Doug Lewin's Pod is Just an Excuse to Teach 7 Topics in One Hour

Us glorious nerds are good at telling you what's up.

My dear colleague and friend

Doug Lewin

made the mistake of interviewing me the other day. He now would like people to come his show who are willing to like, chill the heck out. Either that, or everyone else better bring a 4-page bibliography too.

Enjoy The Energy Capitol Pod here. Check out the citations related to my commentary, here:

Citations and Further Reading (and Watching!)

Intro: Background, Advocacy Mindset and Connection to Texas 

1. Neuroplasticity: Your Brain Needs a Hobby, Medium article. 

2. American Gas Association, Responsible Natural Gas Development mission statement, available at Department of Transportation, PHMSA (2011). 

3. DER Task Force Podcast, Guest Arushi Sharma Frank, The Real Story of Texas VPP (2024) 

I. ADER Information - Texas VPP Project  

• Breaking Down Texas market design versus other states for Virtual Power Plants, article by Arushi Sharma Frank (2022)  

• ADER Barriers - Workshop Filing from Arushi Sharma Frank (2024)

• ADER Proposed Actions Filing from Arushi Sharma Frank (2024)

II. Vertical Utilities versus Competitive Deregulated Markets - Storage Value Stack

• Article by Arushi Sharma Frank (2024) on filling the Texas value stack gap with residential incentive programs for battery DERs and explaining Green Mountain Power, G+D+T.  

• Virtual Power Plant and Cost of Service Ratemaking: difficulties and differences nationwide, Article by Arushi Sharma Frank. 

III. Grid Resiliency, Integrated System Planning, Various Plans for Utility Investments

• Distribution cost recovery review for last-mile investments, Berkeley Labs’s Jeff Deason, NARUC Summer Policy Summit slides. (July 2024) 

• Grid resiliency in various plans in utilities nationwide (July 2024), identified in LBNL Report.  

• Utility Peer-to-Peer Benchmarking, Synapse Consulting report for NARUC (2023).  

• FPL Storm Protection Plan, example of Grid Resilience strategies, DOE GDO Resilience Training for States (March 2024), on Youtube March 2024. 

IV. Mobile Solar and Storage Types, Hurricane Resiliency 

• Mobile Solar and Storage for Emergency Management, Craig Moreau, Chief of Emergency Management and Homeland Security, Fayette County, Clean Energy States Alliance (Go to 39.17) and download slides here.(May 2022) 

• Colorado Xcel energy omnibus distribution investment comments, Colorado Docket 17M-0694E, see page 10 of Berkeley Lab - Developing Requirements for Utility Distribution Plans.  (June 2024) 

• Solar on a trailer for agricultural and rural area support:

• “Some of the benefits of using a solar-powered generator (compared to a gas or diesel generator) are that it doesn't make any noise, there are no fumes, and it doesn't require fuel, oil, or regular maintenance.  You just park it where there's some sun, plug it in, and it's ready to go.” - PowerWagon on Youtube. 

• Heavier Loads Mobile Solar and Storage, Solar Responders, Puerto Rico, post-Hurricane Maria. 

• Babcock Ranch community, hurricane-proof with Solar, Category 4 Hurricane Survival Story - Hurricane Ian on Youtube (Excerpt of 60 Minutes Segment, 2022).  

• First Responders in Hurricane Irma rely on Hurricane Maria aftermath solar and storage, Ocala Gazette Article  (explaining that the solar system supported the fire station throughout the hurricane and they did not lose power.) 

• Five More Reasons Generators Fail When You Need them the Most (CSE Article, 2022): an engineering explanation. 

V. Community Microgrids, Power-Sharing, Retail Wheeling, Private Wires

• Community Microgrid launch by Endeavor Energy, New South Wales, Australia. 

• Australia-wide shared storage community batteries project launch. 

• Arushi explains operation in island or in parallel (Australia community batteries can operate in parallel and participate in grid services); here’s a list of community microgrids with islanded operations capability and grid-sharing capability. 

• Several microgrid examples in New Jersey towns after Superstorm Sandy, see here for Camden and scroll the page for a list. 

• Discussion of retail wheeling political problems, example of Hawaii. 

• Ireland experimenting with retail wheeling for data centers - allowing them to be owners of their own private wires. This started as a government-led Private Wires consultation, a great place to learn more. 

VI. Home Solar and Batteries Powering Home Loads for Multiple Days 

• Berkeley Lab study, explaining a modest solar and storage system can power critical home loads for days at a time. (2022) 

• Texas Houston residents talk to each other about their battery, solar, and Hurricane Beryl. 

VII. Last-Mile Distribution Grid and DERS as Companion Investments for Consumer Resilience 

• Enhancing Low-Voltage Grids and DOE’s Work on Integrated Distribution System Planning, article by Arushi Sharma Frank (2024) 

• Distributed Energy Resources’ role in enhancing the quality of distribution utility grid investments, article by Arushi Sharma Frank (2024) 

• The Last-Mile problem, a post series on X, @ArushiSF (covering federal authorities versus states over different parts of the electric grid).  

• Vulnerabilities of distribution grids in the US, National Academy of Engineering (June 2018). 

• Over 3,300 Utilities in the US, NCSL Report. 

• How ADER will create visibility to other problems walling DER access in Texas, article on local permitting in Texas by Arushi Sharma Frank (2024).