On this episode of the Energy Central Power Perspectives™ Podcast, we are joined by Charles Bayless. Charles Bayless is retired after a long and esteemed career in the utility industry that took him from Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority to the Climate Institute to E Source to Pike Electric and many other stops in between. But just because he’s retired doesn’t mean Charles hasn’t stayed busy, and in fact he’s taken to the Energy Central community to share his wisdom and insights on the climate crisis and what we need to do collectively to tackle this largest of challenges.

Charles shares his views on transportation, on nuclear energy, on VARS technology, and what it will take to decarbonize utilities and society generally, and his decades of experience carry much weight with them. Listen in as Charles imparts his wisdom about how it takes unreasonable people to truly change the world!

Key Links:

Charles Bayless’s Energy Central Profile: https://energycentral.com/member/profile/235468/about

Why Economics makes it so hard to solve Climate Change: https://energycentral.com/c/cp/why-economics-makes-it-so-hard-solve-climate-change

Ocean Acidification – The Evil Twin: https://energycentral.com/c/cp/ocean-acidification-evil-twin

Nuclear Energy – Our best weapon against Climate Change: https://energycentral.com/c/pip/nuclear-energy-our-best-weapon-against-clliamte-change

Climate Change – Physics 101: https://energycentral.com/c/cp/climate-change-physics-101

Link to register as a member of the Energy Central community: www.energycentral.com/user/register

Energy Central Post with More Details: https://energycentral.com/c/ec/energy-central-power-perspectives%E2%84%A2-podcast-episode-9-transportation-nuclear-and

This week on the Energy Central Power Perspectives™ Podcast, we dive into the world of on demand load shifting and the business model it supports outside of the utility space. The most typical load management strategies in the utility space involve large customers in the commercial and industrial sectors, but Matt Duesterberg and his fellow Co-Founders realized that, in aggregate, residential customers could make a huge impact as well. Not only that, but by incentivizing residential customers with direct payouts, they could create virtual power plants of negative generation. With that business model, Ohm Connect was born.

Matt joins us in this episode to discuss the success of using the demand response strategy as a business, the potential growth of this strategy outside of his backyard in California, as well as the submission he made to the Energy Central community with his personal predictions for what 2020 will bring to the energy industry. From the opportunity of big data in energy to electrification to security, we cover the gauntlet of buzzworthy topics in the utility field, so you won’t want to miss this one!

Key Links:

Matt Duesterberg’s Energy Central Profile: https://www.energycentral.com/member/profile/238754

2020 Energy Forecast: What You Need to Know: https://www.energycentral.com/c/um/matts-2020-energy-predictions

Link to register as a member of the Energy Central community: www.energycentral.com/user/register

Energy Central Post with More Details: https://energycentral.com/c/em/energy-central-power-perspectives%E2%84%A2-podcast-episode-8-%E2%80%98demand-response-and

We’re thrilled to bring you this next episode of the Energy Central Power Perspectives™ Podcast, featuring another seasoned veteran of Energy Central’s network of experts. Gary Hilberg is the President of Continuum Energy and serves as an Energy Central expert in the Clean Power Group, the Digital Utility Group, and the Energy Efficiency Group. His expertise indeed stretches wide and deep, and his content submissions to the community have reflected many different areas of the utility industry that are undergoing great changes and have immense cause for excitement.

In this episode, Gary will share with us what is really behind small modular nuclear reactors and why they are poised to disrupt the generation field in the coming decade, before sharing his excitement about technologies that serve to further enhance and optimize the grid, including advanced energy storage and the power unleased due to advanced microgrids. After listening to this episode, you’ll be left for a thirst to learn more about these critical topics, and we hope that desire for information continues to bring you back to the EnergyCentral.com community.

