Executive Summary: September 23rd AEG Caribbean Energy Roundtable

Overview

Held on September 23rd, 2025 at WSP USA during Climate Week NYC and UN General Assembly, fifty public and private industry leaders convened for the AEG Caribbean Energy Roundtable. The purpose of this challenge was to: 1.) Align on a critical obstacle regarding resilience, health and prosperity affecting the Caribbean and 2.) Inspire leaders to form a volunteer team to deliver the solution and present the outcome at Climate Week NYC 2026.

Brian Cunningham, Assemblymember, New York State Assembly, Rory Christian, Chair & CEO, NY Department of Public Service and Leonard Singh, Chairman & President, Ameren Illinois provided opening remarks to frame the discussion surrounding resilience, health and prosperity for the Caribbean.

Opening remarks were followed by the Speaker Challenge, where each speaker provided a presentation that concluded with this completed statement: "Regarding resilience, health and prosperity for the Caribbean, a critical issue to collectively address in the next 12 months is: _______"

3 Key Themes

1. Utility-Led Distributed Energy & Microgrid Resilience

Caribbean utilities must lead in deploying DERs and VPP-enabled microgrids to deliver resilience, reliability, and equitable outcomes. By adopting DERMS and co-located microgrids, utilities can ensure communities withstand storms, supply chain shocks, and electrification growth.

“The most critical issue to collectively address is developing utility-led integrated resource planning & programming that incorporates and values VPP-enabled Micro-Grids as proven painkillers for reliability and affordability.” — Kyle Fleming, Virgin Islands Energy Office

2. Institutional Efficiency, Continuity & Financing Mechanisms

Achieving resilience requires reducing bureaucratic bottlenecks, aligning regulations, and ensuring project continuity. Innovative financing tools must expand participation across underserved households, schools, and small businesses.

“Institutional efficiency and continuity are as important as capital — without them, good projects stall before they can scale.” — Word Cloud Participant Input

3. Regional Standards & Entrepreneurial Ecosystem for Clean Energy

Establishing renewable distributed energy as a regional standard will accelerate adoption and provide stability across the Caribbean. Harmonized policies and support for entrepreneurship will reduce fragmentation and ensure equitable benefits.

“Investing in renewable distributed energy as a regional standard.” — Nellie Gorbea, Puerto Rico Green Energy Trust

Inspired by the statements provided by ​Daniel Best, President, Caribbean Development Bank, ​Nellie Gorbea, President & CEO, Puerto Rico Green Energy Trust, ​Racquel Moses, CEO, Caribbean Climate Smart Accelerator and ​Kyle Fleming, Director, Virgin Islands Energy Office, participants synthesized the obstacle statements as: Institutional inefficiencies that prevent funding continuity, governmental leadership development and needed project execution.

17 leaders formed a volunteer Task Force to complete a 90-day sprint and 12-month objective to best address this critical obstacle. 

Task Force Volunteers: Kimberly Ricciardi, Con Edison, O'Neil Bruno, Con Edison, Joshua Diaz Crespo, Con Edison, Karice Dever, Con Edison, Aron Bowman, ELM Microgrid, Paul Douglas, The JPI Group, Orestes Anastasia, ICF, Christina Becker-Birck, The Cadmus Group, Tom Lewis, CSA Group, JL James, Equity Developers, LLC, David Soares, Lexden Capital LLC, Gillian Francis, Rapid Ventures, Jerome Cox, Sustainable Capital Advisors, Kevin Richards, Bermuda Innovation & Technology Association, Darren Wolfberg, Triangle, Maurice Muia, Virgin Islands Water & Power Authority

To join this group of volunteers, please contact us at info@goadvancedenergy.com.

12-Month Task Force Win

The 2024 AEG Caribbean Energy Task Force focused on the critical obstacle of leveraging the CCSA Climate Smart Map to create an action-oriented data tool and scoreboard that could inform regulatory frameworks, accelerate clean infrastructure investment, and grow local talent. Bringing together leaders from utilities, regulators, NGOs, and private firms across the region, the Task Force zeroed in on transparency around the useful life and planned transition of fossil infrastructure as a way to unlock developer interest and financing. As a pilot, the team built an interactive GIS-based platform highlighting over 80 power plants across Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Jamaica, mapping their capacity, operational status, and transition timelines. This accomplishment provided a replicable framework for aligning data transparency with policy and investment decisions, positioning the Caribbean to plan for the next century of resilient, clean energy development.

Conclusion

The AEG Caribbean Energy Roundtable convened Caribbean and NYC-based utility leaders, government officials, policy experts, and community advocates to address urgent challenges facing the islands’ energy transition. The challenge underscored the need to leverage the CCSA Climate Smart Map as a tool to inform regulatory frameworks, accelerate clean infrastructure investment, and expand local workforce opportunities. Key themes included increasing transparency around the transition of fossil fuel infrastructure, aligning institutional and financial frameworks to unlock clean energy capital, and fostering regional standards for renewable distributed energy. As volunteer task force members advance a 90-day sprint and 12-month roadmap, their efforts will be essential to building a more resilient, equitable, and prosperous energy future for the Caribbean.

Advanced Energy Group is a sponsor supported organization that facilitates quarterly challenges for high-impact stakeholders to deliver on health, energy and prosperity commitments for U.S. cities and vulnerable regions. To become an AEG Sponsor, learn more here: https://aeg.team/engage