People

John Beggs Top Innovator in Energy Transition: “We’re proud that we have completely automated the facility. It’s running now, and we’ve developed a basic dispatch program that makes decisions for itself and programs the battery when to store power, when to dispatch power, et cetera.”

Bertha Lamme Top Innovator for Generation: “We did some trial and error in the beginning to prove our concept. There was a lot of creep damage to the steam casing, so that added another challenge.”

Lewis Latimer Top Innovator in Technology or Process Design: “We decreased timelines for customers. When we launched, we were down to thirteen days to get Simplified customers from the date we had their application to the date they were scheduled for energization.”

Mabel McFerran Top Innovator in Storage: “Because PG&E is in California, which is experiencing the extreme effects of climate change and wildfires, our constrained grid has pushed us to be innovative with ways to leverage electric vehicles to address some of these issues. That’s put us out front.”

Edith Clarke Top Innovator in Reliability of Utility Service: “It’s a grid in a remote location that serves one or a few customers and removes the distribution power line so there is no risk of that power line sparking wildfire. It comes with other benefits of reducing maintenance and vegetation management in that area.”

William Hammer Top Innovator in Electrification: “These overhead pantograph systems are unique. When we started building, a standard didn’t exist. We were at the forefront of installing these overhead charging systems.”

Maria Telkes Top Innovator in Distributed Energy: “This project is a 6.5 MW microgrid. It was one of the first microgrids, the first BESS system on the system for PHI. We used new and creative technology to figure out how to get this project connected safely and reliably.”

Edith Clarke Top Innovator in Reliability of Electric Service: “The Vegetation Management Team came up with a list of hazard trees and asked BGE’s data science team to develop a tree risk analytic model. We wanted them to create an analytic model that could prioritize each hazard tree based on customer impact.”

Francis Upton Top Innovator in Analytics for Utility Service: “This early detection tool offers a more efficient way for field engineers to monitor potential HPFF leaks. By reducing detection time from weeks to hours, we can minimize leak duration and significantly mitigate environmental risks.”

John Beggs Top Innovator in Energy Transition: “The specific regulatory innovation is the cost recovery mechanism allowing the regulated utility to own, operate, and maintain RNG plants across Michigan and recover costs through both full-service voluntary customer subscriptions and open market sales.”