Infra Dig – PEI on US energy security and resilience

The thorny topic of energy security and resilience – especially at a time when there have been so many winter storms – is the focus for this latest episode of Infra Dig. 

Adil Sener, partner at the New York-based, energy-focused investment bank PEI Global Partners, talks to IJGlobal editorial director Angus Leslie Melville about a challenging sector going through challenging times. 

This latest episode runs for almost 29 minutes and sees Adil focus on how the industry is coping with changing weather patterns from a regulatory perspective, through to financing risks, how the data centre revolution will be powered, transmission issues, right through to the role of private credit. 

This latest episode can be accessed on Spotify (embedded above) as well as through the Amazon service. It is also hosted across a slew of other platforms, open access on all of them.

Adil (pictured right) has been working at the boutique investment bank since its launch in October 2021 and has more than 2 decades of experience in the energy sector.

On weather patterns and impact on the energy sector, Adil says: “It's such an interesting intersection of different dynamics and sectors. When you think about extreme weather, especially winter storms, a few things happen.

“First as energy demand surges – both on the natural gas side and on the electricity side – both heating and associated energy demand across the energy infrastructure surges.

“As a result, prices surge. So, what does that mean really in the context of resilience?

“Going back in time in early 2010s or even 2000s, this was a bigger issue. And since the polar vortex days of 2014, RTOs, FERC, NERC have taken significant steps to really investigate and improve the integration of natural gas and power systems, and also winterisation.

“What became very evident is that extreme events are increasing in frequency.

“And with the larger use of natural gas in power generation, what became evident in early 2010s is that there was a lack of coordination between natural gas system and the power system.

“Since then, especially the East Coast RTOs, ISO New England, New York ISO, PGM have taken substantial steps to improve the reliability of the wholesale system.

“And as a result, most of the deficiencies in the integration has been addressed. Now, there are performance measures in the capacity markets and in the energy market that actually force generators to be available.”

To hear this – and an awful lot more – tune into this latest episode.