Conference Attendees: To view session recordings, please login to the conference platform using the login credentials you were assigned for the 43rd PLMA Conference.
Conference Co-Chair Bruce Brazis Arizona Public Service
Conference Co-Chair Meridith Uniacke West Monroe Partners
Optional Concurrent Pre-Conference Events
Tuesday, April 21 & Wednesday, April 22
12:30 - 5:00 pm Evolution of Demand Response to Distributed Energy Resources: Fundamentals and Path Forward (registration required) This two-day, on-line course explains how today’s demand response initiatives are evolving to interact with an emerging future together with distributed energy resources for peak load management and much more. The course content expands on an Evolution of Demand Response whitepaper and discussion.
Co-Chair Mark Martinez Southern California Edison
Co-Chair Christine Riker Energy Solutions
Monday, May 3
12:30 - 2:30 pm Board of Directors Meeting This is a business meeting for PLMA Board Members and At-Large Representatives only. Please check the applicable list of Board Members at www.peakload.org/Leadership.
Thursday, May 6
12:30 - 1:30 pm Member Orientation: Ask the PLMA Experts Wondering how to make the most of your PLMA membership? Curious how to engage with PLMA members to get answers to your specific questions? Want to get on stage (or at very least on camera) and help set the agenda for an Interest Group, Executive Committee, or even an Officer role? Attend our second "Ask the PLMA Experts" session with the Member Engagement group, and learn how to get involved with PLMA to maximize your investment and your opportunities.
3:00 - 4:00 pm Member Meet-up Network with friends, colleagues, and fellow conference attendees across several meeting rooms in 15-minutes blocks, and catch up with the PLMA family.
4:00 - 5:00 pm What's New or in Development? Learn what's currently on the "drawing board" from the manufacturers and service providers creating the next generation of energy products and services.
7:00 - 8:00 pm PLMA Team Trivia Night Join PLMA and a team of randomly assigned colleagues and let’s geek out on energy trivia together while earning funds to donate to your team’s choice of charities. Let’s share some knowledge and make the world a more energy-savvy place!
12:00 - 8:00 pm EDT | Live Online Meeting
General Session 1
Co-Chair Andrea Simmonsen Idaho Power
Co-Chair Meridith Uniacke West Monroe Partners
12:00 - 12:30 pm KeyNote Address Kelly Speakes-Backman, Acting Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, U.S. Department of Energy PLMA is honored to welcome A/AS Speakes-Backman to the PLMA stage to open the 43rd PLMA Conference with a preview of the new administration's plans for creating and sustaining American leadership in the transition to a global clean energy economy.
Kelly Speakes-Backman Acting Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy U.S. Department of Energy
1:00 - 1:45 pm CA IOU Demand Response Emerging Technologies California's Demand Response Emerging Technologies (DRET) programs fund research on technologies, software, processes, and products that enhance DR participation and grid reliability. Learn about DRET's current priorities and DER success stories.
Mark Martinez Senior Portfolio Manager, Emerging Markets and Technology Southern California Edison
Albert Chiu Product Manager, Integrated Grid Planning and Innovation Pacific Gas & Electric
Jeff Barnes Project Manager, Emerging Technologies – Demand Response San Diego Gas & Electric
1:45 - 2:00 pm | Stretch, Refreshment and eMail Break!
2:00 - 2:45 pm The Power of Highly Personalized Experiences for TOU Customers In 2019, Maryland's utilities launched new opt-in TOU pilots to help advance grid modernization. In combination with behavioral communications, Brattle Group research shows these pilots achieved significant peak reductions for all classes of customers, including LMI customers. Join us to hear their results and lessons learned.
Lynn Fiery Manager, Rate Administration Baltimore Gas & Electric
Moiz Kapadia Principal Product Manager Oracle Utilities Opower
Ahmad Faruqui Ph.D. Principal The Brattle Group
2:45 - 3:00 pm | Stretch, Refreshment and eMail Break!
General Session 2
Co-Chair Ruth Kiselewich ICF
Co-Chair Bruce Brazis Arizona Public Service
3:00 - 3:45 pm Scaling National Grid’s BYOD Program with Behavioral Communications In 2020, National Grid combined two DSM programs: behavioral efficiency, and residential DERs with BYO thermostats and storage devices. Its solar customers then received solar insights and battery program recommendations while other customers received HVAC insights and thermostat program recommendations. Learn about their results, research findings, and planned next steps for residential DR programs.
