Prof. Baltaduonis took his classes, Energy Economics and Industrial Organization & Public Policy, to Washington, D.C. recently. They visited the Department of Energy and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
At the Department of Energy, the students met with a Gettysburg College alum Edward Myers '73 (Attorney-Adviser in the Office of General Counsel) who explained the role and functions of the DOE. Ed also helped to arrange the lively discussions with his colleagues Peter Cappers (Program Coordinator in the Electricity Markets and Policy Group at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory) and Edward Rios (Senior Investment Analyst in the Loan Programs Office). Peter Cappers gave a presentation about consumer behavior studies of dynamic pricing in the electricity markets. Edward Rios introduced the students to the DOE Loan Guarantee Program designed to support innovative clean technologies not likely to obtain conventional private financing due to high technology risks.
At the Federal Energy and Regulatory Commission, Andrea Hilliard (Senior Attorney at the Office of the General Counsel) and Sarah McKinley (State Relations, Office of External Affairs) gave FERC 101 presentation about what and how FERC regulates as well as what the current issues are in the energy markets. Elizabeth Arnold (Attorney-Adviser in the Office of the General Counsel) explained FERC's role in smart grid development. Steve Reich (Deputy Director of the Division of Energy Market Oversight in the Office of Enforcement) discussed FERC'S role in market oversight. At the end, the group toured the Market Monitoring Center.
