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A Personal Statement From New Board Member Matt Handel

Matt Handel, Vice President of Development for Solar, Distributed Generation and Energy Storage at NextEra Energy Resources, whose responsibilities at the company have grown in the past few years from solar development to include storage, demand-side management and microgrids.

Matt _Handel
The electric utility industry is facing unprecedented pressures to adapt. SEPA’s name change and the expansion of its mission bear testament to these forces. Carbon regulation will drive the proliferation of more solar. Retail rates, designed before net metering rules, inadvertently advance retail solar adoption. The scaling of the electric vehicle market is driving down the cost of battery storage further fueling a growing call by customers for increased control and independence. Technology advancement in smart meters, bi-directional inverters and internet connected thermostats and appliances make possible a far more intelligent, controllable, two-way grid.

Nextera Energy, as much as any company, has visibility into these forces and a commitment to advancing the utility industry in the most thoughtful ways possible. Whether in Florida, where FPL is adding 225 MW of rate based solar capacity in 2016 or through my team’s work developing central station, distributed solar and battery storage projects around the country, NextEra Energy embodies SEPA’s guiding principle that utilities must play a central role in the evolution to a more renewable, flexible and smarter grid.

SEPA’s expansion of its scope beyond solar into storage and grid edge technologies exactly mirrors the evolution of my own team’s business from large solar projects to distributed generation to energy storage to the grid edge. I am personally committed to ensuring that the future of the energy sector unfolds the right way. That means rate structures and market rules that incentivize the lowest cost, most reliable solutions without cross-subsidies, and that generation, wherever connected, is visible, controllable and safe. It also means that SEPA needs to continue to grow in number, scope and importance and I am committed to seeing that happen.

Matt joins 20 other members of our Board of Directors. To learn more, read about SEPA’s mission and the full press release.

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