Energy Regions in Transition: European energy leaders to the US

Since 2013 the Renewables Grid Initiative (RGI) has been in very regular dialogue and knowledge exchange with energy experts from the United States. This dialogue was triggered by Dave Olsen, member of the Board of Governors of the California ISO (CAISO), visiting Brussels and Berlin in December 2013 upon RGI’s invitation and presented the Californian integrated grid and renewables generation planning at different events, including RGI’s 3rd European Grid Conference.

Subsequently, a delegation of California energy experts and regulatory leaders came to Germany in March 2014 to meet with many of their European counterparts. This led to RGI creating its work stream ‘Energy Regions in Transition’, which aims to bring together energy experts from countries that are currently going through or preparing for an energy transition. Under this banner, RGI first journeyed to California in October 2015 with a high-level European delegation and an agenda that was built around the California Independent System Operator’s (CAISO) Annual Stakeholder Symposium.

In 2016, we again organised an ‘Energy Regions in Transition’ tour to America, this time with an agenda spanning both New York and California, the leading states of the American energy transition. At the same time, their energy sectors need to provide power for the country’s biggest cities. Still, they have set ambitious targets for the expansion of renewables, reduction of CO2 emissions and energy efficiency by 2030.

This report is meant to give an overview of the discussions we had with different stakeholders.