Date/Time
Date(s) - 03/31/2022
5:30 pm - 7:00 pm
Categories
14th Annual Schultz Lecture in Energy
Audrey Zibelman
Vice President
X’s Electric Grid Moonshot
Thursday, March 31, 2022
5:30 p.m. (Mountain Time)
Wolf Law Building, Wittemyer Courtroom
Livestream option available
Attendee Logistics: Parking, Remote Access, CLE
Tapestry, X’s Moonshot for the Electric Grid
Nations are finally committing to greenhouse gas emission reduction targets that could limit global warming. However, technical obstacles to the decarbonization of electric power could yet prevent those commitments from being realized.
The low carbon electrical grids of the future will need to be powered by millions of geographically decentralized, weather-dependent power generation assets. Today’s grids are virtually the opposite: hierarchical, centralized and concentrated. Anything less than a seamless transition from the former to the future state could significantly impact the reliability, affordability and safety of electric power that is already being challenged by climate change.
A modern data-driven grid can enable such a seamless transition. Harnessing the quadrillions of gigabytes of data generated by future connected power systems is key to real-time visibility into grid assets; to improving dispatch, reduced outages, and to our ability to simulate future scenarios optimized around the decentralized future grid.
Audrey Zibelman will discuss the opportunities and challenges for governments, utilities, system operators, developers and customers of harnessing data to accelerate decarbonization policy with reliable affordable power.
Audrey Zibelman
Audrey Zibelman leads X’s moonshot for the electric grid. Her team is developing new computational tools to enable the rapid and cost effective decarbonization of the electrical grid.
Audrey has spent over three decades leading organizations with the goal of making power cleaner, more affordable and more reliable. She is an international expert in power system transformation, regulation, markets and operations. She has also been a utility executive, regulator, system operator and entrepreneur.
Audrey joined X from the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) where she was the Managing Director and CEO. AEMO plans and operates the electricity and gas systems and markets for Australia. Prior to AEMO, Audrey was the Chair of the New York Public Service Commission where she was a member of the Governor’s cabinet and oversaw the electric, gas, water, steam and communication utilities in New York. While in New York, Audrey oversaw massive regulatory reform of the electric industry to support a decarbonized grid, known as Reforming the Energy Vision, or REV. Audrey has also held executive roles at utilities companies PJM and Xcel Energy and was the founder and CEO of Viridity Energy.
When she’s not working to keep the lights on, she’s hiking the hills of San Francisco and playing tennis with her husband Bruce, or spending time with their children and grandchildren.
Thursday, March 31, 2022
5:30 p.m. (Mountain Time)
Wolf Law Building, Wittemyer Courtroom
Livestream option available
The Schultz Lecture is free and open to the public, but registration is required to attend and/or receive the livestream link.
During registration, please indicate your intent to join in person or remotely.
In consideration of continued Covid mitigation measures at Colorado Law, there will not be a reception following the lecture. We hope to resume these networking opportunities later in the year.
The Schultz Lectureship in Energy
In 2007, the Schultz Lecture in Energy was launched to support an annual lecture by renowned scholars in energy or natural resources law. This series was made possible by the generosity of John H. and Cynthia H. Schultz and allows the Getches-Wilkinson Center (GWC) to bring in thought leaders from across the country. Our speakers address emerging issues and challenges in the oil and gas, energy, and natural resources fields, providing valuable information to policymakers, practitioners, business executives, students, and the academic community.
John Schultz (CU Econ, Political. Science ‘51) (CU Law ‘53) was an oil and gas attorney whose impactful career in Colorado and the Western U.S. spanned the second half of the 20th century. John Schultz passed away on April 5, 2020, surrounded by family in the comfort of his own home in Lafayette, Colorado. Cynthia Schultz was a University of Colorado administrative staff member who served the University in many ways. She was a member of the Graduate School Advisory Council, the Graduate School Resource Committee, and on the Ad Hoc Task Force on Graduate Education. Cynthia passed away on December 20, 2011. Both John’s and Cynthia’s generosity of time with our students was exceptional.
Their legacies continue, in part, through their substantial gifts to the University of Colorado, Colorado Law, and to the GWC where we are so appreciative of the Schultz family’s generosity. The family’s continued commitment means that this lecture can be free and open to the public. The format (normally) includes a public reception following the talk, providing the opportunity to continue a lively discussion, as well as a dinner with the speaker, the extended Schultz family, the Dean, GWC faculty, and several law students.
The Schultz Lecture is free and open to the public, but registration is required to attend and/or receive the livestream link.