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.”
Law & Lawyers
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.
Resilience, Demand Growth, and More
Entergy and PwC
“Utilities are focused on making sure they can meet the growth, but we’re also seeing the impact of continued weather events, extreme climate events that require a resilient, reliable grid. We have not seen a stop of those investments from a grid-modernization, grid-reliability perspective.”
The Right Words Can Build a Stronger Energy System
Energy Efficiency and Electrification in Context
“By clearly distinguishing energy efficiency from electrification and adopting comprehensive strategies informed by full-fuel-cycle data, policymakers can ensure practical, realistic, and effective progress toward achieving shared climate goals.”
Power's Future: Energy Efficiency and Electrification
Guidehouse
“Utilities should develop incentive programs encouraging data centers to adopt energy-efficient cooling technologies like liquid cooling and direct-to-chip cooling.”
Commissioners at the Regional Conferences
Unique conversations
Conversations with Indiana URC Commissioner Sarah Freeman, Virginia SCC Commissioner Jehmal Hudson, New Mexico PRC Chair Patrick O’Connell, Maine PUC Chair Phil Bartlett, and Mississippi PSC Chair Chris Brown with Paul Kjellander on the MARC, MACRUC, WCPSC, NECPUC, and SEARUC conferences.
Grading Our Water Infrastructure
American Society of Civil Engineers’ Report Card for America’s Infrastructure
Just as the end-of-school-year grades may be anxiously anticipated, not many look forward to the arrival of the American Society of Civil Engineers’ (ASCE) quadrennial Report Card for America’s Infrastructure.
ASCE’s overall “C” grade rating is for more sectors than utilities, including highways, streets, dams, mass transit, and airports, to name a few. We recognize that for the first time since 1998, at least no sector received a D-.