About the Workshop
The ARI Workshop, which will be co-hosted by the Virginia State Corporation Commission, is designed to both identify the implications of distributed resources for the various major stakeholders and suggest a role for the Commonwealth in developing policies to promote, control or otherwise affect their development. The basic focus, and the primary question that the workshop will highlight from the legislative side, is "Why should Virginia legislators care about distributed resources?"
Distributed power generation is poised to become an important energy option
in our national electrical energy future, with equally significant implications
for Virginia's power and telecommunications infrastructure. For example,
from an overall power reliability standpoint, incorporation of individual
distributed generation systems could lessen the load on the transmission
system, and thus increase system reliability. However, although distributed
generation may offer long-term strategic benefits in Virginia, it still
faces a variety of technical, business practice, and regulatory barriers
before those benefits can be realized.
The invited audience includes Virginia legislators from the Senate and House
Committees on Commerce and Labor, the Legislative Transition Task Force
and the Virginia Coal and Energy Commission, along with representatives
from electric utilities and gas distribution companies.
Presentations will be made by the US Department of Energy, the State Corporation
Commission, and the Virginia DEQ during the morning session. Individuals
from selected investor-owned utilities, electrical cooperatives and distributed
resource equipment suppliers also will make presentations. The afternoon
session will be devoted primarily to plenary discussion, but also will provide
opportunities for other interested parties to make brief presentations.
Conference Location
General Information
Workshop on Distributed Energy Resources: Policy Options for Virginia May 17th, 2K2 @ Richmond, VA
