On The Grid

Last week we joined with CPS Energy to put on our first ever City of the Future event in San Antonio, Texas. There were talks about evolutions in transportation, city planning, water, customer expectations, data, and so much more. But at the center of all of it was people. People are the driving force of innovation in the city of the future and that was the starting point for the event. If you wer...

Today on the podcast we have Ross Smith, a digital transformation and complex program delivery expert at PA Consulting. We discuss the digital operation model, organizational agility, and how utilities form partnerships in the digital age. This podcast was sponsored by PA Consulting. music by bensound.com

Live (sort of) from New Orleans we have a full Zpryme crew of Erin Hardick, Erin Autin, Chris Moyer, and CEO Jason Rodriguez to break down the trends present in Distributech 2019. How does this conference color the energy discussion of 2019 and what are the tech providers saying about the viability of the utilities in the future? All that and more in this cajun-flavored podcast. Music by bensound....

PG&E has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. How did this happen? What does it mean for the people of California? What lessons can other utilities learn from this? Is this in part due to the complicated business models of utilities? All these questions and more are discussed by Erin Hardick and Chris Moyer of the Zpryme content team. Music by bensound.com

Utilities are starting to think about predictive modeling and analytics to help protect their assets and avoid disaster, but to utilize these tools you need the right data. That's where monitoring comes in. We talked with Bernie Cook to discuss the importance of asset monitoring now to avoid catastrophe down the line, and acquire data to improve asset health. We also talk about changes in utility...

Happy New Year one and all! 2018 was a year stuffed full of exciting energy developments, so out of respect we stuffed this podcast with plenty of Zprymers! We got the entire research and content team together at a library in Austin to go over how our predictions of 2018 panned out and what we're looking forward to in 2019. We also argue about blockchain for a bit. Music by bensound.com

Today we have Itron's Vice President of Global Marketing and Public Affairs, Marina Donovan to help us break down their 2018 Resourcefulness Report. We use the data to talk about what customers see in a more resourceful world and what strategies utilities should be implementing to meet those demands. We also discuss customer education and what role it plays in bridging the gap between customers an...

[RECAST] Today we have SparkCognition CEO and Founder, Amir Husain. We talk about Artificial Intelligence, how it changes the energy industry, and how it's a necessary step in human evolution. A bit later on we get pretty deep on the nature of human obsolescence and what about us as people has intrinsic value. Of course we also nerd out about Star Trek. Music by bensound.com

We're rounding up a bunch of our research from the past couple months to deliver our findings to you the listener! Erin and I are joined by Zpryme Senior Director of Content Chris Moyer to go through research we were a part of and what projects we're excited for coming up. If you wondered what we did when we weren't podcasting, enjoy this peak behind the curtain! Music by bensound.com

We've got an episode packed to the gills. We have Rod Hilburn from Ameren Illinois and David Chiesa from S&C returning to talk about their microgrid project in Champaign Illinois, the first of its kind to receive PEER certification. We talk about what this certification means and how others can replicate this kind of project in other places. We also talk about the project journey and what road bum...

We come to you live (in the past) at Itron Utility Week to discuss the intersection of water and electricity with University of Texas Professor Michael Webber. How do water and electricity fuel each other? What can we learn about building for the future from the experiences of the different utilities? All that and more on this jam-packed episode. This episode was sponsored by Itron. Music by benso...

It's our first ever live show! We bring Richard Amato up on stage at the One World Theater in Austin to talk about startups and the future of energy. We also force our audience to play a game! If you missed out on Start@ETS, you don't want to miss out on this podcast! Music by bensound.com

This week we talk with David Graham who works for the city of San Diego. We talk about what the roles and goals of cities are in the energy space. We also talk about how innovation is driven by community more than technology (though technology still plays an important role). This podcast was sponsored by Itron. If you haven't checked out our podcast survey go to www.surveymonkey.com/r/onthegrid

This week we have Grid 20/20 President and Founder Alan Snook on to talk about how unexpected additions on the grid edge can threaten distribution infrastructure. We delve into how electric vehicle home charging, marijuana cultivation and power theft combine to create unexpectedly large strains on the grid. Also I make a bad pun. To check out our listener survey go to https://www.surveymonkey.com/...

Our guest this week is Kumi Premathilake from Aclara and we talk with her about vision: the vision of the energy industry's future, the vision to see trends on an enterprise level, and our own personal visions of utility futures we would like to see and be a part of. Kumi also gives helpful tips for building and sticking to roadmaps to achieve these visions. We also discuss how planning for the en...

Erin and Dylan talk with Utility Dive Senior Reporter Gavin Bade about the resignation of Scott Pruitt as Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. We discuss his legacy, who in energy benefited under him and who is happy to see him gone, and what to expect under the new acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler. Music by bensound.com

Now that Puerto Rico has returned power to 99.9% of its residents, we take a look at what went wrong in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria and what lessons we can learn about how we clean up disasters. We also discuss with our guest, Seyi Fabode, how utilities need to change their organizational structure so something like Puerto Rico won't happen again to any US grid system. Music by bensound.com

On this episode we talk researcher-to-researcher with Matthew Futch from NREL. We talk about the relationship that research-based companies have with the energy industry and why this kind of research is important for utilities and customers. As a pertinent example, we talk about Net Zero initiatives and how the planning, execution and associated problems of such measures are being facilitated by r...

Dr. Erfan Ibrahim joins the podcast today to discuss cybersecurity in the electric utility space. Where are the threats coming from? What are the different types of threats and solutions? We discuss this as well as some best practices utilities can take to have a healthier culture of cybersecurity. Music by bensound.com

The gang is here today to talk about grid resiliency and what you have to do as a utility when a massive storm hits. To help us dive into this topic, our guest this week is Gregory Knight from CenterPoint Energy, a Houston-based utility. We talk about what role the utility has not only in rebuilding infrastructure, but fostering a sense of camaraderie in ravaged communities. This episode was spons...

This week we discuss the Energy Revolution with Rob Massoudi from ABB. How far have we come, where are we now and how did we get here? We also discuss how we would go about writing a book on the modern energy story as well as books that we just happen to like because we're huge nerds like that. This podcast was sponsored by ABB. Music by bensound.com

This week we have Eric Dresselhuys from Smart Energy Water joining the podcast to talk about customer engagement and education. How do we engage consumers who may not have the desire or capability to be prosumers? How do we get fresh talent to join the industry? How do we better tell our stories to the customers we interact with every day? All this and more in this jam-packed episode! This episode...

This week we talked to Raiford Smith from Entergy about how data analytics are changing the way the energy industry makes decisions. Later we discussed Great Expectations and answer the most important question facing the industry: Are we a bunch of nerds?

This week we come to you live from the historic Moody Theater...'s nearby hotel in Austin, TX for the Energy Thought Summit 2018. Dylan, Erin, and Christine talk about the cool presentations and interesting people we met at the conference. Then we play a game because that's just kind of what we do. I also did not intend for episode 18 to be ets18 but it's neat that it worked out that way, huh? Mus...

On this episode, the gang talks about what living in a digital energy future actually looks like with Mike Carlson from Siemens. We also delve into personal energy journeys and also speculate where the next generation of energy professionals will come from. Christine also gets an idea for a new survey. This episode was sponsored by Siemens Music by bensound.com