POWER 2024 – In Case You Missed It

April 1, 2024

Our recent 29th annual POWER conference in Berkeley covered a broad range of topics including retail electricity market competition, home electrification, factors driving generation efficiency, the impact of transmission lines, and investments to mitigate wildfire ignition risk in the power sector. Over two hundred researchers, policymakers, and business professionals attended.

Faculty Director Meredith Fowlie kicked off the first session with presentations from John Mayo (Georgetown University) and Jenya Kahn-Lang (Stanford University) analyzing dynamics in the competitive retail electricity market.

Judy Chang (Analysis Group) discussed the implications for the value of retail choice for residential electricity customers.

Jenya Kahn-Lang (Stanford University) engaging with the audience during a networking break.


Discussant Meghan Busse emphasized the likelihood that typical household behavior will be a challenge for utilities.

Electrician Nathanael Johnson (Cazden Electric; former Grist) described the incentives that can lead an electrician to oversize heating systems and walked through practical challenges electricians face.

Christopher Knittel (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) (center) assessed how contractors that install residential electric heat pumps are learning to lower costs by installing right-sized units. David Brown (University of Alberta) (right) then turned to home electric vehicle charging and presented the results of a randomized controlled trial that illustrated how time-of-use rates could lead to behavior that strains local distribution infrastructure.


Omer Karaduman (Stanford University) presented research that found power plant efficiency increased and outages declined following changes in direct ownership of fossil fueled power plants.

Sheldon Kimber (Intersect Power) added insights from his experience in the power industry, most recently as CEO of a large renewable energy company.

See the full agenda of POWER 2024. We hope you can join us for POWER 2025!