Events

Nancy Fitzroy Top Innovator in Environment and Safety: “We are the first to say, ‘Why don’t we take them away from the hazard?’ This new tool technology takes the worker out of the dangerous environment.”

George Westinghouse Top Innovator in Leadership in Innovation: “Project REACH stands for Realizing Equitable Access to Cybersecurity in High School. Under this program, the federal government allocated dollars to historically black colleges and universities or HBCUs, for them to reach out to K-12 schools and help bring those students into computer science programs.” William Hammer Top Innovator in Electrification: “SiLVERS stands for St. Louis Vehicle Electrification Rides for Seniors. The goal was to introduce EVs and electrification into environmental justice communities and integrate electrification into the nonprofit operations.”

Francis Upton Top Innovator in Analytics for Utility Service: “The new approach addresses issues where history is not a good predictor of the future due to innovative changes in reliability programs. We developed methods for defining accurate targets by accounting for all changes to make optimal decisions for allocation of financial and human resources."

Each October, PUF highlights and celebrates innovators at utilities with our Top Innovator Awards and at our Fortnightly Top Innovators conference.

Edith Clarke’s pioneering engineering and mathematical work in the 1920s and 1930s made it possible to build transmission lines longer than 200 miles or longer, essential for electrifying the western U.S. We named the Top Innovator Award in Reliability after her.

The USEA's Annual Membership Meeting and Public Policy Forum celebrated its 100th Anniversary this year. Always a top focus is the expansion and enhancement of energy supply and delivery to all peoples of the world and certainly those in developing countries. Panels at the Public Policy Forum discussed impressive advances in South America and eastern Europe particularly.

With Plant Vogtle units 3 and 4 now complete, the four nuclear units together are expected to generate more than 30 million megawatt hours annually. Attending the celebration of the project’s completion were Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, Southern Company CEO Chris Womack, and Southern Company’s Georgia Power CEO Kim Greene.

Among those at the ceremony on May 24 to switch on the microgrid were U.S. Senator Dick Durbin; U.S. DOE Assistant Secretary for Electricity Gene Rodrigues; City of Chicago’s Chief Operating Officer John Roberson; Illinois Commerce Commission’s Commissioner Stacey Paradis; and ComEd CEO Gil Quiniones.

Exelon held its annual celebration of its top innovators and innovation in June.

Conversations with Exelon’s Chief Operating Officer Mike Innocenzo; Chief Strategy and Sustainability Officer Sunny Elebua; and Chief External Affairs Officer Colette Honorable.