Key Links:

Gary Hilberg’s Energy Central Profile: https://www.energycentral.com/member/profile/234728

Washington State Intends To Be the Clean Energy State and Nuclear is Key: https://www.energycentral.com/c/cp/washington-state-intends-be-clean-energy-state-and-nuclear-key

New Rolls-Royce mini nuclear power station to be built in the North: https://www.energycentral.com/c/cp/new-rolls-royce-mini-nuclear-power-stations-be-built-north

Zin-air battery being deployed in New York aims for extremely low $45/kWh cost: https://www.energycentral.com/c/cp/zinc-air-battery-being-deployed-new-york-aims-extremely-low-45kwh-cost

Microgrids Are Quickly Becoming A Top Solution to Energy Problems: https://www.energycentral.com/news/microgrids-are-quickly-becoming-top-solution-energy-problems

Link to register as a member of the Energy Central community: www.energycentral.com/user/register

Energy Central Post with More Details: https://energycentral.com/c/gn/energy-central-power-perspectives%E2%84%A2-podcast-episode-7-%E2%80%98small-modular-nuclear-zinc

After a brief hiatus, the Energy Central Power Perspectives™ Podcast returns with an innovative topic that one of our most forward-looking Energy Central experts will guide us on. As the nation's grid gets more distributed, has an increasing amount of renewables plugged into it, and experiences more and more pressure from customers, regulators, investors, and other stakeholders to simultaneously achieve affordability, reliability, resilience, and environmental consciousness, the ways in which the capacity markets of tomorrow operate will be front and center in dictating how these goals are accomplished.

Seeking out ways to mold the future capacity markets that will create these answers, Richard Brooks (prolific Energy Central writer and registered to our network of experts for the Load Management Group and the Digital Utility Group) has been hard at work sharing his ideas and looking to leverage the Energy Central community platform to seek out ideas, feedback, and resources to accompany his proposal for the Always on Capacity Exchange. This idea is so compelling that we knew it warranted a deep dive on the latest episode of the Energy Central Power Perspectives™ Podcast.

Key Links:

Richard Brooks' Energy Central Profile: https://www.energycentral.com/member/profile/225424/about

"2019 Insights: Just in Time Capacity Acquisition through an Always on Capacity Exchange (AOCE)": https://www.energycentral.com/c/em/2019-insights-just-time-capacity-acquisition-through-always-capacity-exchange

"It's time to give Traders, Energy Suppliers and Green Buyers, like Google and Budweiser, free access to Capacity Markets Nationwide": https://www.energycentral.com/c/cp/it%E2%80%99s-time-give-traders-energy-suppliers-and-green-buyers-google-and-budweiser

"Carbon Pricing on Electricity is Bad for Consumers and could slow EV adoption": https://www.energycentral.com/c/pip/carbon-pricing-electricity-bad-consumers-and-could-slow-ev-adoption

"Snowed-in and disappointed I cannot attend the 2019 NEPGA Energy Summit Today": https://www.energycentral.com/c/pip/snowed-and-disappointed-i-cannot-attend-2019-nepga-energy-summit-today

Link to register as a member of the Energy Central community: www.energycentral.com/user/register

Energy Central Post with More Details: https://energycentral.com/c/um/energy-central-power-perspectives%E2%84%A2-podcast-episode-6-%E2%80%98transforming-iso-new

In this next episode of the Energy Central Power Perspectives™ Podcast, it’s time for us to dive into the world of how smart and digital technologies are transforming the industry, rendering it nearly unrecognizable from the utility sector of not too long ago. While there are many pockets of smart utilities in which we can dive, in this episode we’ll be guided by Linda Stevens, Co-Founder of 51by1, into the vast sea that is geo-centric planning, geospatial technology, and how these geographic mapping and analysis technologies are empowering the energy business like never before.

