Schedule is subject to change. Please check back regularly for the latest details.
SUNDAY, June 23, 2019
| Time | Event |
|---|---|
| 8:00 pm – 9:00 pm | Pre-conference Welcome Reception Pool View Terrace |
MONDAY, June 24, 2019
| Time | Event | |
|---|---|---|
| 7:30 am – 5:30 pm | Registration Open | JW Grand Salon Foyer | |
| 7:30 am – 8:30 am | Networking Breakfast | JW Grand Salon Foyer | |
| 8:00 am – 6:00 pm | Exhibits Open | JW Grand Ballroom 6 | |
| 8:30 am – 10:15 am | Opening Plenary Session | JW Grand Ballroom 5 8:35 am – 8:55 am | Individual Remarks by Bill Magness, CEO of ERCOT Speaker: Bill Magness, President and CEO, Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) |
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8:55 am – 9:15 am | Fireside Chat |
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9:20 am – 10:15 am | Strategic Opportunities in the Lone Star State |
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| Growth in renewable energy generation and advances in technology are reshaping the way utilities do business in the Lone Star State. What do these new developments mean for the customers they serve and the renewable industry hungry for new opportunities? Join Julia Hamm, President & CEO of the Smart Electric Power Alliance (SEPA) for a roundtable with regional utility executives to discover insights in to their plans to innovate business models, address regulatory challenges, maximize grid integration opportunities, and plan for vehicle electrification, four key ‘pathways’ that reverberate throughout the electric sector in 2019 and beyond. | ||
| 10:15 am – 11:00 am | Speed Networking | JW Grand Ballroom 2 | |
| 10:15 am – 11:00 am | Networking Coffee Break | JW Grand Ballroom 6 |
| Breakout Session 1 | Breakout Session 2 | |
|---|---|---|
| 11:00 am – 12:00 pm | How Effective Messaging Can Win Over Audiences | JW Grand Ballroom 5 Moderator: Colin Silver, Director, Digital & Internal Communications, Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) Speakers: Kelly Kuhle, Director, Marketing, CPS Energy Asher Price, Journalist & Fellow, Austin American-Statesman & University of Texas Energy Institute Ruben Ugarte, Sales Director, Clean Tech and Home Services, Active Prospect Cari VanAmburg, Project Manager – Solar, EDP Renewables More Info |
Improving Interconnection in the Lone Star State | JW Grand Salon 3&4 Moderator: Caitlin Smith, Manager, Government & Regulatory Affairs, Invenergy Speakers: Hala Ballouz, President, Electric Power Engineers, Inc. Andrew Golder, Senior Director, Transmission Planning, 7X Energy Warren Lasher, Senior Director, System Planning, Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) More Info |
| Learn from a diverse set of professional communicators and campaigners on how to best communicate the value of solar. We’ll dive into the latest public opinion polling to show you what works and what doesn’t, and help attendees learn better ways to tell their story, attract customers, and leverage the solar industry’s overwhelming popularity to develop a more active and engaged public network of supporters. | This session will discuss common transmission-level interconnection challenges for solar and storage in Texas including how to most appropriately best practices to address energy storage in interconnection standards, best practices for interconnection timelines, and other related critical processes critical related to sustained utility-scale solar growth. | |
| 12:00 pm – 1:30 pm | Networking Lunch & Exhibits | JW Grand Ballroom 6 | |
| 1:30 pm – 2:30 pm | Opportunities for Community Solar in Texas | JW Grand Ballroom 5 Moderator: Nakhia Morrissette, Regulatory Counsel & Midwest Regional Director, State Affairs, Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) Speaker: Rick Luna, Interim Director, Technology & Product Innovation, CPS Energy Barry Matchett, Head, External Affairs, Midwest and Gulf, Clearway Energy Group Robert Miggins, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, Go Smart Solar More Info |
Trends in Solar Manufacturing | JW Grand Salon 3&4 Moderator: John Smirnow, General Counsel & Vice President of Market Strategy, Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) Speakers: Debbie Brodt-Giles, Data Science and Innovation Group Manager, National Renewable Energy Laboratory Jeff Dorety, Sales Manager, North America, PI Berlin North America LLC Dustin Haddock, Vice President, Research and Development, S-5! Metal Roof Innovations Paul Mutchler, Director, Commercial Operations, Mission Solar More Info |
