This is an Energy Futures Lab seminar.
Please register in advance if you wish to attend.
Abstract
For the first time in the electric power industry’s history, consumers in high retail tariff regions are able to meet most if not all their service needs through self-generation at costs that are on par or lower than the grid-supplied variety. This phenomenon can be expected to spread as the cost of distributed generation (DG) continues to fall while the cost of grid-supplied electricity is projected to rise.
In the context of flat or declining electricity growth projections – a reality confronting many OECD countries – such a scenario will challenge the incumbent stakeholders’ business model, which is primarily based on a flat tariff applied to volumetric consumption. As increasing number of consumers become “prosumers,” prevailing tariffs have to be modified to reflect where and how value is delivered and how prosumers should pay for services, especially the distribution network that balances their variable load and generation and reliability.
This presentation, based on a recently published book on the same subject, examines the evidence to date and the implications of these developments on the power sector’s future.
Biography
Dr. Sioshansi is President of Menlo Energy Economics, a consulting firm in San Francisco and the editor and publisher of EEnergy Informer, a monthly newsletter with international circulation. EEnergy Informer is regularly featured in The Electricity Journal, Breaking Energy, Energy Spectrum (UK), EU Energy Policy Review (France), Energize (So Africa), IAEE Forum and other publications.
His professional experience includes Southern California Edison Company (SCE), the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), National Economic Research Associates (NERA), and most recently, Ventyx, now part of ABB.
His recent edited books include
- Electricity Market Reform: An International Perspective (2006),
- Competitive Electricity Markets: Design, Implementation, Performance (2008),
- Generating Electricity in a Carbon Constrained World (2009),
- Energy Sustainability and the Environment: Technology, Incentives, Behavior (2011),
- Smart Grid: Integrating Renewable, Distributed & Efficient Energy (2011),
- Energy Efficiency: Towards the End of Electricity Demand Growth, Feb. 2013;
- Evolution of Global Electricity Markets, New Paradigms, New Challenges, New Approaches, June 2013; and
- Distributed Generation and its Implications for the Utility Industry, July 2014.
He has degrees in Engineering and Economics, including an MS and Ph.D. in Economics from Purdue University.