On The Grid

SPECIAL EPISODE ALERT! "Startup." That word has a lot of baked-in connotation. One imagines an individual, or small group of individuals, having a "eureka!" moment where opportunity is found in a market and against all odds, a company and journey are started. But is the startup life as simple as that image? In this special episode, we talk to four founders of energy-based startups and ask them the...

Start@ETS was a wonderful event! Startups from many different areas of the industry came and pitched their ideas to our judges. One of the Judges, Bridgewater Consulting SVP of Business Strategy Ernie Lewis, sat down with Dylan at the even to talk about projects that impressed him, and what solutions he believes are necessary for the future of the industry. With a few decades of experience under h...

We're talking about data standardization with Cengizhan Yenerim ,Director of Demand Risk Management at Engie North America. What starts off as an episode explaining the difficulties of data standardization region to region evolves into a discussion on creating the right ecosystem within organizations and communities to allow for a healthy and secure data ecosystem. Our industry is flush with data...

This week, Director of Research Programs Erin Autin returns to the podcast for a lively discussion on Scooters. Perhaps you've seen them around your town. We dive deep into new research to figure out what ordinary people are saying about them and also what the safety concerns are. There is still time to register for Start@ETS head over to https://start19.co/ for registration if you're interested i...

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...

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...

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,...

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...

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 l...

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...

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 Zpr...

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...

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 Priv...

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 implicatio...

Whenever we talk about "the future of the energy industry" we very often mean changing business models, assets, and technologies; but an often overlooked aspect is the future of the energy industry workforce. As the industry evolves and takes on a different role in the lives of energy customers, a whole host of new skill sets are required to make the grid operate. To acquire the new talent necessa...

Every now and then we like to take stock of where the industry is and where we appear to be going. Keeping tabs on trends is a pastime for us at Zpryme so we brought in the head honcho, CEO Jason Rodriguez to talk trends with us and give a peek into what our plans are going forward. Music by bensound.com

Today we have ABB's VP of Smart Grids and Grid Modernization Gary Rackliffe to talk about digital maturity. Not every utility is on the same road to digital maturity because not every utility has the same size, customer and asset issues, or regulatory environment. However, there are some best practices when strategizing for digitization, digitalization, and enterprise integration. That's where Gar...

ETS has come and gone but while we were there, we managed to meet up with Carol Johnston, VP of Product Management at Clevest, to talk about Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR). There were numerous discussions and presentations at the event, but we wanted to go beyond the novelty and discuss the promise and current live applications of the technologies. We went over the results of a su...

Last week was ETS19, the biggest week in energy (maybe we're a little biased). Thought leaders from all over the industry came to tell their stories and how we can work together to overcome the hardest challenges facing the industry. Just like last week, Nancy Bui-Thompson, an elected member of the board of directors for SMUD sat down with some of the most prominent leaders at the event to discuss...

Today we have John Baksa from Hansen Technologies on the show following our Energy Thought Summit Conference. There was a lot of discussion about data at the conference and John goes through what he's interested to see utilities doing, or not doing, with data. We also play a game of data prescriptions and come up with some do's and don'ts. Make sure you're taking notes! This episode was sponsored...

At ETS19, many thought leaders were brought together to discuss some of the most pertinent issues in the energy industry. One of the most provocative and engaging keynotes was Steve Westly, Founder of the Westly Group discussing misconceptions and imperatives for the utility of the future. To expand upon that talk, Nancy Bui-Thompson, member of the board of directors at SMUD sat down with Steve at...

Today Tom Willie, CEO of Blue Pillar, joins the podcast to discuss what commercial and industrial businesses are doing behind the meter as they think of ways to lower their energy footprint and reduce costs. This inevitably leads into a discussion about the relationship between utilities (or energy service providers) and C&I customers and how it needs to change along with other important aspects o...

Today on the podcast we have Sitetracker VP of Sales Irene Scher to talk about Transmission and Distribution planning: how to address legacy systems in an increasingly digital grid and how to plan for new technologies and systems. We also discuss reliability and safety issues coming the forefront in discussions around infrastructure. This podcast was sponsored by Sitetracker. Music by bensound.com

As we get closer to ETS we're talking to thought leaders who have big ideas to share about the future of the energy industry. To that end, we interviewed Kim Shumway from Allconnect to talk about how to use data to tailor energy content to customers and avoid miscommunication in customer engagement. She also talked about looking to leaders outside the energy space to help better reach customers wh...

The Zpryme content crew is back! After our WE3 water-energy nexus event, we had a lot on our minds about issues and trends revealed through the discussions. Erin, Erin and Chris have their own ideas about what the relationship between water and energy will look like in the future and what everyone in this industry needs to be looking toward in this space. Pour yourself a glass of water and join us...