The Governor’s Conference on Local Renewable Energy Resources

California's Path towards the Future

Sponsors: Office of Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr.
Luskin Center for Innovation, University of California at Los Angeles
Bank of America

Biographies: View Here

RSVP List: View Here

Governor Brown has called for 12,000 MW of renewable power generated within the local power distribution grid. Implementing this effort will provide important advantages in California’s drive for clean power – development of local resources, avoided costs of new intercity transmission or remote generation, and additional consumer autonomy.

Achieving this goal calls for new approaches and coalitions between consumers, community leaders, utilities and power providers. Promising innovations:

• Financing tools that help build new power sources, but also keep costs as low as possible.
• Improvements to existing wires and transformers, and new policies to speed connections
• Policies and techniques to measure and manage power demand and variable power sources
• New efforts in local land use, building and fire codes to speed up deployment.

Unlike large utility-scale renewables projects, which compete in a statewide market, these small-scale projects are tied to the local grid and are more sensitive to local conditions. Many of these issues stand outside or straddle the policy authorities of individual federal or local agencies. No one constituency can resolve the challenges in every jurisdiction.

This two-day conference will explore these challenges in detail by catalyzing discussions between experts, regulators and other stakeholder groups. The invitation-only conference will be highly participatory and requires extensive facilitation and advance work. Some participants will take roles as participants or facilitators. All participants will review, in advance, conference materials including discussion papers set for each panel

Conference Agenda

Monday, July 25th
UCLA Covel Commons Conference Center: 330 De Neve Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90095
Grand Horizon Ballroom (3rd Floor)

7:30 AM Registration and Breakfast

9:00 AM Welcoming Remarks
Emcee: Mayor Bob Foster, Chair, California Independent Systems Operator Board of Governors
Mark Ferron, Commissioner, Public Utilities Commission
Janet Lamkin, President, Bank of America, California
Governor Edmund G. Brown, Jr.

9:30 AM Governor’s Panel

Facilitator: Steve Clemons, Atlantic Monthly

Panel: Governor Edmund G. Brown, Jr.
David Crane, CEO, NRG Energy
Lyndon Rive, CEO, SolarCity
Rick Needham, Director of Green Business Operations and Strategy, Google

10:30 AM Break

10:45 AM State Goals Panel: How does 12,000 MW of generating resources fit with California’s other renewable energy goals?
Recommended Reading: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6

Facilitator: Bob Weisenmiller, Chair, California Energy Commission

Panel: Stephen Berberich, CEO, California Independent Systems Operator
Jeanne Clinton, California Public Utilities Commission
Dan Kammen, World Bank
Ron Nichols, General Manager, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power
Laura Wisland, Union of Concerned Scientists

11:45 AM Break

12:00 PM Values Panel: What priorities should drive implementation toward 12,000 MW of localized renewable energy? - Recommended Reading: 1

Facilitators: Carla Peterman, Commissioner, California Energy Commission
Wade Crowfoot, Governor’s Office of Planning and Research

Panel: Doug Condon, Safeway
Aaron Johnson, Pacific Gas & Electric
Roger Kim, Asian Pacific Environmental Network
Mary Leslie, Los Angeles Business Council
Thomas Martinez, International Brotherhood of Electrical Engineers

1:00 PM Lunch, Location: Grand Horizon Terrace

2:00 PM Best Practices Panel: How is the deployment of localized renewables working elsewhere?

Facilitator: JR DeShazo, Luskin Center for Innovation, UCLA

Panel: Mike Bergey, Distributed Wind Energy Association
Harry Lehmann, Federal Ministry for Energy and the Environment, Germany
Andrew McAlister, Center for Sustainable Energy
Jim Shetler, Sacramento Municipal Utility District

3:00 PM Break

3:15 PM Segmenting the Governor’s Localized Energy Goal: How will 12,000 MW fit into our communities? - Recommended Reading: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4

Facilitators: Bernadette Del Chiaro, Environment California
Kevin Barker, California Energy Commission

Post-presentation breakout sessions:

Breakout #1: San Diego and the Inland Empire, Location: North Ridge Room
Includes Counties of San Diego, Imperial, San Bernardino and Riverside

Facilitators: Michael Picker and Heather Raitt

Breakout # 2: Greater Los Angeles and Orange County, Location: South Bay Room
Includes Counties of Los Angeles and Orange

Facilitators: Bernadette Del Chiaro and Paul Douglas

Breakout #3: Northern California and Central Coast, Location: Grand Horizon Ballroom
Includes Counties of Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Monterey, Napa, San Benito, San Francisco, San Luis Obispo, San Mateo, Santa Barbara, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Sonoma, Ventura, Butte, Colusa, Del Norte, El Dorado, Glenn, Humboldt, Lake, Lassen, Mendocino, Modoc, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, Sacramento, San Joaquin, Shasta, Sierra, Siskiyou, Solano, Tehama, Trinity, Yolo, and Yuba

Facilitators: Kevin Barker, Jeanne Clinton, Michael Perri and Manal Yamout

Breakout #4: Central Valley & Central Sierras, Location: West Coast Room
Includes Counties of Alpine, Amador, Calaveras, Fresno, Inyo, Kern, Kings, Madera, Mariposa, Mono, Merced, Stanislaus, Tulare, and Tuolumne.

