Eric Martinot Biography Details 2014-2020
For biography prior to 2014 and full career story, please see this page.
From 2014-2020, Eric had five primary roles that allowed him to focus on the topics of distributed generation, grid integration of renewable energy, and grid integration of electric vehicles. Early in 2014 he resided in Berlin, Germany and was a visiting fellow with the Institute for Advanced Sustainabiilty Studies (IASS), where he learned much about how Germany was integrating renewable energy into their power grids and shared his perspectives widely with others around the world. Starting later in 2014 he became Professor of Management and Economics at the Beijing Institute of Technology (BIT). At BIT he taught classes on clean energy economics, policy and business to undergraduate, MBA, and PhD students. At BIT he also did extensive research on grid integration of renewable energy and distibuted generation in China. That research work was also supported and extended by three other concurrent positions during 2014-2018, as senior fellow with the World Resources Institute (WRI) in China, as visiting fellow with the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) in San Francisco, and continuing as senior fellow with the Insitute for Sustainable Energy Policies (ISEP) in Tokyo.
The synthesis and combination of this multi-institute support, multi-country perspectives, focus on leading examples from around the world, and consistent focus over four years produced a world-class perspective on the topics of distributed generation and grid integration, and resulted in a number of innovative and comprehensive publications, including:
Grid integration of renewable energy: flexibility, innovation, and experience, Annual Review of Environment and Resources 2016. This was an important and comprehensive synthesis of options and leading experience to show that high shares of renewable energy can indeed be integrated into power grids. It still remains highly relevant and accurate in the 2020s.
Beyond 33% Renewables: Grid Integration Policy for a Low-Carbon Future, White Paper by the California Public Utilities Commission, 2015. (Co-authors Meredith Younghein and Eric Martinot)
Status Report on Power System Transformation, NREL Report 63366, A 21st Century Power Partnership Report, 2015.
Grid Integration of Renewables in China: Learning from the Cases of California, Germany, and Denmark, A White Paper for the China Variable-Generation Integration Group (CVIG), 2015.
Distribution system planning and innovation for distributed energy futures, Current Sustainable and Renewable Energy Reports (2015). (Co-authors Eric Martinot, Lorenzo Kristov, J. David Erickson)
Distributed Energy in China: Review and Perspective 2020-2025, World Resources Institute Working Paper, 2020.
Following this body of work, from 2018-2021, Eric became senior fellow with the non-profit organization Gridworks in California, where he facilitated three important working groups on behalf of the California Public Utilities Commission and the State of California. Each of these three working groups took place over approximately nine months and consisted of a full range of stakeholders in California, including utilities, state regulatory agencies, industry groups, advocates, consumer groups, and individual companies.
In the case of the "Rule 21" Interconnection Working Groups Three and Four, stakeholders grappled with updating interconnection rules for solar, solar-plus-storage, electric vehicles, and other distributed generation facilities. This included provisions for utilizing the next generation of "smart" inverters for both autonmous and controlled operation in support of the grid and allowing further potential economic value for solar owners. Resulting from these discussions were an extensive series of dozens of individual proposals allowing more effective and streamlined interconnection, increasing the allowed capacity of solar-plus-storage, resolving a number of interconnection issues that had been outstanding for some years, and in the case of electric vehicles, defining the technical standards and procedures for bidirectional charging over DC connections (allowing an EV to contribute power to the grid) for the first time in California, and setting the stage for further discussion over bidirectional AC connections.
In the case of the California Joint Agencies Vehicle-Grid Integration (VGI) Working Group, all of the major automakers from the U.S. and Europe participated, as well as many EV charging providers and other companies. What resulted were detailed frameworks for categorizing and definiing value from VGI use cases and an extensive series of policy recommendations. This working group and its results were first-of-a-kind not just for California but nationwide and perhaps even globally in some respects.
Eric led and facilitated all three of these working groups in partnership with his Gridworks colleagues and wrote the Final Reports of each working group in collaboration with all working group members. All three final reports were then substantially adopted into California state rules by a CPUC Admimistrative Law Judge following the completion of the working group, including both consensus and non-consensus proposals for interconnection and orders for further utility activities related to VGI. The Final Reports can be seen here:
Rule 21 Interconnection Working Group Three, Final Report, 2019.
Rule 21 Interconnection Working Group Four, Final Report, 2020.
California Joint Agencies Vehicle-Grid Integration (VGI) Working Group, Final Report, 2020.
California Joint Agencies Vehicle-Grid Integration (VGI) Working Group, Final Report Annexes, 2020.