Law & Lawyers

My Takeaways from the Energy Evolution Summit

Building on Success

“One of my favorite moments? Celebrating this year’s SEPA Power Player Award winners. With over 100 impressive submissions from around the world, our judging panel had no easy task. But in the end, six winners rose to the top, each recognized for their innovation, impact, and ability to scale solutions through collaboration.”

Distributech: IBM

Innovations

“One of our recent CEO studies showed that out of all 20 industry segments, the energy segment had the highest positive potential expectation of value from AI, and the lowest in terms of progress of implementation.”

The Future of Energy Generation

Navigating Reliability and Growth

“Increased renewable energy does not mean an abrupt end to dispatchable resources. In fact, dispatchable hydro, batteries, coal, natural gas, and nuclear plants may need to last longer and operate more reliably on marginal days than they ever have before.”

Distributech: Eaton

“We developed an AI-powered innovation called HiZ Protect, which has shown highly accurate and fast high-impedance fault detection. These faults can lead to ignition on utility distribution systems. We believe we’ve got a novel approach that can help utilities mitigate faults.”

Brain Capital and the Future Energy Workforce 

A Unique Set of Challenges

Electric companies work diligently to ensure that they have the dedicated and passionate workforce needed to meet the opportunities and challenges that our industry faces. These challenges include rapidly rising demand for electricity, increasing frequency of extreme weather events, and rapid technological advances that are changing how we do business and how our customers use electricity.

Points of View, at Energy Evolution Summit

Innovations

Conversations with Southern California Edison's Caroline Choi; Arizona Public Service's recently retired Jeff Guldner; PPL Corp.'s Sal Salet, Electric Power Engineers' Hala Ballouz; NASUCA's David Springe; Environmental Resources Management’s Brian Jones; Rappahannock Electric Co-op's Peter Muhoro; Smart Electric Power Alliance's Sheri Givens; CPS Energy’s Elaina Ball, Angela Rodriguez, and Ana Lozano; Commonwealth Edison's Melissa Washington; and Orlando Utilities Commission's Linda Ferrone.

Energy Evolution Summit: Caroline Choi, Jeff Guldner

APS, SCE

“The magic of this group is this is one of the few conferences where you see across the industry, as we’ve got co-ops, public power, and IOUs. We’ve also got a variety of companies on the supply side in terms of providing programs, opportunities, and the cool things driving the advanced energy economy.”

Energy Evolution Summit: Sal Salet, Hala Ballouz

PPL Corp, Electric Power Engineers

“We need an ecosystem that allows us to rewrite how to design, operate, and plan the grid. I always believe that the impossible can be made possible if you put your mind to it, and I think SEPA can help us do that.”

Energy Evolution Summit: Brian Jones, David Springe

Environmental Resources Mgmt., NASUCA

“The biggest focus of my work is transitioning gas utilities to the next 100 years of their relationships with customers and the electric sector. I’m here to participate in the discussion about the evolution toward integrated electric and gas network planning and the future of gas.”