Stephan Wollenburg Lead Product Owner National Grid
Paul McDonald Senior Director, Industry Strategy Oracle Utilities
Michael Haber Senior Program Marketing Manager EnergyHub
3:45 - 4:00 pm | Stretch, Refreshment and eMail Break!
4:00 - 4:45 pm When Less Really is More – Curtailing Solar for Bigger Results Curtailing solar generation seems counter-intuitive to encouraging more solar adoption on the grid, but that's exactly what one large Australian distribution utility is doing with great success. Learn about their unique pilot which encourages grid stability and continues to encourage solar penetration.
Kathryn Granheim DSO Product Owner, Innovation Western Power
Jenny Roehm Sr. Manager Schneider Electric
7:00 - 8:00 pm PLMA Game Night Grab your beverage of choice and join us for some fun!
11:30 am - 4:45 pm EDT | Live Online Meeting
11:30 am - 12:15 pm Sponsor ShowCase Lightning Round Network with sponsors and fellow conference attendees by participating in speed-dating type virtual presentations in small, interactive groups. Listen closely and identify key words and phrases (write them down!) to submit an entry for a random drawing to win some very cool prizes.
Track A
Co-Chair Joyce Bodoh Rappahannock Electric
Co-Chair Troy Eichenberger Tennessee Valley Authority
12:30 - 1:00 pm Characterizing Preferences of U.S. Homeowners Favorable to Demand Response Programs Join us to learn about “socio-energy systems” which encompass the norms, values, and entrenched investments in our customers’ communities. We’ll explore the 43 percent of customers who express interest in DR programs, and using a socio-energy frame, we’ll examine the strategies that might best engage them in DR programs and home energy management.
Abe Tidwell Senior Associate Social Scientist Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Track B
Co-Chair Justin Chamberlain CPS Energy
Co-Chair Jonathan Hoechst Tetra Tech
12:30 - 1:00 pm Bridging the Gap between DSM, the Markets, and Trading Desks Arizona Public Service and Salt River Project have built large behind-the-meter DR portfolios that enhance the results of DSM, grid operations, and now, markets and trading teams. Learn how their collaborating teams prevent summer blackouts, optimize resource planning, and harness DER benefits.
Panelists
Eamonn Urey Program Manager Salt River Project
Tayla Simmons Resource Operations Arizona Public Service
Tom Hines Tierra Resource Consultants
Moderator Tyler Rogers EnergyHub
1:00 - 1:15 pm | Stretch, Refreshment and eMail Break!
Track A
1:15 - 1:45 pm Serving the Underserved: Lessons learned from Behavioral Demand Response Implementation Learn about the Olivine Community’s Fresno Energy Program, a behavioral DR program implemented in select low-income communities of Fresno, California. Over 500 customers participated during the peak months of the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting program innovations, lessons learned, and results worthy of scaling.
Sebastien Csapo Program Manager Pacific Gas & Electric
Vasudha Lathey Director Olivine
Track B
1:15 - 1:45 pm Evergy Missouri TOU Rate Study – Interim Results Review Evergy’s two-year behavioral and bill impact study of TOU pricing in Missouri, which shows the effectiveness of TOU rates in each season and how they incentivize customers to shift consumption from on-peak to off-peak. The analysis also examines the bill impacts of behavioral change vs. TOU rates without behavioral changes, in several customer sectors.
Farhad Daruwala Managing Consultant Guidehouse
Elena Johnston Senior Product Manager, Digital Products Evergy
Randy Spale Sr. DSM Evaluation Manager Evergy
1:45 - 2:00 pm | Stretch, Refreshment and eMail Break!
Track C
Co-Chair Laurie Duhan Baltimore Gas and Electric
Co-Chair Kitty Wang Energy Solutions
2:00 - 2:30 pm EVs are Coming; Is Your Grid Ready? Join us to explore early findings from a Massachusetts baseline study that monitored residential electric vehicles in early 2021 to gain insights into EV energy demand spikes, including the amount of energy EVs use, when and where customers charge, and some initial recommendations for how best to manage EV charging.
Katie Parkinson Senior Associate Rolling Energy Resources
Adam Wirtshafter Senior Analyst National Grid
Track D
Co-Chair Joseph Childs Eaton
Co-Chair Michael Ohlsen City of Tallahassee Utilities
2:00 - 2:30 pm Innovative Thermostat Demand Response Pilot for Seminole (Florida) Electric Cooperative Members Learn from Seminole Elecric Cooperative and DNV as they discuss pilot project findings involving over 1,000 participants from nine of Seminole's members who used wifi-enabled thermostats and a variety of control strategies to address summer and winter impacts.
