Energy Solutions: A Podcast From EPSA

We close 2024 with a look back at some of our top episodes this year and end with a look forward into 2025 with EPSA’s President and CEO Todd Snitchler. Listen in for thoughts on gas-electric coordination from 2024’s NARUC President Julie Fedorchak, highlights from our 3rd annual Competitive Power Summit, and a glimpse into the top conversation of the year: the impact of AI, data centers, and othe...

Joining us for this episode is Christina Hayes, executive director of Americans for a Clean Energy Grid (ACEG), a nonprofit coalition of labor and environmental groups, clean energy buyers, renewable developers, transmission developers, and utilities. ACEG focuses on deploying high capacity transmission, which it says is the most cost effective and reliable way of decarbonizing the grid.   Hayes s...

Pipefitters, pipeliners, and welders install and maintain the essential building blocks of the nation’s energy grid.  A labor union leader representing these essential workers, Derrick Kualapai joins us for this episode of Energy Solutions. He shares how manufacturing is changing through a shifting energy landscape and how those changes impact workers, why his industry is so essential to the natio...

To meet the nation’s rising demand for electricity, we need to build a lot of power generation, and fast, and keep what we have. What’s the best way to get there? What policies and market foundations can best incentivize the investment and enable the buildout needed while mitigating costs and keeping the grid reliable?  In part 2 of the final episode of our four-part series exploring the challenge...

To meet the nation’s rising demand for electricity, we need to build a lot of power generation, and fast, and keep what we have. What’s the best way to get there? What policies and market foundations can best incentivize the investment and enable the buildout needed while mitigating costs and keeping the grid reliable?  In part 1 of the final episode of our four-part series exploring the challenge...

Meeting the rapid growth in electric demand posed by AI and data centers, manufacturing, electrification, and other factors requires a significant buildout of electric power resources on a tight timeline. Solving for decarbonization and reliability adds to the challenge – requiring not just existing generation resources, but new technologies and innovative approaches. For competitive power supplie...

Rapidly rising electric power demand driven by data centers and AI, manufacturing growth, the push to electrify the economy, and other factors means we’re going to be asking a lot of America’s energy infrastructure. What is the current state of the power grid? With reliability concerns already on the horizon, how will the need to connect and run not just new megawatts or gigawatts – but terawatts...

Electric power demand has been estimated to skyrocket over the next decade, with some saying growth could double from projections made just two years ago. AI and the rush to build large energy-intensive data centers, a domestic manufacturing resurgence, and electrification trends are some of the key factors driving this thirst for electricity. In this episode, guests including Wall Street Journal...

Washington, D.C. may be the nation's capital, but it sources nearly all of its power generation from other states – presenting unique considerations for the head of its Public Service Commission. In this episode, DCPSC Chairman Emile Thompson shares how the district’s position gives both a local and national perspective on energy priorities. How is the Chairman thinking about the energy expan...

Amid rapid decarbonization and skyrocketing demand, America’s power grid is straining to continue providing homes and businesses with reliable electricity. What technologies are innovators investing in to combat these challenges? Covarrubia Energy Chairman and CEO Russell Covarrubia joined us for this episode to break down what exactly pyrolysis means – and why it’s opened a door for reducing plas...

What does a previous federal energy regulator have to say about markets, reliability, and the current state of the energy grid today? We got the scoop from Joseph T. Kelliher, former chairman and commissioner on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and former NextEra energy executive. Joe helped shape how competitive power markets function today, establishing structures that guard against mark...

How is technology enabling greater efficiency and performance in power generation? In this episode, Tom Rumsey from Competitive Power Ventures and Roger Martella from GE Vernova discuss the launch of a new highly efficient combined-cycle gas turbine in Illinois, along with other new developments. This is part of our special series featuring four fireside chats from EPSA’s 3rd Annual Competitive Po...

