Agenda Day 1

9:00 am

Introduction & Overview

Richard H. Allan, Esq. , Program Co-Chair
Marten Law / Portland, OR

Stan Berman, Esq. , Program Co-Chair
Berman and Todderud / Seattle, WA

9:15 am

Special Opening Address: Policy Priorities at The FERC

Policy priorities at the FERC in the coming year including ones related to its role in implementation of the Biden Administrations climate initiatives

The Hon. Richard A. Glick, Esq. , Chairman
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission / Washington, DC

9:45 am

A Whole of Government Look at Federal Energy Policy Implementation

Takeaways from recent FERC decisions; a detailed look at issues currently pending before the Commission; developments at other agencies including DOE funding under the IIJA, possible tax incentives in Build Back Better bill, and EPA initiatives

Douglas W. Smith, Esq.
Van Ness Feldman / Washington, DC

10:30 am

Break

10:45 am

Case Studies of Key Federal Initiatives

Weather hardening of the grid and generators: Update on the FERC/NERC inquiry and proposed new requirements

Howard Gugel , VP of Engineering and Standards
North American Electric Reliability Corporation / Washington, DC

FERC's new Transmission Siting Authority: Infrastructure Act provisions enabling FERC to take charge of transmission in expanded circumstances and the potential for creating new transmission capacity

Justin Gundlach, Esq. , Senior Attorney
Institute for Policy Integrity / New York, NY

12:15 pm

Lunch Break

1:15 pm

State-Level Climate Initiatives on the West Coast: Expansionn of the Cap-And-Trade Approach to Pricing Carbon

California's early adoption of a cap-and-trade approach: Implementation update across California agencies, court challenges and results, recent legislative activity, and anticipated future initiatives

Peggy Otum, Esq.
WilmerHale / San Francisco, CA

Washington's newly adopted cap-and-trade structure and how it reflects evolution of the issues since California adopted its structure, including a requirement that other states meet Washington's Environmental Justice standards as a condition for linkage

Craig Gannett, Esq.
Davis Wright Tremaine / Seattle, WA

2:45 pm

Break

3:00 pm

Regional Energy Leaders on Power Planning for Climate Resiliency and Resource Adequacy

Strengthening resilience and ensuring adequacy as we transition away from fossil fuels to meet our climate change response goals: Issues ranging from structuring of Western regional markets to regionalizing grid operations

Sarah E. Edmonds, Esq. , President and CEO
Western Power Pool / Portland, OR

Elliot Mainzer , President & CEO
Independent System Operator / Folsom, CA

4:30 pm

East/West Transmission Constraints

How they will impact/impede achieving the clean energy goals that Oregon and Washington have for 2030

Randall W. Hardy
Hardy Energy Consulting / Seattle, WA

5:00 pm

Adjourn Day 1

Friday, April 15, 2022

9:00 am

Energy Market Economics in the West

Return to higher natural gas prices: Is it a new normal? How long will higher prices last? What is the likely impact on energy markets and the resource mix?

Carolyn A. Berry, Ph.D.
Bates White Economic Consulting / Washington, DC

Emerging wholesale power markets in the west and the value of transmission in exploiting renewable diversity in the Western Electric Coordinating Council (WECC)

John Tsoukalis , Principal
The Brattle Group / Washington, DC

10:15 am

Break

10:30 am

Report from the States: How do Key Regulatory Officials See the Primary Challenges and Issues?

Implementation of a wide range of policy initiatives including development and pricing of infrastructure for electrification of transportation; the state regulatory role for wildfire mitigation consistent with a utility's duty to provide reliable service

The Hon. Ann E. Rendahl, Esq. , Commissioner
Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission / Olympia, WA

The Hon. Mark R. Thompson, Esq. , Commissioner
Public Utility Commission of Oregon / Salem, OR

11:30 am

Shifting Gears

Reflections of a former Commissioner as she transitions from a state regulatory role to regional bulk power coordination

Kristine Raper, Esq. , VP of External Affairs
Western Electricity Coordinating Council / Salt Lake City, UT

12:00 pm

Lunch Break

1:00 pm

Customer View: The Role of Corporate Sustainability Initiatives and the Need to Get Market Design and Pricing Right

Energy consumer needs and services for resiliency, sustainability, hourly renewable matching and decarbonizing the grid

Mariah Kennedy , Director of Energy Center Strategy
Microsoft Corporation / Issaquah, WA

Brian Rybarik, Esq. , Chief of Staff, Environmental Sustainability
Microsoft Corporation / East Lansing, MI

2:00 pm

Break

2:15 pm

Transactional Workshop for Buying and Selling Electricity: Current Trends and Creative Solutions for Sticking Points

Developing new transaction structures for Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) for resource acquisition, including virtual PPAs for end users, and for interconnection

Supria Ranade , Senior Director - Power Marketing and Wholesale Operations
SB Energy / San Francisco, CA

Advanced contracts for integrating energy storage projects into the grid

Danielle Garbien, Esq.
Bracewell LLP / New York, NY

3:30 pm

Evaluations and Adjourn

Faculty Bios

Richard H. Allan, Program Co-Chair, is a partner at Marten Law. He represents developers in the acquisition, siting, expansion, and operation of major projects, with an emphasis on energy facilities. His experience includes over 2,000 megawatts of wind, solar and natural gas-fired generating facilities, as well as transmission lines and pipelines.

