EPRI UNPLUGGED

As governments and healthcare workers around the globe attack the novel coronavirus and COVID-19, the world slowed to a near standstill.  EPRI Unplugged explores the reduction in electricity peak demand and use in the first few weeks of the pandemic, and the industry’s efforts to protect its critical workforce.

The most important innovation in the electric power sector was born far outside the electric power sector, according to EPRI President Arshad Mansoor. In this episode of EPRI Unplugged, we poke at the surface of the issues facing the industry, and how R&D remains a critical tool to unlocking the energy future.

Is your local utility using blockchain? Would you know if it was? In this episode, we talk to two early adopters, ConEdison and Pacific Gas & Electric, about where they see opportunities for blockchain and how they are collaborating with EPRI’s Utility Blockchain Interest Group to learn from one another. For a primer on blockchain, give a listen to our earlier episode Preparing for Blockchain in the Utility Industry.

In this special episode of EPRI Unplugged, you will hear four different perspectives from participants of the Electrification Europe Summit, recorded live from Palais Brongniart, in Paris, France. Covering issues of electrification of cities, buildings, and industrial processes, this episode serves as an introduction to some of the solutions being explored to decarbonize the global economy.

Jessica Fox, our resident environmental scientist and all-around world saver, is back on the podcast to discuss her award-winning work to protect the Ohio River Basin. This collaborative water quality trading program takes a market-based approach to limit the negative impacts of run-off from phosphorus and nitrogen in the environment. Jessica explains how EPRI’s program helps remove these pollutants from a small stream in Indiana to the Gulf of Mexico, enabling anyone to support local and global sustainability programs with one online transaction. Listen to learn more, and then buy yourself—or your dog—a water quality credit at wqt.epri.com.

It’s fair to say we encounter artificial intelligence every day. Utilities are also discovering how to harness the power of AI. EPRI recently launched an initiative, AI.EPRI, to create a central hub for AI research in the utility space. This podcast explores how AI is being used today, the value of data, and what lies ahead.

Range anxiety, or the fear of running out of power before you get to your destination, sits at the top of the list of fears keeping people from buying a new electric vehicle. One solution to this problem is the deployment of public charging infrastructure. But how we make this infrastructure “just work” is another major question, and the core of a recent EPRI white paper. This collaborative white paper, and a few more EV topics, will be discussed in this EPRI Unplugged episode.

What do bees and electric utilities have in common? Much more than you think. In this episode, Jessica Fox, EPRI’s resident bee lover, takes us through the ins and outs of the electric power sector’s role in supporting pollinator ecosystems and populations.