Linda’s career has seen her take an educational background in geography to watching and help develop the then-nascent strategy of tapping into the geospatial domain for utility companies in a way that makes possible what was previously impossible, or at the very least quite difficult. Geo-centric planning is a strategy that bolsters the bottom line of utilities, minimizes headaches felt by customers, empowers necessary regulations, and so much more. Linda has recently become a constant voice for the geospatial on Energy Central, starting with her article ‘Creating a Smarter Utility with Geo-Centric Planning’ this past October. We invited Linda onto the Power Perspectives™ Podcast so we can really dig into this important topic and learn how the geospatial industry is rapidly evolving and what that means for the utility sector.

Note: As we work to secure and record with our next guests, the Energy Central Power Perspectives™ Podcast will be taking a brief break to prepare this next batch of compelling utility conversations. But stay tuned, as we have some heavy hitters lined up for our next guests and we’ll look to be in your ears again within a few quick weeks!

Key Links:

Linda Stevens’ Energy Central profile: https://www.energycentral.com/member/profile/233813

“Creating a Smarter Utility with Geo-Centric Planning”: https://www.energycentral.com/c/iu/creating-smarter-utility-geo-centric-planning

Link to register as a member of the Energy Central community: www.energycentral.com/user/register

Energy Central Post with More Details: https://energycentral.com/c/iu/energy-central-power-perspectives%E2%84%A2-podcast-episode-5-%E2%80%98creating-smarter-utility

In the fourth episode of the Energy Central Power Perspectives™ Podcast, we tackle one of the most high profile and complex issues facing the utility sector today, and that’s the ongoing situation in California as PG&E, the state and local governments, and residents continue to deal with the aftermath of raging wildfires in 2017 and 2018. As this situation continues to evolve with new twists and turns, the Energy Central community has been able to rely on John Benson, California resident and veteran of the energy industry, to keep them apprised of the latest developments and their implications.

John’s utility sector career has taken him all over the spectrum, and today he finds himself as senior consultant for Microgrid Labs where he develops, plans, and designs microgrid projects, but he also spends much of his time researching and analyzing the energy sector and disseminating his findings and insights into white paper resources for Energy Central. Because he makes his home in the Golden State and because the topic is unavoidable for anyone whose work ties into the grid, John finds himself coming back to the PG&E situation time and again. As such, we figured it was well past time to have John as a guest on the Energy Central Power Perspectives™ Podcast so we could dive in even further.

Key Links:

John Benson’s Energy Central profile: https://www.energycentral.com/member/profile/200777

“California v. PG&E”: https://www.energycentral.com/c/pip/california-v-pge

“New / Old Municipal Utility”: https://www.energycentral.com/c/pip/new-old-major-municipal-utility

“California Wildfires, Utilities and Grid Resiliency”: https://www.energycentral.com/c/pip/california-wildfires-utilities-and-grid-resilience

“California Wildfires, Utilities and Grid Resilience - Part 2”: https://www.energycentral.com/c/pip/california-wildfires-utilities-and-grid-resiliency-part-2

Link to register as a member of the Energy Central community: www.energycentral.com/user/register

Energy Central Post with More Details: https://energycentral.com/c/um/energy-central-power-perspectives%E2%84%A2-podcast-episode-4-%E2%80%98california-wildfires-and

The ‘Energy Central Insights™ Podcast’ is kicking off 2020 by diving into the most critical question to ask at this crucial juncture for the utility sector: “How can we align the leadership of the global energy industry to accelerate the end to climate disruption?” That was the question posed by Rami Reshef, CEO of GenCell Energy, to the Energy Central community recently, which spurred fantastic discussion and debate from community members who stretched across industry, academia, policy, and more. As CEO of GenCell Energy, Rami has taken his 25 years of experience in entrepreneurship and technology and bet on fuel cells and hydrogen energy to be one of the key tool that will provide us with a clean and reliable energy future.

Knowing that technological solutions are just part of the battle, Rami wanted to spur the minds across Energy Central to think about how we align real leaders towards the common goals necessary to combat climate change. In this episode of the podcast, we take that question and get to the core of it all with Rami.

