Storage as a Game Changer for Co-Ops & Munis

Jay OwenTV Series
Jackie Sargent brings almost 30 years of utility experience. From 2010 to 2012, Sargent served as Senior Vice President of Power Supply and Market Operations at Austin Energy before joining Platte River Power Authority as General Manager and CEO. Sargent also served as Vice President of Power Supply and Renewables Integration for Black Hills Corporation in South Dakota.
General Manager, Austin Energy

 
Cris Eugster has more than 25 years of leadership experience in the energy and technology sectors. Cris currently serves as Chief Operating Officer of CPS Energy, one of the nation’s largest municipally-owned utilities with over 821,000 electric customers and 347,000 gas customers.
Chief Operations Officer, CPS Energy

 
Bryant Robbins has been with United Power Inc. for the past 15 years. He has been in his current position as COO for the past 2 years. He is part of an executive team who are trying to implement leading edge technology, including battery storage, in providing outstanding service and reliability to its members.
Chief Operations Officer, United Power

 
Kevin Short has brought a fresh perspective to the business operations of Anza Electric with a background in electrical engineering and solar contracting. After 67 years, the Cooperative still maintains a rate structure far below the surrounding investor owned utilities while retiring more than $11M in capital credits to their members.
General Manager, Anza Electric Cooperative
Due to their ownership and operating structures, as well as the autonomous approval processes, electrical cooperatives and municipal utilities are great testing grounds for energy storage.

As smaller players, these utilities face higher risks and count on fewer resources across footprints to provide reliable and resilient electricity to their customers.

Energy storage can be particularly impactful for these utilities when it comes to T&D upgrade deferrals, as they typically serve vast distances, and have higher miles of copper wires per customer.

For that reason, we have decided to dedicate our Keynote Industry Panel to how co-ops and munis are thinking about storage, with Energy Storage Association CEO Kelly Speakes-Backman as the moderator in a conversation between Austin Energy, CPS Energy, United Power and Anza Electric Cooperative.