Episode 122 | Power Partnerships | PowerGen+ Series (Live)





For the August PowerGen Plus panel, my assignment was simply, “renewable energy.” Getting my three guests to all come from the utility space brought the conversation into focus.

I came into the panel hoping to explore three commonalities between these panelists. They are:

  1. Listening to public desires, particularly the need for more sustainable, or renewable, solutions
  2. Expanding into new renewable sectors, some for the first time
  3. Adding strategic partners

To explore these questions, my three panelists were:


Eversource, like Dominion (Episode 118), is developing offshore wind farms. In Eversource’s case, they are planning three separate farms, South Fork Wind (132 MW, eastern end of Long Island, 2023), Revolution Wind (704 MW, interconnect at Rhode Island, 2025), and Sunrise Wind (924 MW, western Long Island, 2025). Eversource is partnering with Danish offshore wind giant Ørsted on all three projects.

Dominion, with its partner Smithfield Foods, is developing several renewable natural gas facilities at farms around the country. RNG is produced by sending organic matter, like animal waste, to an anerobic digester. Impure gases are removed from the methane produced, and the gas is ready for pipelines. Dominion says they have made the largest RNG investment in the country, about $500M to date.

Duke Energy Sustainable Solutions, announced in April ’21, is the merger of three business divisions, including REC Solar. The group is focused on the company’s unregulated territories (i.e. outside North/South Carolina), and plans to work with companies to develop energy solutions both in front and behind the meter.

All three guests have projects outside their regulated territories. “If you think about customers like Home Depot that have national footprints, and have partners that can serve that, that’s one of the things that drove our brand creation and launch [of DESS],” says Sam.

I pointed out that each of these companies brought on strategic partners for their ventures. All three guests maintained that partnerships are nothing new. “Knowing what you don’t know is an important thing,” says Ryan. “And finding the right partner that has that expertise and finding the right working relationship is really important to executing good business.”

All of these projects are new in a way for each of these utilities. So, what does this say about the evolving model of the American utility?

“I think the utility industry’s always evolving,” says Mike. “Energy policy, what customers expect, is always evolving. Utilities are in a unique spot. We know the communities we serve.”

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