From his early days working on regulatory policy on the Hill to his current role as president of Grid Strategies, Rob Gramlich has been focused on future-proofing the electrical grid.  Twenty years ago, utilities invested heavily in load demand forecasting. But as load growth fell precipitously in the 2000s, those departments shrank. Now, with load growth skyrocketing from increasingly-electrified manufacturing, burgeoning data centers, and electrified homes, planners are struggling to keep up. The grid simply isn’t ready for what’s coming. This week, Rob talks with Brad about how to mitigate the risks of this impending load demand, including how recent federal funding could help improve grid planning. They also dig into some  systemic fixes that could improve the grid’s health in the long term. This podcast is produced by GridX in partnership with Latitude Studios. GridX is the Enterprise Rate Platform that modern utilities rely on to usher in our clean energy future.

In 2016, Dr. Kyri Baker was a researcher at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory working on a new home energy management system. Called Foresee, the system reduced energy usage through machine learning algorithms that tracked consumption patterns and grid conditions. Today, Kyri is an associate professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, where she continues her research on machine learning applications for the power grid. Her work has expanded beyond home energy management to the transmission and distribution grids, and she is pioneering new techniques for power flow optimization. This week, Kyri talks with Brad about how utilities can use neural networks to reduce outage times with data they already have available. She also describes the machine learning algorithms she’s training to make power flow predictions more accurate. This podcast is produced by GridX in partnership with Latitude Studios. GridX is the Enterprise Rate Platform that modern utilities rely on to usher in our clean energy future.

In early 2023, things were moving along as planned for a rate restructuring plan at Holy Cross Energy, a rural electric co-op in Colorado. The board of directors had approved the plan, which would separate the cost of energy from the cost of delivering that energy to the customer.The change meant rooftop solar customers could continue to sell their excess electricity back to Holy Cross, just at a much lower rate that would slow their return on investment.  The pushback from solar customers and the solar industry was swift. And soon, Holy Cross CEO Bryan Hannegan got a call from the Governor, asking for a meeting with Holy Cross and solar industry representatives.Speaking on the With Great Power podcast, Hannegan joked that it felt a bit like “being called to the principal’s office” for fighting in the hallway. But the result — an ongoing series of meetings with energy industry stakeholders from across the state — brought positive change.In Colorado, the rift that formed over the Holy Cross rate restructuring plan will take time and community engagement to repair. But ultimately, the utility business model needs to change, Hannegan says. Rather than selling electricity, he envisions utilities becoming infrastructure operators, essentially becoming “the FedEx of electricity in the sense that wherever it comes from, wherever it needs to go, we'll get it there on time and at an affordable price and in a reliable manner,” he said. In this first episode of season 3 of With Great Power, host Brad Langley talks with Bryan Hannegan about Holy Cross Energy’s rate restructuring plan and his vision for a new utility business model.This podcast is produced by GridX in partnership with Latitude Studios. GridX is the Enterprise Rate Platform that modern utilities rely on to usher in our clean energy future.

Over the past two seasons of With Great Power, you've heard stories from all kinds of people working at the front lines of change on the power grid. We've covered the rise of electric vehicles, explored the dawn of long-duration storage, unpacked the utility digital transformation, and asked: how can power companies learn from other industries about change?In March, we’re coming back for another season on the tech, business, and market forces that are changing the grid. Season three will feature stories from some of the nation’s biggest utilities and most nimble cooperatives; we’ll hear from analysts and researchers following tech trends, like artificial intelligence and virtual power plants; and we'll dive into the massive federal efforts to make the grid more agile and resilient.Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or any other podcast app to get fresh episodes when the new season drops.

There are more than 250 million cars on U.S. roads today. Only about 1% of them are electric. But with seven million more EVs projected to hit the road by 2030, that percentage is changing.The problem? Access to all those EVs isn't equal. The majority of EV owners in the country are high-income and white. But to cut transportation emissions in the U.S., we need to make EV ownership and charging a staple in all communities.That's where Dr. Shelley Francis and her team at EVNoire come in. They're working to combat the lack of diversity in EV ownership by collaborating with utilities, automakers, and other stakeholders on national and regional projects.The data and insight EVNoire collects and presents to stakeholders isn't just for show. They can easily hone in on where there's a need for resources like EV chargers, which influences funding decisions down the line.This week, Brad speaks to Dr. Shelley Francis, co-founder and managing partner at EVNoire, about the state of EV adoption and ownership in communities of color and the policies and practices needed to help address it.This podcast is produced by GridX. GridX is the Enterprise Rate Platform that modern utilities rely on to usher in our clean energy future.

