renewable energy

Center for Renewables Integration Welcomes Rao Konidena as New Board President

Center for Renewables Integration (CRI) is excited to welcome a new Board President as of January 2024, Rao Konidena. Rao, who has been a valuable partner with CRI since 2018, brings a wealth of experience and a fresh perspective to the role. Kerinia Cusick, the former Board President, has transitioned to the position of Board Vice President, where she will continue to contribute her expertise and leadership to CRI.

Kerinia recruited Rao to lead CRI and was excited he accepted the challenge. “It has been a delight building CRI from a concept to an organization that is working at the leading edge of clean energy policy, and a privilege to partner with some of the leading companies and experts in the industry on specific projects,” said Kerinia.

Rao leverages his experience working for 15 years at Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) for clients. Before he left MISO, he was the Principal Advisor for Policy Studies, working on energy storage and distributed energy resources. At MISO, Rao worked in management and non-management roles focused on issues of resource adequacy, economic planning, business management and policy functions.

With CRI, Rao has collaborated with other specialists on several projects. This includes helping the world’s largest buyer of renewable energy investigate solutions to mitigate interconnection delays in PJM, working in every ISO on the development of new rules to allow distributed energy resources to participate in ISO/RTO markets, and providing expert testimony on the use Grid Enhancing Technologies (GETs) and Non-Transmission Alternatives (NTAs) in a MISO transmission siting case.

“It is an honor to be the CRI Board President,” said Rao. “There is more work to be done in advancing renewables and distributed energy resources on the transmission and distribution grids. Our state and federal policymakers are looking for specific solutions, moving beyond general goals, and CRI has done excellent foundational work in the past 7 years. I am excited to build on this foundation and thank Kerinia and the rest of the CRI Board for this opportunity to lead CRI’s work in the years ahead.”

Center for Renewables Integration experts work at the state, ISO/RTO, and federal levels to develop and implement policies that enable the transition to clean energy cost effectively and without impacting reliability.

Webinar recording link: The Electron Superhighway: Modernizing the US Transmission Infrastructure

CRI thanks NARUC for organizing a webinar to discuss solutions for improving the US transmission infrastructure that can be implemented quicker and cheaper than traditional poles and wires. Some technologies have been called “Waze for the transmission grid” while others are the equivalent to reversible traffic lanes. As Congress considers economic recovery and infrastructure investments, solutions to improve our electricity infrastructure and enable clean, low cost renewable generation should be at the top of the list. This webinar discusses the technologies, regulatory barriers, and actions that FERC as well as state regulators can take to enable these solutions.

https://www.naruc.org/cpi/cpi-past-events/

The following is a reprint from the NARUC Website:

March 19, 2020: The Electron Superhighway: Modernizing U.S. Transmission Infrastructure

Increasing the capacity and performance of electric transmission is key to achieving state goals, from increased resilience to integrating renewables. On this webinar, experts discussed improvements in advanced transmission technologies and regulatory options for deploying these solutions.

Moderator: Chairman Sally Talberg, Michigan Public Service Commission

Speakers: 

  • Jennie Chen, Senior Counsel, Federal Energy Policy, Duke University Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions

  • Bruce Tsuchida, Principal, The Brattle Group

  • Kerinia Cusick, Co-Founder, Center for Renewables Integration

  • Jon Wellinghoff, CEO, GridPolicy Inc., and former Chairman, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission 

Link to slides

Link to recording

CRI Supporting District of Columbia Department of Energy and Environment in Evaluating Options for Increasing Procurement of Renewable Energy

CRI is providing ongoing support to the District of Columbia Department of Energy and Environment (DOEE), evaluating options for cost effective renewable electricity purchases in the District. CRI’s feasibility study, “Increasing the Renewable Energy Content of Standard Offer Service” has been submitted and filed by the DOEE in an ongoing proceeding before the District’s Public Service Commission.  CRI’s Harry Warren was the study’s author.