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Five Questions With Reed Hundt
By Reed Hundt, the CEO of the Coalition for Green Capital
Part of a series of insights from leading smart-grid, clean-energy, and utility experts speaking at gridCONNEXT 2017 in Washington DC, December 4-6. Questions asked by Clean Edge managing director and gridCONNEXT co-chair Ron Pernick.
Ron Pernick: While you were the chairman of the FCC, President Bill Clinton signed the 1996 Telecommunications Act into law (more than a decade after the breakup of AT&T). While the telecom industry and electricity sectors have their differences, in your experience, what lessons might today’s energy sector learn from earlier telecom deregulation?
Reed Hundt: Electricity is the only sector that lacks a national funding plan for low-income and high-cost customers. That’s something Congress should fix; states should not be on their own in this respect. In addition, all states should be obliged to open their markets fairly to DER installations. The variation and in some cases closure of markets harms jobs, hurts consumers, and decreases investment.
Clean Edge and GridWise Alliance have joined forces to host gridCONNEXT, December 4-6 in Washington, D.C. Don’t miss this opportunity to explore the future of the grid with utilities, regulators, investors, corporates, service providers, and other key stakeholders. Partners include CenterPoint Energy, EDF, IBM, Intel, Itron, AEP, Exelon, Lockheed Martin, ABB, and FPL.
Register today to secure your spot.
Topics to be Covered Include:
- Hurricanes and Future-Proofing the Grid
- Blockchain’s Impact on Energy Markets
- Charging Ahead: Electric Vehicles & The Grid
- Regulators: View from the Future
- Building our Nation’s Next-Gen Grid Infrastructure: Lessons from the Telecom Industry
- Energy Storage’s Role in Enabling a Distributed & Resilient Grid
Speakers & Panelists Include:
Valerie Brader
Executive Director
Michigan Agency for Energy
Puon Penn
Executive Vice President
Wells Fargo
Nancy Pfund
Founder & Managing Partner
DBL Partners
Scott Prochazka
CEO
CenterPoint Energy
Check out a full list of speakers.