Dr. Peter Fox-Penner: 'Building Tomorrow's Energy Grid'

**please note that this event has been moved to the Harborview Dining Room on the 31st floor**

Dr. Peter Fox-Penner

Senior Fellow and Founding Director at Boston University Institute for Global Sustainability

Key Q: Electricity use is growing quickly, and utilities are falling behind building out the grid. In addition, the grid has to be modified for more severe weather, two way traffic, and new intelligence. What can we do? [personal comment: IMHO this is the single biggest challenge to meeting climate goals in the United States today]

Takeaways: Change planning practices first set in the 1990s to be more anticipatory; regulators allow construction in advance of specific needs; streamline permitting; use new technologies; and national efforts to expand the supply chain. This will require more political support and regulatory risk for regulators, leveraging new capital streams, and new rules. Will review the state of each of these.

Dr. Fox-Penner is an expert in energy and climate policy, regulated industries, and sustainable finance. He was the founding Director of Boston University’s multidisciplinary Institute for Global Sustainability (IGS) and a Professor of Practice at the university’s Questrom School of Business. He is a frequent public speaker on energy topics and the author of numerous published articles and books, including Smart Power: Climate Change, the Smart Grid, and the Future of Electric Utilities (Island Press, 2010).

Please note that for security reasons, you will be asked to present a government issued photo identification to gain entrance into the Federal Reserve Bank.