Stan Berman, Program Co-Chair, co-founded Berman and Todderud. He represents electric utilities and other electric industry participants in complex high-stakes litigation and appeals at FERC, state regulatory commissions, and in the courts. Before going into private practice, he was the Assistant General Counsel in charge of the Office of Hydroelectric and Electric Litigation at the FERC.

The Hon. Richard A. Glick, Special Address, is Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Before joining the Commission, he was General Counsel for the Democrats on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, serving as a senior policy advisor on numerous issues including electricity and renewable energy. Prior to that, he was Vice President of government affairs for Iberdrola's renewable energy, electric and gas utility, and natural gas storage businesses in the United States.

Carolyn A. Berry, Ph.D., principal at Bates White Economic Consulting, is an energy economist with the firm's Energy Practice. She specializes in market design and analysis, policy formation, and regulatory issues in the energy industry, including collaborating and advising on electric and gas market initiatives and strategy.

Sarah E. Edmonds is President and CEO of the Western Power Pool. She previously served as Director of Transmission and Market Services at Portland General Electric where she oversaw the development of strategy and policy recommendations relating to market expansion and development, emerging regional and national marketplace initiatives, and transmission rates.

Craig Gannett is a partner at Davis Wright Tremaine. He focuses his practice in the fields of electric utility regulation, renewable energy development, and climate change-related regulation. He also teaches Climate Change Law at the University of Washington School of Law and is the President of the Henry M. Jackson Foundation, which focuses on the intersection of climate change and national security.

Danielle Garbien is a partner at Bracewell LLP. She represents developers, private equity investors, energy companies and hedge funds in a wide range of complex energy financing, investments, power purchase agreements, and commodity and hedging transactions, with a focus on power, renewable energy and energy storage.

Howard Gugel is Vice President of Engineering and Standards at the North American Electric Reliability Corporation. He previously served as the director of Performance Analysis, where he was responsible for the development, maintenance, and analysis of reliability performance metrics, including those in NERC's annual State of Reliability report.

Justin Gundlach is a Senior Attorney at the Institute for Policy Integrity where he focuses on state- level energy and climate policy. He previously was a member of the Policy Development team at the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority and a Staff Attorney at the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School,

Randall W. Hardy is the Founder of Hardy Energy Consulting, which provides strategic advice to utilities, their customers, and other groups and organizations affected by electricity restructuring. He is the former CEO of Seattle City Light and BPA Administrator.

Mariah Kennedy is the Director of Energy Center Strategy for Microsoft Corporation. She previously was Manager Federal and Regional Policy and Manager, Cost of Service for Puget Sound Energy.

Elliot Mainzer is the President & CEO of the California Independent System Operator (CAISO). He served as Administrator of the Bonneville Power Administration from 2013 to 2020.

Peggy Otum is a partner at WilmerHale and co-Chairs the firm's Energy, Environment and Natural Resources Practice. She provides strategic advice on a host of environmental regulatory and policy matters, including those related to climate change risk, Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) matters, compliance, crisis response and risk management.

Supria Ranade is the Head of Power Markets at SB Energy, a global leader in the development and management of solar and storage projects. She was formerly the Senior Director of Power Marketing and Wholesale Operations at Lightsource bp, and has previously worked in various and buy and sell-side roles throughout her career in the US power markets.

Kristine Raper is Vice President of External Affairs for the Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WECC). Immediately before joining the WECC, she served as a Commissioner at the Idaho Public Utilities Commission.

The Hon. Ann E. Rendahl is a Commissioner at the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission. She currently serves as chair of the Electricity Committee and a member of the Critical Infrastructure Committee for the National Association of Regulatory Commissioners (NARUC). She also serves as a member of the Body of State Regulators for the California ISO's Energy Imbalance Market.

Brian Rybarik is Chief of Staff for Environmental Sustainability at Microsoft Corporation. He previously served as Vice President for State Policy at the Clean Grid Alliance, as Deputy General Counsel for MidAmerican Energy Company, and as Regional Director for MISO.

Douglas W. Smith is a partner at Van Ness Feldman. He formerly served as General Counsel of the FERC and as Deputy General Counsel for Energy Policy at DOE.

The Hon. Mark R. Thompson is a Commissioner at the Public Utility Commission of Oregon. He previously worked as the Senior Director of Rates and Regulatory Affairs at NW Natural Gas Company, and prior to that, was Staff Counsel for the Public Power Council, where he represented northwest consumer-owned utilities before the Bonneville Power Administration and the FERC.

John Tsoukalis is a Principal at The Brattle Group. He is an expert in electric market modeling, analyzing regional market participation, transmission rate design, market design, detection of market manipulation and damages analyses, and strategic planning.

Continuing Education Credits

Live credits: This program qualifies for 11.25 Washington MCLE, 11.50 California MCLE, 11.25 Idaho MCLE, 11.25 Oregon MCLE, and 11.25 ABCEP environmental professional credits. Upon request, we will help you apply for CLE credits in other states and other types of credits.

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