How are state utility commissioners addressing big power system questions like resource adequacy, a changing energy mix, and balancing individual state needs and federal authority? Plus, what’s the latest on NARUC’s new initiative to address gas-electric harmonization, GEAR? North Dakota Public Service Commissioner and NARUC President Julie Fedorchak joins us in this episode to discuss.  This is p...

What energy priorities do policymakers and decisionmakers need to have no matter what side of the aisle they’re on? In this episode, American Clean Power Association CEO Jason Grumet joins Todd to debrief the impact of the Inflation Reduction Act on energy infrastructure investment, why power system reliability needs to be #1, and the ways clean power can combine with all resources to serve the na...

In this episode, the head of the nation’s regulatory authority for power system reliability gives an update on the reliability and security of the grid – discussing steps to improve performance after 2022’s Winter Storm Elliott and other extreme weather events, the top reliability risks for the power system, and progress on gas-electric harmonization. Listen in to NERC and EPSA Presidents and CEOs...

EPSA’s 3rd annual Competitive Power Summit is just over a week away. What better way to gear up for the Summit than to hear from our speakers themselves? We brought our four panel moderators onto the pod—Politico's Catherine Morehouse, the Forum Consulting’s Ben Marter, former WSJ and Washington Post reporter Tim Puko, and Bloomberg’s Daniel Moore—to discuss the thoughts and questions they’re...

What will it take to meet the nation’s rising power demand? NARUC President and North Dakota Public Service Commissioner Julie Fedorchak joins EPSA President and CEO Todd Snitchler for this episode, where she shares the initiatives that she has taken to solve the challenges facing a system being asked to perform in ways it has never had to before. Fedorchak unpacks her concerns for power grid reli...

Electricity demand is growing for the first time in years. Are grid operators and competitive power suppliers prepared to maintain reliability while balancing decarbonization mandates? Nathan Hanson, President of LS Power Generation, believes that maintaining a healthy market for firm generation resources will be essential to meet the growing demand from data centers, manufacturing, and transporta...

From New York to California, what are the top issues facing America’s electric grid? We gather leaders from the organizations representing competitive power suppliers in RTOs and ISOs throughout the nation to discuss the top stories from the past year – and what to expect in 2024 when it comes to delivering reliable electricity while reducing carbon emissions, serving rapidly rising demand, and mi...

Winter is coming. Is America’s power grid ready? That’s top of mind for Chairman Willie Phillips, who heads the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. In this episode, he addresses infrastructure development and streamlining to meet growing energy demand, making sure the power system can weather extreme heat and cold, and the importance of affordability and environmental justice. But as you’ll hear...

Wyoming is the top coal-producing state in the U.S. But like much of the country, the state is transitioning to new sources of energy. This comes as the region faces reliability challenges from heat, drought, and other factors. How are Wyoming and other Western states balancing the growth of lower carbon power sources with the need for a reliable grid and continued economic growth? The University...

From wildfires to winter storms to cyber and physical attacks, the power system is under greater stress than ever – all while under pressure to transition rapidly to new sources of electricity. In this episode, Todd speaks with Katherine Blunt, reporter for The Wall Street Journal and author of California Burning , a look at PG&E operations and the fallout from 2017 and 2018’s tragic wildfires...

How did Ohio go from the 41st to the 7th best state for business in the nation? Among other factors, a foundation of reliable and cost-effective energy drove economic growth and helped attract businesses and employers to invest in the Buckeye State. Meanwhile, emissions have dropped while competitive energy markets have grown. In this episode, Dana Saucier of Jobs Ohio shares how energy keeps Ohio...

New York has ambitious climate goals. But its electric grid operator has also recently signaled reliability warnings as power plants are driven into retirement. Diane Burman has served on the New York State Public Service Commission for nearly ten years. She joined Energy Solutions to talk about the current energy policy landscape in New York, her priorities as a regulator, and what other policyma...

The Western states have seen their share of challenges in recent years when it comes to electric reliability – with rolling blackouts in California, extreme drought and wildfires, and political differences across a broad geographic expanse. The North American Electric Reliability Corporation included the region on its watch list for areas that could experience electric shortages this summer should...