Can buildings play a significant role in solving the crisis brewing in our power grids?

 Join Building Energy Exchange and the US Green Building Council (USGBC) for a moderated discussion with regulatory and industry experts exploring how building decarbonization can help address, rather than exacerbate, the current and future challenges facing our grid.  

Our power grids face an array of converging and mounting challenges. After more than two decades of relatively flat consumption, the electrical grid is experiencing significant increases in demand driven by building and vehicle electrification, extreme weather events, and the rapid growth of data centers. At the same time, the transition to clean, renewable energy is creating new challenges in balancing supply and demand.  

The costs to provide enough power for these increases are astronomical, and the lead-time to bring new generation online is a significant challenge. However, buildings can play a critical role in reducing the loads. By reducing overall energy use and managing peak demand, buildings can become active partners in supporting a more reliable, resilient, and decarbonized grid. 

This session will explore the emerging grid issues and the various strategies—such as load shifting, peak load reduction, improved building envelopes, and geothermal—that buildings can deploy to reduce grid demand.  Coffee and pastries will be served!  

Opening Remarks
Richard Yancey, CEO, Building Energy Exchange
Laurie Kerr, Principal Climate Advisor, USGBC 

Presentations
Zack Semke, Co-Founder and Director, Passive House Accelerator 

Panelists
Laurie Kerr, Principal Climate Advisor, USGBC – Moderator
John Rhodes, Chief Program Officer, NYS Department of Public Service
Zack Semke, Co-Founder and Director, Passive House Accelerator 

Schedule

• 9:00 am – Doors open  
• 9:15 am – Welcome & Presentations  
• 10 am – Panel Discussion & Q+A  
• 10:55 am – Closing Remarks  
• 11:00 am – Networking