| What is happening with Community Solar in Texas? Drawing from a diversity of experience, this session will investigate, analyze, and evaluate how to overcome key bottlenecks to the expansion of community solar in Texas and better provide homeowners, renters, and businesses access to the benefits of shared solar energy generation. | Between tariffs on a variety of solar imports, new announcements around domestic manufacturing facilities, and DOE’s American-Made Solar Prize, the past year has brought the spotlight to solar manufacturing. This session will cover manufacturing trends, including the prospect for new domestic facilities, and how these developments impact the industry downstream. | |
| 2:30 pm – 2:40 pm | Quick Break | |
| 2:40 pm – 3:05 pm | QuickTalk: An Insider Look at What SEIA’s Doing in DC to Protect Your Business | JW Grand Ballroom 5 Speaker: Katherine Gensler, Vice President, Regulatory Affairs, Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) More Info |
QuickTalk: Preparing for a High Solar Penetration Future – The Austin SHINES Program | JW Grand Salon 3&4 Speaker: Lisa Martin, Program Manager, DER Integration, Austin Energy More Info |
| In Congress, 2019 offers new opportunities to talk about clean energy in the context of infrastructure legislation, energy and tax policy. Meanwhile, regulatory changes at EPA and the Department of the Interior will affect electricity generation and usage nationwide. Attendees will learn about both short- and long-term opportunities with potentially massive implications for the industry and hear what SEIA is doing to protect your business in Washington, D.C. | The Austin Sustainable and Holistic Integration of Energy Storage and Solar Photovoltaics (SHINES) project is an exciting collaborative investigation into effective utilization of distributed energy resources in Texas, slated to conclude in April. The program, which consists of energy storage in utility and customer sited applications, smart inverters, and software solutions demonstrates how we can improve the way that we generate, deliver, and consume electricity. This session will identify and provide an initial outline of how this specific project was able to demonstrate methods to optimize the value stream for solar and storage with a business model developed for grid, commercial, and residential applications. | |
| 3:10 pm – 3:35pm | QuickTalk: Consumer Protection | JW Grand Ballroom 5 Speaker: Marc Burns, Deputy General Counsel, Regulatory Affairs, SunStreet Energy Group More Info |
QuickTalk: Non-Wires Solutions | JW Grand Salon 3&4 Speaker: Suzanne Bertin, Managing Director, Texas Advanced Energy Business Alliance More Info |
| As the solar energy industry continues to mature in Texas, consumer perceptions of the industry are influenced by a number of factors, many of which are beyond the control of solar providers and others in the solar industry. Managing how we communicate with consumers and interact with consumers is the primary lever at our disposal, and meeting and exceeding legal requirements and customer expectations is essential. This session will explore ways in which to engage with customers effectively and ethically to grow business opportunities for solar. | Non-Wires Solutions (NWS) can defer or replace the need for traditional distribution infrastructure and deliver cost savings while supporting integration of advanced energy technologies to make the grid more secure, clean and reliable – but how does this play in Texas? This session will investigate the unique opportunities and challenges to deploying NWS in the Lone Star State. | |
| 3:35 pm – 4:00 pm | Networking Coffee Break | JW Grand Ballroom 6 | |
| 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm | Texas Legislative Wrap-Up | JW Grand Ballroom 5 Moderator: McCall Johnson, Senior Manager, Government Affairs, Recurrent Energy Speakers: Michael Jewell, Principal Attorney, Jewell & Associates, PLLC John Pitts, Principal, Texas Star Alliance More Info |
EV Market Development | JW Grand Salon 3&4 Moderator: Cameron Freberg, Utility Strategist, Electric Vehicles and Emerging Technologies, Austin Energy Speakers: Sara Rafalson, Director, Market Development, EVgo David Tuttle, Research Fellow, Energy Institute, University of Texas at Austin Joe Walton, Manager, Implementation Grants Section, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality More Info |
