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Webinar: Interregional Transmission and Resilience
August 8 @ 4:00 pm - 5:15 pm EDT
Featured Speakers: Derek Stenclik, Founding Partner, Telos Energy; Chair Andrew French, Commissioner at Kansas Corporation Commission; Laura Rauch, Executive Director of Transmission Planning, MISO; Vandan Divatia, Vice President Transmission Policy, Interconnections & Compliance, Eversource Energy
Moderator: Matt Schuerger, Senior Fellow, ESIG
Webinar Abstract: There is a growing need to ensure that electricity systems remain robust and adaptable in the face of future load growth, a changing resource mix, and a changing climate. Interregional transmission improves grid resilience by allowing regions to access diverse resources in neighboring regions unaffected by the same weather and load conditions. However, despite the potential benefits, current planning processes often overlook the resilience value of interregional transmission, focusing on local reliability solutions within only a small geographical region.
This webinar will share the findings of a new ESIG report that assesses interregional transmission capability nationwide and gives planners a framework for (1) assessing transmission’s adequacy and resilience benefits at a national scale and (2) prioritizing transmission investments that offer the greatest benefits for system resilience. We will hear from experts and leaders from different sectors of the electricity industry on the benefits and challenges of interregional transmission for grid resilience.
About the Speakers:
Derek Stenclik is a co-founding partner of Telos Energy and is an industry leader in power grid planning, operations, and reliability. He has nearly a decade of experience helping clients across the electric power industry navigate evolving markets and accelerate clean energy integration.
Andrew French was appointed to the Kansas Corporation Commission by Kansas Governor Laura Kelly in 2020. In 2024, he was reappointed to a second four-year term. French is Kansas’s representative to the Southwest Power Pool and regularly participates in SPP stakeholder groups, including the Regional State Committee. He served as President of SPP’s RSC in 2023. French also served as a member of FERC’s Joint Federal-State Task Force on Electric Transmission for its full duration from 2021 to 2024. Before his appointment to the KCC, French practiced law with a focus on energy policy and the regulation of utility rates and services. He represented a broad spectrum of energy stakeholders, including large industrial energy customers, school districts, and a natural gas utility company. Prior to his work in private practice, French was a staff litigation attorney with the KCC. Commissioner French has a degree in Environmental Studies from the University of Kansas and a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Kansas School of Law.
Laura Rauch is the executive director of transmission planning at MISO. In this role, she leads all aspects of transmission planning, including regional and interregional reliability and economic planning, cost allocation, and competitive transmission assessment. Laura has more than 19 years in the energy industry, with experience spanning planning and market functions. This included leadership roles in market and transmission settlements, resource adequacy, and reliability planning. Laura has helped shape MISO’s response to multiple technical and policy initiatives, including leading the market workstream for MISO’s response to FERC Order 2222 on Distributed Energy Resources, developing market and operational solutions for resource adequacy, defining MISO’s developer selection process in response to FERC Order 1000, and leading the business case for MISO’s initial Multi-Value Project portfolio to demonstrate the economic, reliability, and other benefits of transmission in supporting state policy mandates. Laura holds a Master of Business Administration from Indiana University and a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from Michigan Technological University. She is a registered engineer in the state of Indiana.
Matt Schuerger is ESIG’s Senior Fellow, providing leadership and support to several ESIG working groups and task forces, including the Distributed Energy Resources Working Group, the System Operation and Market Design Working Group, and the System Planning Working Group. For the eight years prior to joining ESIG, Schuerger was a Commissioner of the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission. In this role, he provided key state, regional, and national leadership on reliability and integrated planning. Schuerger holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University; a MBA from the University of St. Thomas; and a MSc in Electrical Engineering from the University of Minnesota.
Registration Cost: FREE
Q&A Session: We will be using the Slido platform for Q&A. Please submit your questions and follow-along during the event at this link.
