How New York Is Creating a Platform for Creativity and Entrepreneurship on the Grid

“I don’t want to create mediocre wires companies. I want to create excellent, innovative companies.”

New York is taking a hard look at how to reform the distribution grid and encourage more distributed energy resources. But it’s not doing it through technology mandates.

Instead, New York regulators are developing flexible market structures to encourage utilities to adopt a variety of new distributed technologies, while also empowering customers, creating new business competition and hardening the grid.

So how exactly will the model work? In this special live podcast, recorded at WNYC’s performance space in New York City, we spoke with two architects of the plan.

Audrey Zibelman, chair of the New York Public Service Commission and Sergej Mahnovski, director of Con Edison’s "utility of the future" team, joined the Energy Gang to discuss why the state's approach is unique.

“I don’t want to create mediocre wires companies. I want to create excellent, innovative companies that have third parties wanting to come to New York and build businesses around DER because they see it’s a marketplace where they can be successful and then we can lead everywhere else,” explained Zibelman.

The live show was organized in partnership with Clean Energy Connections.

Listen here:

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The Energy Gang is produced by Greentechmedia.com. The show features weekly discussion between energy futurist Jigar Shah, energy policy expert Katherine Hamilton and Greentech Media Editor Stephen Lacey.