All Things DER: Why Investing in DER is Cost-Effective and Climate-Friendly
by Dr. Elizabeth Cook, General Manager of Advanced Grid Solutions, Duquesne Light Company
Welcome to the All Things DER podcast! In this podcast, we’ll be digging in, defining, and discussing where the new energy economy is heading with electric industry leaders, and explore all the ways that distributed energy resources can modernize and improve our ever-evolving power grid.
In today’s episode, we’re talking with Michael Jung, Executive Director of the ICF Climate Center. The ICF Climate Center offers research and insights that help organizations establish clear, practical pathways forward through climate science and predictive analytics. We discuss some of the ICF’s current work and how DER can help utilities modernize grid infrastructure in a cost-effective, climate friendly way.
Here’s what you’ll discover:
- Why investing in grid infrastructure is necessary to mitigate the effects of climate change, but will also introduce new resiliency challenges
- How DERs, when deployed correctly, are the most powerful, cost-effective tool utilities have in their arsenal for fighting climate change
- Why current energy efficiency incentives don’t always account for how various DERs interact with one another
- Why changes to regulatory framework will be necessary to facilitate the development of innovative, climate-friendly solutions for our grid
- How new technologies can help lower the risk of utility transformation by allowing utilities to model different scenarios
- Some of Dr. Cook and Michael’s top book recommendations