Facilitators: Wade Crowfoot and Tony Brunello

5:00 PM Break

5:15 PM Plenary Presentation: Renewable Energy and Public Opinion, Location: Grand Horizon Ballroom
Presenter: Richard Maullin, Member, California Independent Systems Operator Board of Governors
5:30 PM Reception, Fowler Museum – 2nd Floor Terrace, UCLA Campus
308 Charles E. Young Drive South, Los Angeles, CA 90095

Tuesday, July 26
UCLA Faculty Center, 405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90095
NOTE: DIFFERENT LOCATION FROM DAY ONE VENUE

8:00 AM Welcome & Breakfast

9:00 AM FIRST ROUND OF PANEL DISCUSSIONS: PLEASE PROCEED TO PANEL ROOMS

Panel #1: Cost and Transparency, Location: California Room

Facilitator: Cliff Rechtschaffen, Governor’s Office

Panel: Brad Cox, Trammel Crow
Matt Freedman, The Utility Reform Network
Bill Powers, Powers Engineering
Snuller Price, E3 Analytics

Panel # 2: Interconnection and Approval Processes, Location: Sequoia Room - Recommended Reading: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4

Facilitators: Sarah Michael, California Energy Commission
Phil Pettingill, California Independent Systems Operator

Panel: William Chung, Pacific Gas & Electric
Kevin Fox, Interstate Renewable Energy Coalition
Steven Frantz, Sacramento Municipal Utility District
Freeman Hall, Solar Electric Solutions, LLC
Craig Lewis, CLEAN Coalition
Jaclyn Marks, California Public Utilities Commission

Panel # 3: Land Use Planning and Siting, Location, Hacienda Room

Facilitator: Sandy Goldberg, Governor’s Office of Planning and Research

Panel: Rachel McMahon, Amonix, Inc .
Lorelei Oviatt, Kern County
Tim Snellings, Butte County
Tricia Stevens, Sacramento County
Amy Zimpfer, US Environmental Protection Agency

10:45 AM Break

11:00 AM SECOND ROUND OF PANEL DISCUSSIONS

Panel #4: Principles and design for financing distributed renewables, Location: California Room - Recommended Reading: 1

Facilitators: Carla Peterman, Commissioner, California Energy Commission
Paul Douglas, California Public Utilities Commission

Panel: Michael Boccadoro, Inland Empire Utilities Agency
Adam Browning, Vote Solar
Alfred Griffin, Citigroup, Inc.
Fran Inman, Majestic Realty
Sheldon Kimber, Recurrent Energy

Panel # 5: Integrating variable resources: reliability, storage and other responses, Location: Sequoia Room

Facilitators: Angelina Galiteva, Member, California Independent Systems Operator Board of Governors

Panel: Dr. Malcolm Jacques, Wasabi Energy
Carl Lenox, SunPower
Janice Lin, California Energy Storage Association
David Mead, Southern California Edison
Walker Wright, PetraSolar

Panel #6: Warranty and standards for technology and installation, Location: Downstairs Lounge - Recommended Reading: 1 - 2

Facilitators: Donne Brownsey, Solar Alliance
Patrick Saxton, California Energy Commission

Panel: Evelyn Butler, Underwriters Laboratory, Inc.
Hugh Kuhn, Solar Power Partners
Matt LeDucq, Sun Tech
Tal Mamo, Talco Electronics
Izaak Velez, Laborers International Union, North America

Panel # 7: Fire and Public Safety issues and responses, Location: Hacienda Room

Facilitator: Tonya Hoover, Acting State Fire Marshal

Panel: Robert Backstrom, Underwriters Laboratories
Bill Brooks, Brooks Engineering
Roy Dull, Los Angeles County Fire Department
Dale Evenson, Riverside County Fire Department
Vickie Sakamoto, CALFIRE
Mark Stormes, City of Los Angeles Fire Department

12:45 PM Lunch, Location: California Room

2:00 PM THIRD ROUND OF PANELS

Panel # 8: Jobs and Economic Development , Location: California Room - Recommended Reading: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4

Panel: Jim Avery, San Diego Gas & Electric
Nicole Capretz, San Diego Environmental Health Coalition
Ken Casarez, Laborers International Union
Mary Leslie, Los Angeles Business Council
David Teasdale, Kern Community College District

Panel # 9: Renewables on Public Buildings & Lands, Location: Hacienda Room - Recommended Reading: 1 - 2

Facilitators: Manal Yamout, Governor’s Office
Kevin Barker, California Energy Commission

Panel: Nathan Butler, US Navy
Jacob Lipa, Psomas FMG
Bettina Redway, California State Treasurer’s Office
Lindsey Rowell, California Department of Corrections
Jim Shetler, Sacramento Municipal Utilities District

Panel # 10: Grid Planning , Location: Sequoia Room

Facilitators: Ted Ko, CLEAN Coalition
Wade Crowfoot, Governor’s Office of Planning and Research

Panel: Bill Kelly, SunPower
Susan Schneider, Phoenix Consulting
Michael Shames, United Consumer Action Network
Jon Eric Thalman, Pacific Gas & Electric
Byron Washom, University of California at San Diego

Panel # 11: Consistent, effective and efficient building permits, Location: Downstairs Lounge- Recommended Reading: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5

Facilitator: Ethan Sprague, Sun Run

Panel: Keith Bergthold, City of Fresno
Carla Din, East Bay Green Corridor
John Hostetter, REC
Pat Redgate, Ameco Solar
Osama Younan, City of Los Angeles

3:45 PM Next Steps & Wrap-Up, Location: California Room
Steve Weissman, Center for Law, Energy and the Environment, University of California Law School at Berkley

4:30 PM Conference Adjourns