Value-Added Electricity Services: New Roles for Utilities and Third-Party Providers

November 06, 2017

New energy generation, storage, delivery, and end-use technologies support a broad range of value-added electricity services for retail electricity customers. Sophisticated energy management services, distributed generation coupled with storage, and electric vehicle charging are just a few examples of emerging offerings.

Who should provide value-added services - utilities or third parties, or both, and under what conditions? What policy and regulatory changes may be needed to promote competition and innovation, to account for utility costs to enable these services, and to protect consumers?

A new report in the Future Electric Utility Regulation series from Berkeley Lab, Value-Added Electricity Services: New Roles for Utilities and Third-Party Providers, tackles these questions and more.

The report approaches the issues from three perspectives: utilities, third-party service providers and consumers:

Jonathan Blansfield and Lisa Wood, Institute for Electric Innovation
Ryan Katofsky, Benjamin Stafford and Danny Waggoner, Advanced Energy Economy
National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates

The webinar will be recorded and archived at FEUR.lbl.gov along with the report and slides.

The report is the ninth in the Future Electric Utility Regulation series from Berkeley Lab. Additional reports are forthcoming. Subscribe to our mailing list at FEUR.lbl.gov and follow us on Twitter at @BerkeleyLabEMP.

The report was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability - Electricity Policy Technical Assistance Program, and the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy - Solar Energy Technologies Office, through DOE's Grid Modernization Initiative. Lisa Schwartz, Berkeley Lab's Electricity Markets and Policy Group, is the project manager and technical editor.

About the Presenters

Jonathan Blansfield is the Senior Manager of Strategic Alliances for Institute for Electric Innovation. He is responsible for day to day operations, programming and strategic growth of IEI's Technology Partner Roundtable, a select group of innovative technology firms that work with electric utility companies to deploy distribution-level, smart grid and renewable energy technologies and customer solutions. Previously, he held positions with the U.S. Department of Energy, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the Solar Energy Industries Association, and a private energy regulatory law firm.

Ryan Katofsky is Vice President of Industry Analysis at Advanced Energy Economy, where he is responsible for supporting its various initiatives with data-driven analysis, research and thought leadership. He oversees AEE's regulatory work and is playing a leading role in AEE's 21st Century Electricity System Initiative, which is focused on accelerating regulatory and business model change in the electric power sector. Prior to joining AEE in May 2013, he spent 20 years consulting to the advanced energy industry, utilities and the public sector.

Robert Mork is Electric Committee Chair, National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates. He has served the Indiana Office of Utility Consumer Counselor since 2000 as Deputy Consumer Counselor for Federal Affairs, representing Indiana ratepayer interests before both FERC and the Federal Communications Commission. He now spends much of his time working for the effective development of electric wholesale markets under regional transmission organizations. Mork was active in the development of the Consumer Advocates of PJM States organization and currently serves as its president. He also is a representative of the Public Consumer Sector on the MISO Advisory Committee.