On The Grid

On this episode, we're going to the country to talk with Bill Hetherington, CEO of Bandera Electric Cooperative. You might not think industry innovation would come from a more rural, lower population service territory, but not only are extensive DER programs being implemented at this level, Bandera and other coops are demonstrating a community-centered model of operating a utility that needs to be seen, or explained extensively in an audio show, to be believed.

The key word of the day is "listen." Listen to your customers individually, don't lump people together and assume wants and needs. Listen to people with new ideas to take advantage of innovative notions from often overlooked places. And of course, listen to this episode for insight into the quiet rural revolution of the energy space.

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Josh Gould, Utility of the Future and Innovation Hub Manager at Con Edison in New York, joins us to discuss Commercialization Innovation. What's that? It's the modernization of the process by which innovation becomes commercial reality! When it comes to technology in the industry, flashy equipment isn't enough. Providing proficient and effective technology is where the fixes are needed.

Listen in to hear Josh's ideas on strategies to better bring new ideas to the customers that want them. He touches on ways that safety is being improved through a cultural change in how companies interact with their employees, and there's a discussion on diversity of ideas in energy.

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Erin and Erin are back from the road to once again discuss what they learned from travelling across the state of Texas in a Tesla Model 3. After another series of interviews and air guitar jam sessions, the stars of Electric Vehicle Twitter have busted out the microphone to record a podcast. They have lessons to expound upon about life as an EV owner in Texas, the state of infrastructure in Texas, and some more details about the car itself, since listeners wrote in wondering about it.

Enjoy this laid-back episode as the summer winds down, and make sure to see the whole road trip saga by searching #EVErinsTX!

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Solar Storage Fest in San Antonio was a marquis event! We were able to put on a great event thanks to great speakers, hard workers behind the scenes, and inquisitive attendees.

Erin and Dylan go over what went down at the conference, standout presentations and lessons learned about solar and storage from different perspectives. Lorraine Akiba, former Hawaii PUC member stopped by to talk about how regulators work with these new companies and new ways of doing business to try and create a decarbonized grid.

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Today we are talking with Dr. Carolyn Kissane from NYU to talk about where we can learn about solutions to the energy problems of today and tomorrow. Some can be learned in a classroom, others by the example of foreign actors, and some can be learned by listening to the bright experts of tomorrow. A discussion about decarbonization turns into one about education as we are wont to do here, and we learn a bit ourselves about who is leading the charge and who is lagging behind. The word of the day is "perspective" and we're bringing it in spades in this episode!

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Happy Birthday to us! The podcast turns two years old this week and to celebrate we... did what we usually do: talk about energy!

Dana Harmon from TEPRI is here today to discuss energy equity: the ability for everyone to have access to reliable and affordable energy. In our discussion we identify key stakeholders to coordinate with, talk about how to utilize data to create equity programs, and lay out both the moral and business cases for equity.

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Now that we've cooled off from the massive heat wave in the US, how did it impact the grid? What lessons did we learn? Isn't it a bit sad that these kind of events are so commonplace these days because of the negligence of humankind over the past century? Was Dirk Nowitzki kind of a one-note power forward when you get right down to it?

Some of these questions and more are discussed with two of Zpryme's top researchers: Senior Research Analyst Erin Hardick and Director of Content and Research Chris Moyer. Read Chris' article on the heat wave at https://etsinsights.com/insights/how-utilities-are-dealing-with-the-record-heat/

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Following up from last week, we have expanded upon the discussion of electric vehicles to talk about EV programs. How can you design a successful EV program for your utility and your customers? Who are the stakeholders you need to get involved? How do you educate customers and get them to buy in? Lindsey McDougall, EV program manager at Austin Energy is on the show today to answer these questions and more!

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We've got Zprymers on the road! Erin Hardick and Erin Autin took a Tesla around Texas to see the sights, talk shop with utilities, and of course try out a top-of-the-line electric vehicle. While they were putting the car through its paces, they hopped on the phone with Dylan to discuss the details and initial lessons of the trip.

They also took the time to call Ashley Horvat, VP of Public and Private Partnerships at Greenlots and full-time EV owner on what her experience has been with her own road trip. Check out the episode and follow the road trip with the hashtag #EVErinsTX

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We're back ladies and gentlemen!

Our first guest on the new and improved ETS On the Grid is Professor Luciano Castillo from Purdue. He and a consortium of University professors have put together a proposal for a renewable energy project along the entire US/Mexico border. Erin and Dylan sat down with Prof. Castillo to discuss details of what this project could potentially be and what the implications would be for the local communities and for the North American utility industry.

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