OAKLAND — Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) announced keynote speakers for its Innovation Summit 2023 on July 25, featuring a one-on-one conversation and Q&A between Patti Poppe, Chief Executive Officer of PG&E Corporation, and Elon Musk, Chief Executive Officer of Tesla and owner of Twitter.
The first-of-its-kind summit for PG&E brings together entrepreneurs, start-ups, thought leaders, utility peers, private industry, national research labs, agency leaders and policymakers to collaborate in swiftly deploying novel solutions—at scale—that bridge the gap between today’s energy system and California’s electrified and decarbonized future.
The event will be held at the Roundhouse Conference Center in San Ramon.
The high-powered speaker lineup also features:
- Rob Chapman, Senior Vice President, Energy Delivery and Customer Solutions; Chief Sustainability Officer, Electric Power Research Institute
- Annette Clayton, Chief Executive Officer Schneider Electric North America
- Leslie Rich, Senior Consultant, Loans Program Office, U.S. Department of Energy
- Ron Snedic, President, Gas Technology Institute
- Darryl Willis, Corporate Vice President, Energy & Resources Industry, Microsoft
For the full agenda or to register for in-person or virtual attendance, visit PG&E Innovation Summit 2023.
The event is a part of PG&E’s new Research & Development strategy initiative—a richer, more efficient and more effective cross-sector approach to addressing the most challenging issues across the electric and natural gas systems today. These include supply and load management, integrated grid planning, electric vehicles (EVs) and vehicle-to-grid applications, wildfire mitigation, undergrounding, and gas system decarbonization.
Through its new R&D Strategy Report, PG&E is sharing key insights on the highest priority challenges the company is committed to solving, including:
- Addressing the rapid pace of electrification, particularly the growing adoption of EVs, which is expected to result in an unprecedented 70% growth in load over the next 20 years.
- Expanding load management capabilities across all levels of the system and deploying new, clean supply and energy storage technologies.
- Reducing the need for conventional capacity upgrades, while optimizing prioritization and reducing costs of unavoidable capacity upgrades.
- Ensuring affordable and timely connection of EV charging stations for every customer and unlocking the potential of EVs as grid assets through vehicle-to-grid (V2G) capabilities.
- Improving the efficiency of underground civil construction from survey to installation and identifying scalable solutions for electric system components that are difficult to underground.
- Maintaining and continually improving gas system safety and reliability, while reducing operations and maintenance costs.
- Reducing methane emissions, further studying the impacts of hydrogen blending, and identifying an optimal decarbonization pathway for the gas system.
Innovation Pitch Fest in September
Following a technology and solution application process that opens on July 25, select applicants will be invited to pitch their technologies or solutions at the Innovation Pitch Fest in September to PG&E key decision makers and subject-matter experts.
Successful pitches have the potential to lead to a range of follow-on engagements with PG&E, including partnership, pilot, and grant opportunities, and influence over the scoping of upcoming Electric Program Investment Charge (EPIC) 4 projects with a total budget of $83 million.
