Decentralized Energy: Disruptive Impact to Energy Markets

The World Alliance for Decentralized Energy (WADE) will bring together energy experts and industry leaders to examine the future of decentralized energy in the new utility marketplace. The impacts of decentralized energy on the market has vexed many energy experts and has led to a wide variety of changes that have been both scorned and applauded by energy consumers of all sizes.

The market changes and impacts will be discussed at the WADE Annual Meeting & DistribuGen Conference. As part of the conference, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) will hold an event that showcases combined heat and power (CHP) equipment and service providers. CHP is a form of distributed generation gaining favor in the aftermath of the grid failures resulting from Hurricane Sandy. The conference and CHP expo event will be held at the Doubletree Hotel in Tarrytown, New York, October 14 -17. Tours of CHP systems currently in use that provide reliable and secure power are also part of the event.

Thomas Kuhn, President of the Edison Electric Institute, in his keynote address titled “The Challenges and Opportunities of the Evolving Distribution System,” will address how investor-owned utilities view decentralized energy systems and the challenges and opportunities that all energy generators face in the dynamic utility marketplace. What is being done to increase deployment of microgrid and distributed generation systems will be discussed by former CIA Director turned decentralized energy advocate Robert James Woolsey Jr, in his presentation titled “Energy-Security-Resiliency - Rationale for a New Utility Paradigm.”

Project financing and new regulations affecting distributed generation will also be discussed at the conference.