S. Cat Wong, Wade P. Malcolm | May 24, 2019

Today, approximately 120 megawatts of customer-owned distributed energy resources, almost all rooftop photovoltaic systems, are spread out over 20,000 connections at various customer locations throughout Entergy Corp.’s system. Approximately 83.5 MW of utility-scale solar generation is currently in operation, and additional solar generation is under development. The company’s distributed energy resources exist in variations, including utility-scale, utility-owned, behind-the-meter and customer-owned solutions. The incorporation and improved visibility into and management of DERs is key to the utility’s approach to providing increased resiliency to customers in higher-risk weather-prone areas, such as New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.

Change & Growth
As DERs and new technology appear in increasing numbers on the grid, they are changing customer expectations for reliability and service. They are also challenging grid operations as the company juggles the impacts of new assets, particularly those that are customer-owned or third-party-owned at the grid’s edge. Fortunately, these assets often are intelligent and can be remotely controlled assuming that communications can be addressed as well as access rights. This distributed intelligence capability creates opportunities to co-optimize and integrate the operation of both utility- and customer-owned assets. Co-optimization requires enhanced telecommunications, cybersecurity and distributed analytics to manage rapidly changing bidirectional power flows.
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HOUSTON CHRONICLE | Erin Douglas , May 17, 2019

At a recent Houston conference for women in the oil and gas industry, a keynote speaker, Pamela Beall, the chief financial officer for MPLX, a pipeline company, gave a presentation on how to “communicate powerfully,” in the business world.

One of the most important ways, Beall said, is with your appearance. She summarized the attitudes she has heard from male colleagues this way: “For women in business, the more flesh you show in a meeting, the less credibility you have.”

She said she was disappointed when she saw young women held back from key opportunities because they did not dress “appropriately.” This is something she wanted to be sure her audience got right, because otherwise, she warned, no one will listen to them.“What are the men focused on?” she asked, implying it would be something other than the content of the business presentation.

Beall isn’t giving bad advice. On the contrary, it is well-informed and well-intentioned, based on decades of working her way to the top of huge energy companies.

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