TO BE RESCHEDULED - Energy & Infrastructure Project Finance Workshop

Unfortunately, due to unforeseen circumstances this session had to be postponed. It will be rescheduled during 2017/18 academic year. Please see event description below.

Professor Dan Gode will be conducting a 3 hour Energy & Infrastructure Project Finance seminar in conjunction with the Stern Energy & Infrastructure Club. Professor Gode plans to cover the important considerations in modeling the performance and success of energy asset investments, which include understanding the levelized cost of energy, power purchase agreements and capacity utilization, and relevant attributes such as energy density, ease of storage and transportation, up-front cost and environmental considerations.

This event will cover hands on practical techniques and is relevant for anyone going into asset based finance roles, investment banking, energy/operations consulting and energy or infrastructure roles.

Teaser Intro to Fall 2017 Course: Project Finance & Infrastructure Investment

Professor Emeritus Ingo Walter and Professor and Executive-in-Residence Paul Tice will be teaching a 1.5 credit class in the second half of the fall 2017 semester that will focus on the infrastructure and project finance market, one of the most dynamic and challenging areas of global financial architecture. The course with provide students with an introduction to this expanding and rapidly-changing sector, and an understanding of the myriad risks involved in developing large-scale infrastructure projects around the world.

This event will serve as an introduction to students interested in learning about the course. During this session, Professor Tice will briefly touch on infrastructure requirements and risks, outline the contours of the project finance markets, and then dive into a live energy project deal.

Con Edison 14th Street Power Plant Site Visit

"ConEd Plant, New York (M1002126)" by "Steve Harris" Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC 2.0). Accessed 01 June 2017. [LINK]

On Friday, February 24th, the Stern Energy Club was hosted by one of its own Langone students, Alexander Potulicki, at Coned’s 14th Street Power Plant where he showed us the day-to-day operations of how New York generates and distributes the electricity flowing into our beloved city. Stern students were first introduced to the historical development of the power plant and how it has evolved since its inception. Its most recent development took place as a result of the East River Repowering Project which increased the electric generating capacity of the 14th Street Power Plant from 300 MW to 660 MW and expanded its steam generating capacity from 2.7 to 5.7 million pounds/hour - all completed without increasing the station’s footprint in downtown Manhattan. Alexander and his team then guided the students through the inner workings of the power plant. The group was able to witness the two massive turbines (think giant jet engines) that are used to generate electricity and steam in the powerplant itself. We then were able to see the substation which comprises a vital component of the complete generation, transmission, and distribution system. Lastly, we visited the operating room in which a 24/7 team of operators are constantly monitoring all the parameters of the power plant to ensure it operate safely and reliably. Special thanks to both Alexander Potulicki for connecting the Stern community with the utilities ecosystem of Coned and incoming Stern Energy Club President, Guy Brearey, for working to organize the trek

2017 Columbia Energy Symposium Case Competition

On February 2, 2017, three first-year MBA students (Gideon Banner, Zach Karson, and Ryan Wall) presented their case at the 2017 Columbia Energy Symposium Case Competition.  Other schools competing included MIT, Bard, Colorado School of Mines, Carnegie Mellon, and Columbia.  The case centered on a business proposal for a virtual power plant (VPP), a new grid structure involving a combination of solar, storage, and demand response integrated and aggregated to manage grid instability, peak load, and state-level renewable energy requirements.  On a larger level, the case aimed to develop answers the question of whether state regulators and utilities (in this case, a vertically integrated one) should seek to get ahead of the curve of industry change, and if so, how best to do so.

This tied into the larger them of the conference: “Disruptive innovation: The New Status Quo?”  A number of notable speakers addressed this theme, including Mary Powell (CEO of Green Mountain Energy), David Crane (former NRG CEO), and Jigar Shah (from the Energy Gang podcast), among others.  Other notable highlights of the conference included a career fair and venture showcase; a number of Stern MBAs were in attendance for both.