Energy Summit @ ISO New England

Earlier this week, I attended an Energy Summit at ISO New England. I’m up on this stuff, but the information was still very good. One of the highlights was hearing Dan Esty speak. It was great to personally meet the Yale University professor, and author of Green to Gold: How Smart Companies Use Environmental Strategy to Innovate, Create Value and Build Competitive Advantage. Esty was surprisingly pessimistic about our country’s ability to overcome the environmental challenges that we face. He didn’t just talk about the hot button issue of global warming; he commented on the Obama administration’s environmental policies and the role of business in solving these challenges. He travels the globe (he has been to China five times in the past couple of years) working with businesses and governments on the number one issue that we all face: environmental sustainability. Of course, that is my opinion, but if you listen to Bill McKibben, and other experts, we are running out of time. Each of us bears the personal responsibility (businesses included) for changing our consumption patterns and shifting towards conservation and preservation.

ISO New England is the not-for-profit manager of the New England power grid. It manages the bulk electric power system and oversees the market for electricity in Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. The headquarters and control center is in Holyoke, Massachusetts. Seeing the control room with its NASA like displays and giant monitor was very cool. It was a slow day in the control room with regional electricity demand at about 50% of capacity. Of course, it is warm today, will be hotter tomorrow, and everyone will be cranking up their air conditioners. Demand will spike by Monday and that control room will be a lot busier by then. 

We heard speakers from the clean energy agencies of both Connecticut and Massachusetts. There were also several speakers who discussed simple energy saving techniques for businesses. It was a stimulating day of learning about a topic that I love.