Electric Perspectives Podcast

Enhancing grid resilience is a priority for America’s electric companies, which are making significant investments each year to harden the grid and to demonstrate and deploy grid-enhancing technologies that optimize grid operations, help prevent power outages, and enhance reliability. 

On this episode, EEI Managing Director of Climate Programs and Executive Director of the Institute for the Energy Transition Eric Holdsworth; Dave Quier, PPL Electric’s vice president and chief operating officer; and Margie Sweezer-Fischer, vice president of operations for NextEra Energy Transmission, discuss grid-enhancing technologies, the role they play in enhancing resilience, how electric companies work with regulators to help define the customer benefits of adopting these technologies, and more.

Electric companies partner with technology companies to find solutions that help them deliver reliable and resilient clean energy to customers. On today's episode, we hear about WEC Energy Group and Wärtsilä partnership to test a Wärtsilä engine that is designed to run on a hydrogen fuel blend at one of WEC Energy’s power plants in Michigan.

Dan Krueger, Executive Vice President of Infrastructure and Generation Planning at WEC Energy Group; Todd Duffield, Market Strategist at WEC Energy Group; and Jon Rodriguez, Energy Business Director of Engine Power Plants at Wärtsilä, discuss the companies' hydrogen blending test and how engine power plants can help the energy sector reduce carbon emissions. This episode is sponsored by Wärtsilä; learn more about their engine power plant solutions here.

During EEI 2024, Adam Grant, director of electrification and energy services, Nevada, at NV Energy, and Maria Kretzing, vice president and general manager of electric vehicles and analytics at Bidgely, discussed AI-driven solutions and the importance of taking a holistic approach to transportation electrification programs.

On this episode, Grant and Kretzing joins us again for a deeper dive into Bidgely’s AI-powered technology that supports electric transportation programs, how electric companies like NV Energy partner with technology companies to find solutions for customers, the type of information NV Energy was able to harness about customer charging habits through the AI-powered technology, and more. This episode is sponsored by Bidgely; learn more about their data analytics tool here.

There are no shortages of threats to our critical infrastructure, including cyber-attacks, increasingly frequent extreme weather events, and physical attacks on energy infrastructure. Electric companies and their federal partners work around the clock to prepare for these scenarios and to enhance our response capabilities.

On this episode, Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Deanne Criswell, the nation’s top emergency response official, discusses how federal agencies and electric companies collaborate to prepare for and respond to emergencies; the top threats to America’s critical energy infrastructure; the importance of building emergency response capacity at the state and local levels; and more.

As grid operators plan for the future, they are focused on meeting rising demand for electricity and enhancing grid reliability in the face of increasingly frequent and severe weather.

On this episode, EEI Executive Vice President of the Business Operations Group and Regulatory Affairs Phil Moeller and Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) President and CEO Pablo Vegas discuss how ERCOT plans to meet the increasing demand for electricity, the lessons learned from Winter Storm Uri that could help other grid operators and electric companies, the importance of investing in resilient infrastructure, and more.

EEI 2024 featured a lineup of exceptional keynote speakers. On this episode, you'll hear the full-length EEI 2024 keynote conversation between NVIDIA Founder and CEO Jensen Huang and former EEI Chair Pedro J. Pizarro, president and CEO of Edison International. They discussed how NVIDIA’s pioneering work to advance AI and quantum computing has, in part, driven a significant growth in electricity demand, and how electric companies are partnering with companies like NVIDIA to meet that growing demand. You also can watch the keynote on EEI's YouTube channel.

This episode is part of our EEI 2024 highlights series. In this episode, you will hear conversations about topics including building North America's hydrogen backbone, developing the next-generation workforce, and cybersecurity in supply chains. Plus, you'll hear from EEI President and CEO Dan Brouillette about his experience at the conference. The speakers are:

• Guidehouse Partner and Solutions Lead Michelle Fay and Guidehouse Partner and Energy Providers Segment Lead Dan Hahn,

You can also visit EEI's website to read EEI 2024 recap newsletters, see photos from our annual thought leadership forum, and watch videos from some of the keynotes.

This week, EEI's Electric Perspectives Podcast and The Current are partnering for an episode to discuss the impacts of Hurricane Beryl and the tremendous restoration efforts that are underway. On this episode, you'll hear from StormGeo Meteorologist Justin Petrutsas — who is based in the Houston area— and Scott Aaronson, EEI Senior Vice President of Security and Preparedness, about the intensity of this hurricane as well the complex work that is underway to safely restore power to impacted customers.

This episode is part of our EEI 2024 highlights series. In this episode, you will hear conversations about topics including clean energy technologies, opportunities for collaboration created by AI, building system resilience, distribution transformation, and more. The speakers are:

• Hans Kobler, Founder and Managing Partner, Energy Impact Partners,

You can also visit EEI's website to read EEI 2024 recap newsletters and see photos from our annual thought leadership forum.