Panelists
Cindy A. Walker Energy Services Specialist — EEWG Seminole Electric Cooperative
Joseph S. Lopes Senior Principal Consultant DNV
2:30 - 2:45 pm | Stretch, Refreshment and eMail Break!
Track C
2:45 - 3:15 pm Phased Program Design For Electric Vehicle Managed Charging Learn how Tuscon Electic Power’s (TEP) phased approach to programming and TOU rate design, plus customer engagement, promoted electric-vehicle-to-grid-integration (VGI) while benefiting customers, system efficiency, and environmental outcomes. Understand the load profiles and rate impacts versus the managed charging scenarios that resulted from this pilot project.
Varun Thakkar Senior Analyst Electric Vehicles CLEAResult
Jessica Berry Senior Program Manager Tucson Electric Power
Ray Martinez Principal Merging Technologies Tucson Electric Power
Track D
2:45 - 3:15 pm Natural Gas Generators: Relevant and Critical to Utility Load Management Programs Learn from Generac, Entergy and AEP Onsite Partners how gas generators can be used as DERs, bringing resilience, emissions reductions, ancillary revenues, and transient response. Natural generators are ideal for integration into VPPs and DERMs providing DSM, grid support, and CHP. Join us for a series of case studies.
Jamie Smith VP Global Business Development Generac Power Systems
Lyndon DuPont Director, Business Operations – Power Through Entergy
Dan Smies Managing Director Business Development and Strategy AEP OnSite Partners
3:15 - 3:30 pm | Stretch, Refreshment and eMail Break!
Track C
3:30 - 4:00 pm Winter Load Shifting Field Study of Residential Multi-Split Heat Pumps Explore Pacific Northwest National Laboratory’s (PNNL) electric load shifting field study of residential sites with CTA-2045 compatible Mitsubishi heat pumps. Study data includes whole-home and HVAC electrical power consumption, indoor air temperatures, occupant surveys, and CTA-2045 curtailment data. We’ll review the setup, the load shifting strategy, and results from winter 2021.
Samuel Rosenberg Data Scientist Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Walter Hunt Senior Engineer Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Track D
3:30 - 4:00 pm How Storage Fits in an Integrated, High-Renewables Local Grid Grid modernization hardware and software have provided real-time visibility and operational support to New Mexico’s Kit Carson Electric Co-op, which is on track to 100% daytime solar in 2021. Their challenges have included balancing high levels of solar, managing power flows, and shaping load curves in a renewable energy transition that has been aided by battery storage.
Luis Reyes CEO Kit Carson Rural Electric Cooperative
Jill Cliburn Solar-Plus for Electric Co-ops (SPECs) Project Cliburn and Associates, LLC
Utility Load Management Exchange Spring 2021 Meeting
2:30 - 4:30 pm The Utility Load Management Exchange (formerly the Advanced Load Control Alliance) mission is to promote load control as a viable option for utility deployments in demand reduction, economic dispatch, and/or T&D reliability through a forum for utility staff members to share information on program design, marketing, vendor management, benefit-costs and technology deployments. Learn more at www.ulme.org.
Conference Co-Chair
Conference Co-Chair
Co-Chair Mark Martinez
Co-Chair Christine Riker
Co-Chair Andrea Simmonsen
Kelly Speakes-Backman
Albert Chiu
Jeff Barnes
Lynn Fiery
Moiz Kapadia
Ahmad Faruqui
Co-Chair Ruth Kiselewich
Stephan Wollenburg
Paul McDonald
Michael Haber
Kathryn Granheim
Jenny Roehm
Co-Chair Joyce Bodoh
Co-Chair Troy Eichenberger
Abe Tidwell
Co-Chair Justin Chamberlain
Co-Chair Jonathan Hoechst
Eamonn Urey
Tayla Simmons
Tom Hines
Moderator
Sebastien Csapo
Vasudha Lathey
Farhad Daruwala
Elena Johnston
Randy Spale
Co-Chair Laurie Duhan
Co-Chair Kitty Wang
Katie Parkinson
Adam Wirtshafter
Co-Chair Joseph Childs
Co-Chair Michael Ohlsen
Cindy A. Walker
Joseph S. Lopes
Varun Thakkar
Jessica Berry
Ray Martinez
Jamie Smith
Lyndon DuPont
Dan Smies
Samuel Rosenberg
Walter Hunt
Luis Reyes
Jill Cliburn
Richard Barone
Michael Smith
Rich Philip
Judy Knight