| The 2019 Texas Legislature has just wrapped up. Hear from insiders about the fate of the Chapter 312 and 313 tax abatement programs and a summary of how solar and storage bills fared. Speakers will reflect on what these outcomes mean for renewable energy in in the Lone Star State and what we can expect in the interim session. | EVs are a key technology for facilitating the switch from fossil fuels to renewable resources, growing electricity demand in the process. This new demand could challenge grid distribution capacity, but the smart deployment of EVs and complementary technologies bring solar resource integration benefits as well. This session will explore the capabilities of managed electric vehicle charging to address system peaks and resource adequacy by bringing new flexibility in support of a cleaner power system and more solar energy resources. | |
| 5:10 pm – 6:10 pm | Networking Happy Hour & Exhibits | JW Grand Ballroom 6 | |
| 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm | Networking Reception | Stubb’s Bar-B-Q 801 Red River St. Austin, TX 78701 |
Sponsored by:  |
TUESDAY, June 25, 2019
| Time | Event |
|---|---|
| 8:00 am – 12:00 pm | Registration & Exhibits Open | JW Grand Salon Foyer & Grand Ballroom 6 |
| 8:00 am – 9:00 am | Networking Breakfast & Exhibits | JW Grand Ballroom 6 |
| 9:00 am – 10:30 am | General Session | JW Grand Ballroom 5 9:00 am – 9:30 am | New Developments in Solar Trade, Your Business Questions Answered Speakers: Mark Walter, Director, Legislative and Regulatory Affairs, Savion Energy John Smirnow, General Counsel & Vice President, Market Strategy, Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) |
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9:30 am – 10:30 am | The Future of Energy Storage in Texas |
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| They say everything is bigger in Texas, and some of the world’s biggest solar+storage projects are being planned in the Lone Star State. This session will evaluate how Texas is opening revenue streams for energy storage and what more needs to be done to shift a booming renewables industry in Texas into one with greater storage deployment. Panelists will discuss why the Texas market is tough for energy storage, who can own battery storage, the role of third-party services and reliability contracts, and customer-sited resilience for small-scale storage. | |
| 10:30 am – 10:45 am | Quick Coffee Break | JW Grand Ballroom 6 |
| 10:45 am – 11:35 am | Opportunities and Challenges for Distributed Energy Resources in the Lone Star State | JW Grand Ballroom 5 Moderator: Charlie Hemmeline, Executive Director, Texas Solar Power Association Speakers: Robert Bridges, Manager, Distribution Generation, CenterPoint Energy Amy Heart, Director, Public Policy, Sunrun Danielle Murray, Manager, Customer Renewable Solutions, Austin Energy Andrew Owens, Director, Regulatory Research, Entergy Services, LLC More Info |
| As solar and distributed energy resources become more accessible and affordable for consumers, rate design components such as net metering and demand charges are increasingly integral in how solar is generated, owned and valued in Texas. DERs present huge opportunities for risk and resilience measures, creating interest in how we can incorporate more solar onto the grid. Hear from industry and utilities on the opportunities and challenges for supporting more distributed energy resources, and what it could mean for the future of Texas energy. | |
| 11:45 am – 12:30 pm | ERCOT In Transition: Emergency Conditions, Renewables, and Demand Response | JW Grand Ballroom 5 Moderator: Colin Meehan, Director, Regulatory & Public Affairs, First Solar Speakers: Helen Brauner, Senior Director, Origination, 7x Energy Kevin Gresham, Vice President, Government Relations & External Affairs, E.ON North America Bob Helton, Director, Government & Regulatory Affairs, Engie North America Cheryl Mele, Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, ERCOT More Info |
| Last summer ERCOT customers experienced the lowest reserve levels in 10 years while also surpassing peak hourly load and could head into this year’s summer with the slimmest reserve margins ever. This session will dive into the unique challenges ERCOT faces, the role that renewables and demand response can play in keeping the grid running smoothly, and explore whether market reforms are needed at ERCOT. |
TUESDAY, June 25, 2019
| Time | Event |
|---|---|
| 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm | Post-Conference Workshop: Installer Training JW Grand Ballroom 3&4 |
About Solar Power Texas
Since it’s debut in San Antonio, Texas in 2016, Solar Power Texas has garnered the attention of industry leaders and professionals from all cross-sections of the solar industry. Each year, more than 400 attendees and 40 exhibitors venture to the region’s premier event to expand their business, connect with industry leaders, and gain the latest trends and policies impacting the Texas market.