The electricity industry and its regulators once had a mission that was, if technically complex, nevertheless oriented around relatively simple goals: an affordable, reliable electricity grid that was ubiquitously available to all consumers. Those goals have remained, even while policymakers have added further imperatives around decarbonization, environmental justice, and equity. At the same time, the underlying resource mix that constitutes the electric power sector continues to change, with coal being overtaken by natural gas as the leading source of electricity in the United States, the emergence of new clean-energy and battery technologies, and a demand side of the electricity market that is at least conceptually able to respond to inadequacies or elevated pricing on the supply side.
EPIC hosted a discussion on this increasingly complex landscape with two leaders at the forefront of making it work: Chairman of the Illinois Commerce Commission Doug Scott, an author of the state’s aggressive climate and energy laws, and John Bear, chief executive officer of MISO—the country’s largest electricity market that spans from North Dakota to Louisiana. The event was moderated by Travis Kavulla, a lecturer at the Harris School of Public Policy and vice president of regulatory affairs at NRG Energy. EPIC Scholar and Harris Associate Professor Koichiro Ito gave introductory remarks.