Grid Talk

Community solar allows households and businesses to access the benefits of solar energy, such as lower electricity costs, regardless of whether they’re able to host a system on their own roof. In this episode of Grid Talk, host Marty Rosenberg talks with Jeff Cramer who is the president and CEO of Coalition for Community Solar Access.  “We’ve figured out a way for any electricity customer to be ab...

The utility sector is embracing new values and attracting a new kind of work force as it empowers America with a sustainable, affordable, secure grid. In this episode of Grid Talk, host Marty Rosenberg interviews Tom Kuhn, president and CEO of the Edison Electric Institute which represents investor-owned utilities providing electricity to 235 million Americans.  The discussion focuses on the curre...

Hawaii gets about one-third of its energy from renewables, and it aims to get to 100 percent by 2045. In this episode of Grid Talk, host Marty Rosenberg interviews Stephen Walls, the deputy chief energy officer of the Hawaii State Energy Office. The state is still busy assessing the impact of Maui’s devastating fires on its electric grid.  “The office is going through an exercise of trying to thin...

Artificial intelligence and machine learning will make a big difference in boosting our reliance on intermittent renewable wind and solar power. In this episode of Grid Talk, host Marty Rosenberg interviews Dalia Patiño-Echeverri, professor at the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University.  With renewable energy being deployed at a rapid pace, making sure there is back up, or reserve,...

Wind production in America’s wind basket, a 14-state region including Iowa and Kansas, fell off the table in June, yet the region has served its power load during the hot summer. In this episode of Grid Talk host Marty Rosenberg interviews Lanny Nickell who is executive vice president and CEO for the Southwest Power Pool. Nickell talks about the summer’s wind mystery. “We have over 32,000 megawatt...

Federal spending of one-trillion dollars is aimed at transforming the electric grid and transitioning to clean energy. In this episode of Grid Talk, we talk with Sheri Givens, president and CEO of the Smart Electric Power Alliance (SEPA). The discussion focuses on the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead.  “In looking and listening to our many members and regulators who are involved in acce...

The electric grid in in America’s northeast industrial heartland is in the midst of profound transformation. In this episode of Grid Talk, host Marty Rosenberg talks with Kenneth Seiler who is vice president for PJM Interconnection.  Seiler talks about how the electric system is rapidly evolving with PJM evaluating 2,700 new major grid related projects.  “We just went through the interconnection r...

In this episode of Grid Talk, host Marty Rosenberg chats with Audrey Zibelman about the push to make the national grid fully digital. Zibelman is an experienced energy regulator who is advocating for giving the grid a “digital spine. Zibelman was the chair of the New York State Department of Public Service when it introduced its REV new vision for electric energy. She’s also been CEO and managing...

Two Danish islands will serve as hubs of massive new offshore wind turbines to serve itself and neighboring countries and spur development of clean hydrogen green fuel for aircraft and factories. In this episode of Grid Talk, host Marty Rosenberg talks with Hanne Storm Edlefsen who is the vice president of Energy Islands, a project of the Energinet transmission system operator in Denmark. One comp...

Two major fusion initiatives are making headway in the decades long goal to find the ultimate source of clean energy. In this episode of Grid Talk, we visit with Laban Coblentz who is the head of communications at the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) project in the south of France. Coblentz described the long quest for fusion and its implications.  “Fusion has the potential...

Fusion power, clean and limitless, long elusive to scientists, may be headed our way sooner than many suspected thanks to a breakthrough experiment in early December at the Lawrence Livermore National Lab (LLNL) in California. In this episode of Grid Talk, host Marty Rosenberg talks with Annie Kritcher, the physicist who designed the successful experiment that recreated the energy source of the su...

In this episode of Grid Talk, host Marty Rosenberg talks with Michael Sachse who is the CEO of Dandelion Energy. Dandelion Energy’s mission is to enable the widespread adoption of geothermal.  “If you think about what we need to decarbonize, heating’s really a challenge because so much about heating comes from burning natural gas; a lot of homes burn fuel oil, and so really, we got focused on that...

