2017 agenda

panel 1 @ 2:15pm

Taking
the Pulse

today’s energy landscape

Barry Ingold, SVP of Generation, Tri-State G&T
Tri State will share about the latest coal plant technology – ie. super-critical and hyper-critical thermal plants and the latest Natural Gas Combined Cycle plant technology. The latest NGCC plants are setting efficiency records and they are rapidly becoming the base load generation resource of choice.

Steve Metheny, VP, DMEA
DMEA has developed several megawatt class hydro facilities on the South Canal which are being seasonally run to augment DMEA’s power supply.

Dr. Bryan Hannegan, CEO, Holy Cross Energy

Kevin Brehm, Sr. Associate, Rocky Mountain Institute
Community Solar Arrays and the emerging value proposition of utility scale solar

Moderator: Kathleen Staks, Executive Director, Colorado Energy Office

panel 2 @ 4:00pm

Innovations
& Trends

impacting the energy landscape

Electrification of the Transportation Sector – Garrett Fitzgerald, PhD., Sr. Associate, Rocky Mountain Institute
We are on the cusp of one of the fastest, deepest, most consequential disruptions of transportation in history. By 2030, within 10 years of regulatory approval of autonomous vehicles (AVs), 95% of U.S. passenger miles traveled may be served by on-demand autonomous electric vehicles owned by fleets, not individuals, in a new business model called “transport-as- a-service” (TaaS). The TaaS disruption will have enormous implications across the transportation, electric power and oil industries as a large portion of the transportation sector is electrified.

Walker Dimmig, VP, NetPower
NetPower has developed a new supercritical CO² power cycle that uses natural gas as a fuel stock but produces zero emissions. They are partnered with Toshiba and Exelon and are building a 50 MW demonstration plant in Texas. If this plant is successful, this could be a game changer for the utility industry.

Luis Reyes, CEO, Kit Carson Electric Cooperative, Inc
The central station generation model is under siege from all sides and as Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) gain traction and increasingly offer cheaper power than central stations can. This is what many people mean when they talk about the “Smart Grid” and “Grid Modernization”. It’s all about how to best integrate these new resources into a bi-directional grid that has the flexibility to accommodate them. A good example of a nascent effort in this area is offered by Kit Carson Electric Company of Taos, NM. Under their CEO, Luis Reyes, they have embarked on a new strategy by partnering with Guzman Energy Partners, an IPP, to bring low cost renewable energy to KCEC’s service area. Guzman will buy and supply power from the regional energy market and also build utility scale solar projects to supply KCEC’s needs.

Chris Tesarski, CoResource Solutions LLC
CoResource Solutions is the culmination of several years of business development to bring a proprietary groundbreaking process to market, which transforms produced oilfield wastewater into usable, fresh water and/or high quality industrial brine. Their innovation will improve the oil extraction process, reducing wastewater and wastewater transportation and enhancing formation water for re-injection, thereby reviving and optimizing fields which have previously been or in light of commodity pricing be, deemed uneconomical due to wastewater handling issues.

David Hobbs, SVP of Operation, Exciter Energy

We’re Exciter and we’re bringing to market a new generation of rigs for environmentally responsible drilling.  Exciter has redefined modern rig design to safely access reserves in populated areas while honoring the well-being of our planet and its people.  Our designs and services resolve the noise, aesthetics, traffic, lighting, ground disturbance, and air pollution concerns that prevent drilling in communities throughout our country.

Panelist and Moderator: Jennifer Ramsey, Project Leader, NREL Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center