• CERAWeek
  • March 18 - 22, 2024

Travis Kavulla

NRG Energy

Vice President, Regulatory Affairs

Travis works to ensure that energy markets continue to deliver value for electricity consumers. Travis Kavulla joined NRG after a decade of work as a government regulator and energy policy expert, including as president of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners. During his work in public life, Travis has written dozens of articles and speeches on energy and telecommunications policy and regulation. Travis earned his bachelor’s degree, in history, from Harvard University and has a graduate degree, also in history, from the University of Cambridge, where he was a Gates Scholar.

Sessions With Travis Kavulla

Thursday, 9 March

  • 07:15am - 08:20am (CST) / 09/mar/2023 01:15 pm - 09/mar/2023 02:20 pm

    Permitting & Transmission: The big challenge of connecting renewables

    Power & Renewables
    The U.S. Inflation Reduction Act solidifies both wind and solar as least-cost sources of new generating supply in the United States. At the same time, these resources tend to be in different locations than existing legacy infrastructure, making transmission increasingly important to integrate renewables onto the grid and ensure a reliable, affordable electricity system. New transmission development is often slowed down by complex planning and permitting processes, cost allocation issues and legal challenges—with long interconnection queues and network upgrade costs delaying many new wind and solar resources from coming online. What opportunities and barriers are there to increasing transmission capacity in existing rights of way? What solutions are available to facilitate new transmission development? What are the roles of policymakers versus the private sector?