• CERAWEEK 2025 | March 10-14, 2025
  • CERAWEEK
  • March 10 - 14, 2025

Lawrence Makovich

Electric Power Industry

Senior Expert

Lawrence Makovich is an electricity industry expert and an authority on electricity markets, regulation, economics, and strategy. Dr. Makovich has testified numerous times before the US Congress on electric power policy and has advised the governments of China and Brazil on power issues. Dr. Makovich has contributed to, written, or directed several IHS Markit Multiclient Studies, including Beyond the Crossroads: The Future Direction of Power Industry Restructuring (2005); Power Supply Cost Recovery: Bridging the Missing Money Gap (2013); Missing money in Competitive Power Generator Cash Flows: Causes, consequences, and solutions (2014); Ensuring Resilient and Efficient Electricity Generation: The value of the current diverse US power supply portfolio (2017), Dr. Makovich was a Senior Fellow at the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University and has been a lecturer on managerial economics at Northeastern University’s Graduate School of Business. He holds a BA from Boston College, an MA from the University of Chicago, and a PhD from the University of Massachusetts.

Sessions With Lawrence Makovich

Thursday, 12 March

  • 09:40am - 10:30am (CST) / -

    Plenary - The Shifting Narrative for the Power Business: Deregulation to decarbonization

    Power & Renewables

    Simple and appealing stories periodically gain traction and create narratives of industry transformation that influence public policy and corporate strategy development. However, narratives do not always provide insights into the future. Looking back, the deregulation narrative did not provide insights into the transition from traditional regulation to the current complex mix of market forces and regulatory processes. Looking ahead, a strategic challenge exists to evaluate the feasibility and internal consistency of the decarbonization narrative that is gaining traction and driving climate policy initiatives and a vision of the electric utility of the future. What ideas about the electricity future are going viral and shaping the decarbonization narrative? Did the gap between the expectations and the realities of deregulation provide lessons for managing the expectations associated with the decarbonization narrative?

  • 10:30am - 11:20am (CST) / -

    Plenary - Designing for Success: Power markets, prices and technology
    Upstream Oil & Gas Power & Renewables

    Market designs influence wholesale electricity market price formation. Getting price signals right is key to successful electricity system operations in the short run, and timely, adequate investments over the long run. Are market rules and institutions changing to harmonize climate initiatives with effective market competition? Can retail and wholesale market designs evolve to effectively integrate new technology deployment on both the demand and supply sides of the electricity business? 

  • 05:00pm - 05:45pm (CST) / -

    Plenary - Reliability, Affordability and Environment: Managing the trade-offs
    Power & Renewables Climate & Sustainability

    Consumers prefer reliable grid-based electricity supply capable of responding and adapting to deviations from expected operating conditions while also providing environmentally responsible electricity services at an affordable price. Electricity utilities face a strategic challenge to balance the costs and benefits of these multiple objectives. Are electrification trends driving consumer demands for greater reliability as the generation fuel and technology mix shifts toward lower levels of inherent power supply resilience? What is the appetite of consumers and governments for price increases to achieve a reliable, resilient, and environmentally responsible electric grid?

Friday, 13 March