The GTB Partners team attended Jersey Renews’ Powering the Future conference, bringing together energy leaders, policymakers, labor representatives, advocates, and industry professionals to discuss New Jersey’s evolving energy infrastructure needs.
The September 30 program focused on expanding energy supply, deploying distributed energy resources, managing demand, and modernizing the electric grid as New Jersey works to meet growing electricity needs.
A Focus on New Jersey’s Energy Infrastructure
Jersey Renews organized the conference around the challenge of meeting increasing electricity demand while improving the infrastructure needed to deliver reliable and affordable power.
Approximately 70 attendees participated in the program, representing government, the energy industry, organized labor, environmental and clean-energy organizations, and other stakeholders involved in New Jersey’s energy future.
The day’s discussions covered both energy generation and the systems needed to integrate new resources onto the grid, including distributed energy, demand-response technology, virtual power plants, transmission, and other grid upgrades.
State Energy Leaders Address the Conference
Madeline Urbish, Senior Advisor on Energy to Governor Mikie Sherrill, delivered the morning keynote address, followed later in the program by New Jersey Board of Public Utilities Commissioner Emma Rebhorn.
Their remarks provided perspectives from the Governor’s Office and NJBPU as the state considers how to add energy supply, improve reliability, manage costs, and make long-term investments in New Jersey’s electric infrastructure.
Expanding Resources on New Jersey’s Grid
One of the conference’s central panels focused on what New Jersey can do to increase deployment of distributed energy resources and how coordinated development can add supply to the electric system.
GTB clients Evangeline Hobbs, Deputy Director at the American Clean Power Association, and Dan Watson, Director of Development at Jupiter Power, joined other industry and policy experts for the discussion.
Modernizing the Grid
The conference also examined how newer technologies can help manage electricity demand during peak periods and how physical grid infrastructure will need to evolve as additional generation and storage resources come online.
Those questions are increasingly connected. Adding new generation alone does not resolve New Jersey’s energy challenges if projects cannot efficiently interconnect with the grid or if existing transmission and distribution infrastructure cannot accommodate additional supply.
Jersey Renews’ final panel focused specifically on upgrading the physical grid while maintaining reliability and considering the workforce and economic opportunities associated with infrastructure investment.
An Active Energy Policy Landscape
Energy supply, affordability, interconnection, distributed resources, storage, and grid modernization continue to be closely connected issues for New Jersey policymakers and the energy industry.
Forums like Powering the Future provide an opportunity for government officials, developers, utilities, labor representatives, advocates, and other stakeholders to compare perspectives on how the state can address those challenges.
GTB Partners appreciated the opportunity to attend the conference and hear directly from state officials and industry leaders working on New Jersey’s energy future.
View GTB Partners’ original conference update on LinkedIn.
