to solve the challenges facing a system being asked to perform in ways it has never had to before. Fedorchak unpacks her concerns for power grid reliability amidst a changing resource mix, and why the Peace Garden State continues to prioritize dispatchable generation. 

Electricity demand is growing for the first time in years. Are grid operators and competitive power suppliers prepared to maintain reliability while balancing decarbonization mandates? Nathan Hanson, President of LS Power Generation, believes that maintaining a healthy market for firm generation resources will be essential to meet the growing demand from data centers, manufacturing, and transportation electrification. How stakeholders address these challenges could mean the difference between economic progress or dislocation.

From New York to California, what are the top issues facing America’s electric grid? We gather leaders from the organizations representing competitive power suppliers in RTOs and ISOs throughout the nation to discuss the top stories from the past year – and what to expect in 2024 when it comes to delivering reliable electricity while reducing carbon emissions, serving rapidly rising demand, and mitigating consumer costs.

Winter is coming. Is America’s power grid ready? That’s top of mind for Chairman Willie Phillips, who heads the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. In this episode, he addresses infrastructure development and streamlining to meet growing energy demand, making sure the power system can weather extreme heat and cold, and the importance of affordability and environmental justice. But as you’ll hear, reliability remains the top priority. 

Wyoming is the top coal-producing state in the U.S. But like much of the country, the state is transitioning to new sources of energy. This comes as the region faces reliability challenges from heat, drought, and other factors. How are Wyoming and other Western states balancing the growth of lower carbon power sources with the need for a reliable grid and continued economic growth? The University of Wyoming’s Kara Fornstrom, formerly Director of State Regulatory Policy for the Southwest Power Pool and Chair of the Wyoming Public Service Commission, weighs in. 

From wildfires to winter storms to cyber and physical attacks, the power system is under greater stress than ever – all while under pressure to transition rapidly to new sources of electricity. In this episode, Todd speaks with Katherine Blunt, reporter for The Wall Street Journal and author of California Burning, a look at PG&E operations and the fallout from 2017 and 2018’s tragic wildfires. Katherine discusses the state of America’s changing electric grid and mounting reliability concerns – and the power we rely on is impacted by efforts to reduce emissions, extreme weather and climate change, and the business decisions utilities and power companies make.   

How did Ohio go from the 41st to the 7th best state for business in the nation? Among other factors, a foundation of reliable and cost-effective energy drove economic growth and helped attract businesses and employers to invest in the Buckeye State. Meanwhile, emissions have dropped while competitive energy markets have grown. In this episode, Dana Saucier of Jobs Ohio shares how energy keeps Ohio’s economic engine running.

New York has ambitious climate goals. But its electric grid operator has also recently signaled reliability warnings as power plants are driven into retirement. Diane Burman has served on the New York State Public Service Commission for nearly ten years. She joined Energy Solutions to talk about the current energy policy landscape in New York, her priorities as a regulator, and what other policymakers can learn from the Empire State.

The Western states have seen their share of challenges in recent years when it comes to electric reliability – with rolling blackouts in California, extreme drought and wildfires, and political differences across a broad geographic expanse. The North American Electric Reliability Corporation included the region on its watch list for areas that could experience electric shortages this summer should temperatures spike. We check in with Scott Miller, Executive Director of the Western Power Trading Forum, to hear what’s unique about America’s frontier, what’s ahead this summer for the region’s power grid, and how efforts to enhance reliability, cost savings, and emissions reductions by expanding organized power markets are progressing.

As the world rapidly changes and new challenges emerge, many are questioning the best way to continue providing safe, reliable, cost-effective, and cleaner power. For some, that means reforming electric power markets. For others, it could mean doing away with competition entirely. In this episode, Lynne Kiesling, an economist and expert on electric competition unpacks the complex world of power markets, their benefits as compared to a vertically integrated model, what critics get wrong, and what’s on the horizon for new energy solutions.