Barriers and Challenges to Building The Smart Grid

America currently uses an alternating current power grid that was created in 1896, based on an 1888 Nikola Tesla design. In fact, many implementation decisions and processes used today were made for the first time using the limited emerging technology available 120 years ago.

Today, development of modern micro-electronics, especially the entry of the microprocessor, have opened new ways to significantly improve power grid control. The evolutionary integration of intelligent, distributed, and highly-adaptive control systems made available with microelectronics is referred to as The Smart Grid in Title XIII of the U.S. Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007.

Commissioner Wellinghoff will discuss barriers and challenges facing the creation of The Smart Energy Grid and address the process changes needed to move us into the 21st Century.

About the Speaker

Commissioner Jon Wellinghoff is a member of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), the agency that oversees wholesale electric transactions, interstate electric transmission and gas transportation in the United States. He was sworn in by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in 2006 and recently re-appointed to a second term.

Commissioner Wellinghoff is an energy law specialist with more than 30 years experience in the field. Before joining FERC, he was in private practice and focused exclusively on client matters related to renewable energy, energy efficiency and distributed generation. While in the private sector, Commissioner Wellinghoff represented an array of clients from federal agencies, renewable developers, and large consumers of power to energy efficient product manufacturers and clean energy advocacy organizations.

While in private practice, Commissioner Wellinghoff was the primary author of the Nevada Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) Act. The Nevada RPS is one of the two states to receive an “A” rating by the Union of Concerned Scientists. In addition, he worked with clients to develop renewable portfolio standards in six other states. The commissioner is considered an expert on the state renewable portfolio process and has lectured extensively on the subject in numerous forums including the Vermont Law School.

His experience also includes two terms as the State of Nevada’s first Consumer Advocate for Customers of Public Utilities. While serving in that role, Commissioner Wellinghoff represented Nevada’s utility consumers before the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada, the FERC, and in appeals before the Nevada Supreme Court. While Consumer Advocate, he authored the first comprehensive state utility integrated planning statute. That statute has become a model for utility integrated planning processes across the country.

Commissioner Wellinghoff’s priorities at FERC include opening wholesale electric markets to renewable resources, providing a platform for participation of demand response and other distributed resources in wholesale electric markets including energy efficiency and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), and promoting greater efficiency in our nation’s energy infrastructure through the institution of advanced technologies and system integration. He was instrumental in creating FERC’s Energy Innovations Sector (EIS), which is responsible for investigating and promoting new efficient technologies and practices in the energy sectors under FERC’s jurisdiction. Commissioner Wellinghoff is co-chair of the Demand Response Collaborative launched jointly by FERC and the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) and is a member of NARUC’s Committee on Energy Resources and the Environment. He is a member of the Advisory Committee of the Institute for Electric Efficiency and served as an advisor to the Defense Science Board’s Energy Policy Task Force. Commissioner Wellinghoff also advises the Energy Foundation and the NRDC on China-U.S. energy policy matters. He recently returned from China where he headed a delegation of U.S. energy regulators.

Education:
Antioch School of Law, Washington, D.C., JD, 1975
Howard University, Washington, D.C., M.A.T., Mathematics, 1972
University of Nevada, Reno, Nevada, BS, Mathematics, 1971