Over the past 20 years, Kerri Carnes has worked a lot of different jobs at Arizona Public Service, or APS. She's been an administrative assistant, real-time trader, and regulation manager. Today, she serves as the director of customer-to-grid solutions. Besides maintaining service, Kerri and her colleagues are determined to increase customer adoption of technologies like solar, EVs, and smart thermostats.They're leveraging all the resources at their disposal to meet customer demand for electrification. That includes making technologies more affordable to customers who struggle with accessibility.This week, Brad speaks to Kerri Carnes about the strategies APS is using to make that a reality.This podcast is produced by GridX. GridX is the Enterprise Rate Platform that modern utilities rely on to usher in our clean energy future.

A wave of extreme weather this year has left Jim Kapsis questioning whether utilities are prepared for more frequent, intense weather events in the future.There's a growing group of startups that are more than ready to provide solutions, but they've struggled to break into the space. They need help figuring out a business model that works in the unique market that is the utility industry. Jim's response? A new company called the Ad Hoc Group, founded in 2016 with the goal of helping those newcomers succeed.This week, Brad speaks with Jim Kapsis, CEO and founder of the Ad Hoc Group, about its extensive work helping climate tech startups navigate the highly regulated world of utilities.This podcast is produced by GridX. GridX is the Enterprise Rate Platform that modern utilities rely on to usher in our clean energy future.

Rappahannock Electric Cooperative recently received a $38 million grant through the Department of Energy's Grid Innovation and Partnership Program. The grant will fund a  massive rollout of technologies that will serve as the backbone of the energy transition. Peter Muhoro is one of the executives at REC that will oversee these projects. The money will be used to implement a new distributed energy resources management system, deploy smart meters, and install a fiber network. Since Peter is bullish on clean energy technology, he's making sure REC's long-term strategy is built around it. This week, Brad speaks with Peter Muhoro, the chief strategy, technology, and innovation officer at Rappahannock Electric Cooperative, about why electric cooperatives need to evolve and how to bring that about.This podcast is produced by GridX. GridX is the Enterprise Rate Platform that modern utilities rely on to usher in our clean energy future.

In 2016, Edison International was rethinking how to boost their efforts toward fighting climate change. As the parent company behind Southern California Edison, they were making strides in the power sector. But Edison International wanted to tackle decarbonization in other sectors. So they added clean energy consulting into the mix with their new venture, Edison Energy.This past summer, Drew Murphy decided to take the reins over at Edison Energy, managing risk and reaping rewards for those involved. With executive roles at NRG and Edison under his belt, and his work on energy project finance at law firm Hunton & Williams, Drew understands how to make big climate goals a reality.This week, Brad speaks with Drew Murphy, CEO of Edison Energy, about how they help some of the world’s biggest companies form long-term clean energy plans.This podcast is produced by GridX. GridX is the Enterprise Rate Platform that modern utilities rely on to usher in our clean energy future.

In January, Illinois' largest utility released ComEd 2030 – their roadmap for providing clean power for more than 4 million customers.   For CEO Gil Quiniones and the company, that means hitting big marks like enabling almost 2 million EVs by 2030, $1 billion in energy assistance for customers, integrating DERs, and procuring more clean power.If done right, ComEd's path would be a big win for the state's clean energy goals, and energy equity in the region.Before joining the utility in 2021, Gil tackled problems of energy and sustainability in another major American city, New York. He served as a part of Mayor Bloomberg's administration working on clean energy and climate policy, and held roles at ConEd and New York Power Authority.Now he's spearheading Chicago's energy transition, with an emphasis on equity for the city's underserved communities.This week, Brad speaks with Gil Quiniones, CEO of ComEd, about taking into account customer affordability and equity as they move ahead with their low-carbon plan.This podcast is produced by GridX. GridX is the Enterprise Rate Platform that modern utilities rely on to usher in our clean energy future.

