Reframing Climate Policy Approaches in the Electric Power Sector

Session 1: November 1  4:00- 5:30 Belfer 503 (M-RCBG conference room)

"Electric Sector Climate Policy Initiatives: The California Case Study."  This session will examine the track record of California electric climate policy since 2002 when the state established its first renewable power mandate and discuss the available lessons from the past dozen years.

Session 2:  November 22  4:00- 5:30 Belfer 503 (M-RCBG conference room)

"Mapping the Least Cost Pathway to Reducing Electricity Carbon Footprints: The Texas Case Study." This session will discuss analysis of the combination of demand and supply side initiatives that can reduce the electricity carbon footprint within the available window of opportunity at the least cost. The workshop will also examine sensitivities of the results to several technology and policy factors.

Lawrence Makovich, IHS CERA Vice President and Senior Advisor for Global Power, is a highly respected expert on the electric power industry. He directs IHS CERA research efforts in the power sector as part of IHS CERA’s Office of the Chairman. He is an authority on electricity markets, regulation, economics, and strategy. His current research focuses on electric power market structures, demand and supply fundamentals, wholesale and retail power markets, emerging technologies, and asset valuations and strategies. Makovich is currently advising or has recently advised several large utilities in major strategic engagements. He has testified numerous times before the US Congress on electric power policy. He has advised the government of China on electric power deregulation and transmission in competitive markets, and the Brazilian Congress invited him to testify on power liberalization. He examined the impact of deregulation on residential power prices and the development of resource adequacy mechanisms in the IHS CERA Multiclient Study Beyond the Crossroads: The Future Direction of Power Industry Restructuring. He was also a project director for the IHS CERA Multiclient Study Crossing the Divide: The Future of Clean Energy, the author of the IHS CERA Multiclient Study Fueling North America’s Energy Future: The Unconventional Natural Gas Revolution and the Carbon Agenda, and the study director of the IHS CERA Multiclient Study Smart Grid: Closing the Gap Between Perception and Reality. Among Makovich's other significant IHS CERA studies are examinations of the California power crisis in Crisis by Design: California's Electric Power Crunch and Beyond California's Power Crisis: Impact, Solutions, and Lessons. Makovich has been a lecturer on managerial economics at Northeastern University's Graduate School of Business. He holds a BA from Boston College, an MA from the University of Chicago, and a PhD from the University of Massachusetts.  As a senior fellow, he will explore strategies to reframe power sector climate initiatives.  His faculty sponsor is William Hogan, Raymond Plank Professor of Global Energy Policy and Research Director of the Harvard Electricity Policy Group (HEPG).  Email: lawrence_makovich@hks.harvard.edu

Larry Makovich headshot

M-RCBG Senior Fellow Larry Makovich.