The Keynote speaker at Wednesday's general session was Rep. Michael (Mike) Simpson (R-ID), House Appropriations Committee, Ranking Member for the Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development, and member Interior and Environment Subcommittee. Simpson engaged in a lively Q&A session with NARUC President Paul Kjellander.

This session was co-sponsored by the Committee on Electricity and Committee on Energy Resources and the Environment, and co-moderated by Commissioners Andrew French, Kansas CC, and Jehmal Hudson, Virginia SCC.

This joint meeting combined the Committee on Electricity with the Committee on Critical Infrastructure to examine how advanced technologies for infrastructure resiliency and vegetation management can help utilities face natural disasters from wildfires to winter storms.

This session focused on FERC Order 2222 and state commission issues such as interconnection requirements, coordination, and retail DER programs.

Some of what we heard at February’s conference.

NYPA’s Susan Craig and PUF’s Steve Mitnick talk about Edith Clarke’s breakthrough enabling the electric industry to engineer lines over 200 miles and ultimately today’s grid.

“One of the things we’ve done is look at a number of investor decks from peer utilities. I had my team look at them. It’s to get folks to think a little differently.”

“I was the second woman engineer ever hired in a 104-year-old company. It required that the culture shift. The first woman engineer, Colleen Ramsey, was super helpful to me.”

Conversations with the CEO of IDACORP, Lisa Grow, and COO of American Electric Power, Lisa Barton.