Renewables are having a moment. Wind and solar capacity in the US went up 13 gigawatts last year, now totaling more than 238 gigawatts nationwide. And last year's Inflation Reduction Act is helping to move the needle in a big way.But there's a problem. For wind and solar to meet the demands of the energy transition, we need some way to store all those electrons for use during peak hours or when production is low.It's something Janice Lin knew early on. When Janice and her colleagues researched what solution could fill that gap, one fuel stood out above all else: hydrogen.Under the right circumstances green hydrogen, produced via electrolysis powered by renewables, could be the long-term storage solution the energy transition needs. Once produced, the gas could be stored and moved around like we do now with natural gas. But when burned for power or in industrial settings, it'd be much cleaner than any fossil fuel.This week, Brad speaks with Janice Lin, founder and President of the Green Hydrogen Coalition and founder and CEO of Strategen, about increasing the scale and adoption of green hydrogen.

America’s new renewable power capacity is expected to triple each year through 2030. To decarbonize the grid, there needs to be a way to store those clean electrons. That’s where long duration energy storage (LDES) comes into play. These technologies can store energy for 12 hours, a full day, or even weeks at a time. Unfortunately, long duration storage is not widely used today. Julia Souder is working to solve that problem. As the head of the Long Duration Energy Storage Council, her team is working with the Department of Energy to develop and deploy LDES. But it will be a tough job. The goal is to deploy a gigawatt this year, but reach eight terawatts of capacity by 2040. That means cranking out 500 gigawatts annually for the remaining sixteen years.This week Brad talks with Julia, CEO of the LDES Council about how they plan to meet these goals.

EVs are a huge piece of the decarbonization puzzle. But as Apoorv Bhargava realized over his career working in the power business, utilities across the country aren’t prepared for the cost of onboarding the millions of EVs needed on the road. A 2019 report from Boston Consulting Group found that it could cost a utility that serves two to three million customers, anywhere between $1,700 to $5,800 in grid upgrades per EV.Apoorv wants to avoid that. As CEO and co-founder of WeaveGrid, his team provides utilities with the software to connect and manage EVs, while getting more EVs on the grid by using data to anticipate demand in different areas. After more than a decade working on the energy transition in different capacities, Apoorv combined his experience in tech, consulting, and business by launching WeaveGrid with co-founder John Taggart in 2018.This week, Brad talked with Apoorv about how WeaveGrid's technology is built to serve the interest of customers and utilities alike, and the levers needed to spur change in the private sector.This podcast is produced by GridX. GridX is the Enterprise Rate Platform that modern utilities rely on to usher in our clean energy future.

After the city of Los Angeles and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power asked NREL to help them figure out what would it take to get LA's entire grid running on 100% renewable energy by 2045, their study called the LA100 said it wasn't just possible to make the switch; it was possible to do it a decade sooner. So LADWP changed their goal. Instead of converting the grid by 2045, they'd do it by 2035. The scale of that transition is immense. Almost 4 million residents live within the city limits. Pulling it off would make LADWP the largest municipal utility in the country to run on 100% renewable energy.As director of power system planning at the utility, Jason Rondou and his team are tasked with figuring out how to deploy hundreds of gigawatts worth of wind, solar, and long term storage to meet the city's growing energy demands.And if done right, the city's transition could create nearly 10,000 new jobs and bring in $60 to $90 billion of new investment for the city.This week, Brad talked with Jason about the policies and programs LADWP is using to clean up the city's grid, and the ways that a public utility like theirs is uniquely suited to the challenge.This podcast is produced by GridX. GridX is the Enterprise Rate Platform that modern utilities rely on to usher in our clean energy future.

The 2018 Camp fire was the most destructive wildfire in California's history. By the time the smoke cleared, more than 150,000 acres had burned. Damages surpassed $16 billion. Dozens had died. Thousands more were displaced. So how did it all happen? The increasingly hot and dry conditions in the region coupled with the high Diablo winds turned the forest floor into a powder keg. Within hours, thousands of homes were destroyed in Butte County and the surrounding areas. Katherine Blunt was just a few days into her new role as a reporter covering renewable energy and utilities for the Wall Street Journal when the fire blew up.She chronicled how the blazed occurred and the aftermath for Pacific Gas & Electric — the utility whose equipment caused the fire — in her 2022 book “California Burning: The Fall of Pacific Gas and Electric and What it Means for America’s Power Grid.” This week, Brad talks with Katherine about reporting on the Camp fire and its ramifications for the local community and PG&E, and what it all means for the utility industry.This podcast is produced by GridX. GridX is the Enterprise Rate Platform that modern utilities rely on to usher in our clean energy future.