Kansas City, Missouri is working to place the largest municipal solar farm in the nation next to its $1.5 billion new Kansas City International Airport. In this episode of Grid Talk, host Marty Rosenberg talks with the Brian Platt who is the City Manager. “If we ever want to make positive change and progress in these existential and generational challenges that we’re facing, we have to be big and...

The federal government is spending $7.5 billion on Electric Vehicle infrastructure to increase EV adoption across the country. In this episode of Grid Talk, host Marty Rosenberg chats with Nick Voris who is the senior manager of electrification for Evergy. “It’s going to unlock nationwide travel with respect to EVs,” said Voris. The money will be spent over the next five years to create electrific...

In this episode of Grid Talk, host Marty Rosenberg talks with the General Manager of Austin Energy, Jackie Sargent. The discussion is focused on the city-owned utility’s push to be carbon free by 2035 and ensuring equity for electric customers. “When we are at looking moving forward and reaching those carbon-free goals, affordability is part of that equation, and it’s really important for us that...

Italian utility powerhouse Enel is championing a surge of renewable investments in America and transformation of the grid. In this episode of Grid Talk, host Marty Rosenberg talks with Mona Tierney-Lloyd who’s head of U.S. Public Policy at Enel North America. Enel is the world’s leading private electricity distribution provider and it’s also the world’s largest renewable developer.  The discussion...

Italy is at the forefront of major utilities worldwide realizing its vision of the future of electricity. The massive utility aims to be carbon neutral by 2040. In this episode of Grid Talk, host Marty Rosenberg talks with Antonio Cammisecra, who’s the head of the Enel Grids within the Enel Group in Italy.  Enel Grids operates a massive 1.5 million miles of predominately distribution lines.  “With...

Alaska is global leader in microgrid technology with one of highest concentrations of renewably powered microgrid projects in the world. In this episode of Grid Talk, host Marty Rosenberg talks with Peter Asmus who is Executive Director of Alaska Microgrid Group. The group offers access to expertise from the utility industry and research community to leverage decades of experience designing, build...

Three out of four Americans are served by utilities out to slash carbon emissions, according to Julia Hamm, the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Smart Electric Power Alliance. In this episode of Grid Talk, Hamm sits down with host Marty Rosenberg to talk about how the power industry has changed over the last 19 years.  “73% of all U.S. electric customers are served by a utility that ha...

A federal infusion of $80 billion in infrastructure spending is generating new levels of innovation and cooperation when it comes to maintaining and upgrading the electrical grid. In this episode of Grid Talk, we hear from Dianne Solomon who is a commissioner on the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (NJBPU). She also is a member of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners an...

The push to decarbonize electricity production in the U.S. focuses heavily on solar and wind generation. But delivering reliable energy from intermittent resource will require an upgrade in energy storage capabilities. This episode of Grid Talk features Don Sadoway who is the John F. Elliott Professor of Materials Chemistry at MIT. He’s one of the leading experts on emerging battery products and a...

America’s reliance on nuclear power is poised to rapidly expand given a new generation of more affordable small modular reactors (SMR). In this episode of Grid Talk, host Marty Rosenberg talks with Maria Korsnick who is the President and CEO of the Nuclear Energy Institute. The conversation focuses on how SMRs can deliver carbon-free energy.  “We are about 90 gigawatts of generation today so it wi...

The nation’s largest municipal utility, serving Los Angeles, wants to move to 100% clean energy by 2035. To do that, the utility needs to significantly boost renewable energy generation and it’s banking on the rapid development of energy storage technology. In this episode of Grid Talk, host Marty Rosenberg talks with Simon Zewdu who is the Director of Transmission Planning, Regulatory Processes a...

The federal government is on track to invest $1.2 trillion to overhaul American infrastructure, with $80 billion headed to the electric grid. In this episode of Grid Talk, we talk with Christine Harada who is the Executive Director of the Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council. It was created in 2015 to help facilitate government approvals of major projects. “I want to make sure that we’r...

Commonwealth Edison (ComEd) is one of the nation’s largest utilities, serving Chicago. Last month, ComEd announced it is spending $113 million a year on “income-tested programs” to slash energy use and energy bills for those who can least afford them, while combating climate change.  In this episode of Grid Talk, host Marty Rosenberg talks with Gil Quiniones who is the ComEd CEO. They’ll talk abou...