Welcome Your New Expert Interview Series: Patty Durand, New Expert in the Utility Management Group – [an Energy Central Power Perspectives™ Expert Interview]

Join us as we delve into Patty’s journey and expertise, offering a comprehensive look at the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead in the quest for a sustainable, consumer-centric energy future.

Matt Chester: Welcome to expert network, Patty. We like to use this interview to introduce you as an Expert to our community members who may not be familiar with you. So let’s start at the beginning: what is your role in the energy industry and how did you find yourself there?

Patty Durand: I was president and CEO of the Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative (SECC) for about 10 years, after working for two environmental nonprofits the previous six years. I decided to enter the energy space more fully after realizing how serious climate change was and thought businesses leading the clean energy transition would be a quicker path to decarbonization than environmental activism. We need both, but my hope was that the smart grid opportunities in the early aughts would lead to rapid change.

MC: What do you believe are the most pressing issues facing Georgia’s energy sector today, where you’ve done a lot of work and education?

PD: The most pressure issues facing the energy sector in Georgia are incumbent utilities who are pursuing profits over community goals like lowering costs, decarbonization, and consumer engagement. My work and education at SECC were focused on consumer engagement, especially in light of the opportunities available through distributed generation and smart meter data. Unfortunately, those opportunities haven’t panned out in Georgia.

The most pressing issue by far are the high costs being pushed on ratepayers from Georgia Power pursuing expensive legacy technologies like nuclear and gas, while blocking rooftop solar, demand response, energy efficiency, and similar far more affordable programs and investments.

MC: How do you see the role of consumer engagement and education evolving in the context of energy technology and climate change?

PD: Our research at SECC showed consumers were fully aware of and ready to engage with energy at all levels. They are interested in smart rate plans as long as they are structured to actually help them save money or meet decarbonization goals. They want to purchase EVs and rooftop or community solar if they can access the benefits of such investments. Most consumers – more than 50% in nearly every survey we conducted— want their utilities and governments to decarbonize rapidly and affordably, and they want to be active participants in that process.

MC: How do you envision the future of energy policy and technology in Georgia and the wider United States?

PD: Future energy policy must remove monopoly utilities as impediments and turn them into partners – or they should lose their monopoly franchise. The stakes are too high, the issues are too serious, and their behavior has been a problem for too long. These issues were well documented in the book Short Circuiting Policy: Interest Groups and the Battle Over Clean Energy and Climate Policy in the American States by Leah Cardamore Stokes. This book was published in 2020, and over four years later very little has changed. There needs to be far more clamor and awareness about what is happening.

My vision is that all states, perhaps through federal policy, would adopt Performance Based Ratemaking (PBR) where utilities are compensated to meet performance goals set by the community rather than a 100-year-old “build out the grid” business model and compensation structure. Utilities need to meet performance goals, such as incorporating distributed generation and demand response, by creating consumer engagement programs and choosing low cost solutions, removing barriers to smart meter data, and finally by rapidly decarbonizing their generation portfolio. The only way we’ll get there is by removing the for-profit monopoly utility’s focus on expanding shareholder wealth.

MC: What do you see as the key value in your time with Energy Central—what do you hope to learn from your peers and what values do you have to share with the community in these conversations?

PD: I would really like to know what my peers in energy think about these issues – is my vision shared by others? What do others think is the path forward? Is this an impossible dream? Are we really going to let shareholder wealth expansion be why our country fails to engage consumers in 2024 and beyond with a desperately needed energy transition?

I know this will not happen evenly. Some states are on the path to meeting decarbonization goals and are already focused on keeping bills low and consumer engagement. I’d like to know if there is a central place that’s being reported on, and what those states did that enabled them to achieve those successes.

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Thanks to Patty for joining me for this interview and for providing a wealth of insights and expertise to the Energy Central Community. You can trust that Patty will be available for you to reach out and connect, ask questions, and more as an Energy Central member, so be sure to make her feel welcome when you see her across the platform.

The other expert interviews that we’ve completed in this series can be read here, and if you are interested in becoming an expert, you can reach out to me or you can apply here.