A third of the world's largest companies now have net-zero targets in place for carbon emissions. Google was ahead of the curve. Back in 2007, it had already achieved its goal of going carbon neutral across all of its offices and data centers around the globe. But as demand for Google's services expanded, it knew that it had to overhaul its energy goals. At the time, Raiford Smith served as Google's global head of energy and location strategy. And part of his job was jump-starting this massive effort.In 2021, Google launched one of the most ambitious corporate energy strategies ever. And Raiford and his team made it possible.After a career spanning more than 30 years at utilities like Duke Energy, CPS, Entergy, and Southern company, and two years at Google, Raiford knows firsthand that change is possible at power companies.This week, Brad talked with Raiford, now the chief innovation officer at AES, about what's needed to spur tech innovation at utilities, and the technologies that will be integral to the energy transition.This podcast is produced by GridX. GridX is the Enterprise Rate Platform that modern utilities rely on to usher in our clean energy future.

Over the last 12 episodes, we have heard some fascinating personal and professional stories about people who are pushing innovation on the grid – from smart meters to electric cars to culture shifts.And we have great news: we are hard at work on another season that will feature more executives and deep thinkers who are moving the utility business into a dynamic, digital, distributed era. There are now many thousands of you who listen to the show. And as we develop the next season, we want to hear from you.We have a brief survey for our listeners.  It’s just a few questions that will help us gauge your interests and expertise. And we are randomly giving away three $100 Patagonia gift cards to listeners as a token of appreciation.So stay tuned for a new season. If you want to email us directly with some ideas for guests, you can send Brad a note at brad.langley@gridx.com.As we like to say: when an industry that’s remained the same for almost 100 years starts to change quickly, there are a lot of questions to answer. And we’re here to ask – and answer – them.

In 2005, Lisa Schwartz was stunned when a colleague at the Oregon Public Utility Commission told her utility distribution planning budgets never saw the light of day. She thought it was a missed opportunity for consumer and stakeholder feedback on planning the future of the grid. Ever since, she has worked to increase transparency in utility planning. “In my view, having really meaningful stakeholder engagement can improve outcomes because you can get good input and a review from stakeholders. And sometimes utilities move the needle in response.”Lisa is a senior energy policy researcher and strategic advisor at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. She's spent her career studying utility distribution systems. Now, she works with state commissions to make grid planning more transparent and forward looking.This week, Brad talks with Lisa about distribution plan filings, the extensive outlines for  how utilities plan to spend money maintaining and upgrading power infrastructure. The filings create an opportunity for non-utilities and other stakeholders to share their ideas for the future of the grid. This podcast is produced by GridX. GridX is the Enterprise Rate Platform that modern utilities rely on to usher in our clean energy future.

For Katherine Hamilton, working at Dominion Virginia Power ran in the family. Her grandfather Leon built a career there. As a young engineer, she learned the ins and outs of the electric utility business, and was inspired by the problem solving and creativity her job required. “It was a very innovative place to be. It wasn't that they were necessarily innovative because they wanted to be creative. It was out of necessity. They had to be because they had to serve their customers.”But over time, creativity faded into the background for many power providers. Katherine is pushing utilities to bring innovation back to the forefront – and she believes policy can help do that. Katherine is the co-founder and chair of 38 North Solutions, a public policy firm focused on promoting clean energy policy at the state and federal level. She has a storied career in energy, ranging from utilities to finance to trade groups. And she has played an instrumental role in passing ambitious pro-clean energy policies.This week, Brad talks with Katherine about her policy work  – like the recent infrastructure bill and the historic Inflation Reduction Act – and how it will push utilities to be more innovative.This podcast is produced by GridX. GridX is the Enterprise Rate Platform that modern utilities rely on to usher in our clean energy future.

The smart meter unlocked a trove of data on how people use energy in their homes. And it created the opportunity for utilities to offer more services based on customers' individual needs and consumption habits. These demand-side services are crucial for decarbonizing the grid, enhancing reliability, and integrating more renewables.But many utilities are still in the early stages of digitizing their operations. As director of industry marketing for energy and utilities at Salesforce, Sharon Talbott is helping power providers get more digitally sophisticated. “Utilities still keep a lot of their data in different silos, and then a lot of their processes are done on spreadsheets and with people handing packets of paper to each other with wet signatures and things like that. So a lot of utilities want to change that,” explains Sharon.This week, Brad talks with Sharon about how she works with electricity companies to provide more digital services and products to their customers in order to modernize their operations.This podcast is produced by GridX. GridX is the Enterprise Rate Platform that modern utilities rely on to usher in our clean energy future.