Preti Flaherty Attorneys Don Sipe and Todd Griset to Speak at Jan. 28 Energy Summit on Demand Response Programs

Consumer Demand Response Initiative (CDRI) hosting Jan. 28 free conference in Boston aimed at lowering energy costs for consumers

BOSTON – Preti Flaherty energy attorneys Don Sipe and Todd Griset will speak at The Consumer Demand Response Initiative (CDRI) summit in Boston on Jan. 28. The event is aimed at informing energy consumers at businesses and organizations about how to work together to develop Demand Response programs to lower energy costs.

The full-day conference – free and open to the public – will feature energy experts to explain how Demand Response (DR) can be the quickest, cheapest and most environmentally friendly way businesses and organizations to address high energy costs. Don Sipe, an energy attorney at Preti Flaherty, which has offices in Boston, New Hampshire and Maine, will speak on “Demand Response and the Battle Over the Purpose of Markets” and will address how a shift in the economic theories surrounding the regulation of electricity has led to a deterioration in the basic consumer protections once afforded by the "just and reasonable" rate standard, and the policies needed to reverse that trend.

Todd Griset, also an energy attorney with Preti Flaherty, will speak on the interplay between DR and environmental initiatives, including how DR can be used to satisfy renewable portfolio standards as well as carbon emissions caps such as the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.

The event will take place on Wednesday, Jan. 28, from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Boston Downtown Marriott Courtyard, 275 Tremont St. To register for the conference, call (207) 791-3224 or email rsvp@preti.com. The summit is aimed at organization executives, facility managers, CFOs, energy managers, consumer advocates or anyone interested in learning how to save their organization money by reducing energy costs.

Demand Response is defined as an alternative to paying generators for new power generation or transmission line owners for new transmission lines. Instead, the regional system operator creates a program to pay electric consumers to interrupt load or use power more efficiently in response to market needs. This reduces costs for both the consumers being paid to interrupt and all consumers who see a lowering of the market clearing price during that period.

All consumers of all sizes benefit from DR, whether or not they participate in a DR Program themselves. Regions or states can meet up to 20 percent of their total capacity requirements with DR, especially in conjunction with strong energy efficiency programs.

“This is a critical time for Demand Response in New England and across the nation,” Sipe said. “DR programs are either under attack or are being prevented from coming into being to help consumers lower their costs without having to rely on uncertain new generation or costly new transmission lines. Consumers need to know how these programs can benefit them, and how they need to speak up and reassert their rights to just and reasonable rates.”

In New England, demand response programs are implemented by regional transmission organization ISO New England, Inc. ISO New England has suggested that, despite the programs’ success and favor with consumers, ISO New England will ask the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to approve changes to its demand response programs in February 2009.

According to Griset, “consumers are asking for safe and reliable service at just and reasonable rates, which means electricity that works for a price that is based on the cost of producing it. Engineers and economists instead delivered electricity that is not always reasonably reliable, and is often priced without regard to the cost of production. Not only are consumers not getting what they want, but consumers are forced to pay rates that may not be just and reasonable. Developing sensible demand response programs can cure both of these problems.”

The conference will bring together experts in developing state or regional DR programs, consultants who have assisted electricity consumers with determining how they can participate in such programs, and leading consumers who have successfully addressed high energy costs by having their organizations participate in DR.

Featured speakers will include: Kevin Conroy, Office of the Massachusetts Attorney General; Herb Healy, ENERNOC; Donald J. Sipe, Preti Flaherty; Paul Peterson, Synapse Economics; John Perry, Verson Paper; Betsy Isenstein, Tufts University; Richard Steeves, Conn. Office of Consumer Counsel; Ed Evans, SAPPI Final Paper North America; Hardy Merrill, Sugarbush-Summit Ventures; and Allen Taubert, South Essex Sewerage District. The Honorable Tim Woolf of the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities has also been invited to speak.

The CDRI is an informal coalition of businesses, trade associations, non-profit organizations, and educational and health care institutions that seeks to provide a voice for electricity consumers of all sizes in regional and national policy discussions on the future of Demand Response and electricity markets. CDRI supporters recognize that demand response benefits all consumers, avoiding costs for some and lowering costs for all others. Affiliated organizations include Power Options, the Industrial Energy Consumer Group, and the American Forest & Paper Association. CDRI is working together to advocate for better, more effective, and consumer-oriented approaches to Demand Response in order to secure just and reasonable rates for all consumers, and promote the economic and environmentally responsible growth and expansion of business and industry.

Preti Flaherty has offices in Portland and Augusta, Maine, Concord, N.H. and Boston. With more than 85 attorneys, the firm counsels clients in the areas of business law, energy, environmental, estate planning, health care, intellectual property, labor and employment, legislative and regulatory, litigation, technology and telecommunications. For more information, visit www.preti.com.

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