Key Links:

Rami Reshef’s Energy Central profile: https://www.energycentral.com/member/profile/234026/about

“How can we align the leadership of the global energy industry to accelerate the end to climate disruption?”: https://www.energycentral.com/c/gn/how-can-we-align-leadership-global-energy-industry-accelerate-end-climate

“Follow up to Question on Climate Action”: https://www.energycentral.com/c/ec/followup-question-climate-action

Link to register as a member of the Energy Central community: www.energycentral.com/user/register

Energy Central Post with More Details: https://energycentral.com/c/ec/energy-central-power-perspectives%E2%84%A2-podcast-episode-3-%E2%80%98aligning-global-energy

We welcome you to our second episode of the ‘Energy Central Power Perspectives™ Podcast,’ this time joined by Lincoln Bleveans, the Assistant General Manager of Power Supply at Burbank Water and Power. Lincoln’s career has taken him all over the energy industry and provided him with a unique perspective of what it takes to be a strong and effective leader in the utility sector specifically. Lincoln’s posts to the Energy Central community typical focus on characteristics of utility leaders today and how those must evolve with changing energy industry, and they can be found on EnergyCentral.com and on his Twitter feed @bleveans.

Knowing we wanted to dig into Lincoln’s expertise on the utility leadership topic, we surveyed his recent posts entitled “Waterskiing with Winston” and “A Career in Leadership Roles.” These articles set the stage for us to discuss how utility leaders must be unique to leaders in other industries, what ideas decision-makers must embrace now that the long-stagnant utility sector is finally seeing rapid change, and more.

Key Links:

Lincoln Bleveans’ Energy Central profile: https://www.energycentral.com/member/profile/107163/about

“Waterskiing with Winston”: https://www.energycentral.com/c/um/1-page-leadership-waterskiing-winston

“A Career in Leadership Roles”: https://www.energycentral.com/c/pip/1-page-leadership-career-leadership-roles

Lincoln Blevean’s Twitter feed: https://twitter.com/bleveans

Link to register as a member of the Energy Central community: www.energycentral.com/user/register

Energy Central Post with More Details: https://energycentral.com/c/um/energy-central-insights%E2%84%A2-podcast-episode-2-%E2%80%98waterskiing-churchill%E2%80%99-lessons

In the first-ever episode of the ‘Energy Central Power Perspectives™ Podcast,’ we have the pleasure of having as our guest one of Energy Central’s most prolific and respected community members, Dan Yurman. Dan is a nuclear energy guru, with a career that’s spanned multiple continents over the course of 40 years, with stops at Idaho National Lab, Bechtel, Rockwell Automation, and NASA. Today, Dan actively shares his insights on nuclear power and the wider energy sector through his posts on EnergyCentral.com, his blog Nuetron Bytes, and his Twitter feed @djysrv.

While any number of Dan’s content would be worth discussing, we pulled him into this episode thanks to his annual posting of “Dan’s Idaho Nuclear Chili Recipe,” linked below. As we’re nestled into two of the biggest food-related holidays of the year, Dan’s chili recipe had us drooling and its connection to the nuclear industry was both fascinating and gave us a fun segue to discuss the state of nuclear power across several different nations and the role nuclear energy will play in a constantly evolving grid.

Key Links:

Dan Yurman’s Energy Central profile: www.energycentral.com/member/profile/216691/about

“Dan’s Idaho Nuclear Chili Recipe”: www.energycentral.com/c/ec/dan%E2%80%99s-idaho-nuclear-chili-recipe

Dan Yurman’s blog: www.neutronbytes.com

Dan Yurman’s Twitter feed: www.Twitter.com/djysrv

Link to register as a member of the Energy Central community: www.energycentral.com/user/register

Energy Central Post with More Details: https://energycentral.com/c/gn/introducing-energy-central-insights%E2%84%A2-podcast-and-our-inaugural-episode-featuring