Energy Central

The power grid is under historic strain. Electricity demand is climbing, climate impacts are intensifying, and the clean energy transition is accelerating. Despite this well agreed upon urgency, new infrastructure projects keep getting stuck in permitting delays, siting disputes, and interconnection backlogs. For the nation’s more than 2,000 public power utilities, in particular, these roadblocks hit especially hard. Communities can’t afford to wait years for the infrastructure that keeps the lights on and rates affordable. In this episode of Power Perspectives, host Jason Price and producer Matt Chester chat with Scott Corwin, President & CEO of the American Public Power Association (APPA). Scott breaks down why permitting reform is a make-or-break issue for public power, where solutions are emerging, and what “smart permitting reform” could look like to balance speed, reliability, affordability, and community engagement. Whether you’re in the utility C-suite, working on grid infrastructure in the field, or contributing to the policy debates unfolding in D.C., this episode offers a crucial public power perspective on one of the most urgent issues shaping our energy future. Key Links Sign up for the Energy Central Daily Newsletter: energycentral.beehiiv.com/subscribe Energy Central Post for this episode: https://www.energycentral.com/podcasts/post/permitting-delays-are-breaking-the-grid-here-s-one-ceo-s-fix-LA3mRBl28CvqHfB Video version on YouTube: https://youtu.be/tvK39wCwmgA Ask a Question to Our Future Guests: Do you have a burning question for the utility executives and energy industry thought leaders that we feature each week on Power Perspectives? Leave us a message here for your chance to be featured in an upcoming episode: www.speakpipe.com/EnergyCentralPodcast

Join Erik Helland, Commissioner at the Iowa Utility Commission, Jason Wild, CEO of Wild Innovation & Strategy Excellence, and Mike Smith, Principal at KLN Group, as they delve into the challenges utilities face in keeping pace with Big Tech. They discuss the stark contrast in R&D spending, the cultural hurdles that stifle innovation, and the importance of treating data as a valuable asset. The trio highlights how human behavior impacts technology adoption and the delicate balance between operational excellence and the need for transformative change.

Wildfires are no longer just a seasonal threat — they’re a year-round crisis reshaping the way utilities must plan and operate. With billions in damages each year and mounting regulatory and reputational risks, utilities are under intense pressure to respond faster, smarter, and more proactively to protect both the grid and the communities they serve. The challenge: most control rooms aren’t equipped with the integration and situational awareness needed to act decisively in the heat of the moment. In this episode of Power Perspectives, podcast host Jason Price and producer Matt Chester are joined by Dan Lysaker, Director of Product Design at AspenTech Digital Grid Management, to explore how advanced distribution management solutions (ADMS) can provide the real-time visibility and control utilities desperately need. Dan shares lessons learned from utilities in wildfire-prone regions, explains the value of integrating fire data into a single operational view, and discusses how utilities worldwide are rethinking resilience strategies. If you’re a utility decision-maker looking to harden your grid against tomorrow’s wildfire threats, this conversation is a must-listen. Key Links Sign up for the Energy Central Daily Newsletter: energycentral.beehiiv.com/subscribe Energy Central Post for this episode: https://www.energycentral.com/podcasts/post/utilities-are-fighting-wildfires-with-data-FgCr1EknTFrnIOy Video version on YouTube: https://youtu.be/1hDmfegC_i4 Dan Lysaker on Energy Central: https://www.energycentral.com/member/sldMU0QXZ6 AspenTech on Energy Central: https://www.energycentral.com/aspentech Ask a Question to Our Future Guests: Do you have a burning question for the utility executives and energy industry thought leaders that we feature each week on Power Perspectives? Leave us a message here for your chance to be featured in an upcoming episode: www.speakpipe.com/EnergyCentralPodcast

Move fast and break things? Not at utilities. More like move slowly and keep the lights on. Utilities have a reputation for being slow to innovate and adapt. Where does that come from? Well…they’re highly regulated, they’re used to financing investments with a guaranteed rate of return, and they’re on the hook for BIG bills if innovation goes south. All those realities contribute to the capital bias in energy—the inefficient phenomenon in which traditionally regulated utilities are incentivized to favor capital-intensive investments over cost-effective operational expenses (read: tech advancements). Simply put? More trillion-dollar poles and lines, fewer million-dollar demand response programs, for example. It’s not a permanent problem, though. Utilities can get faster in meeting the demand moment…and today on Piloting the Future, we explore exactly how they’re going to keep pace with the hyperscalers outspending them on innovation by leaps and bounds. Today’s guests: Dr. Elizabeth Cook, VP of Technical Strategy at AEIC, and Ken Silverstein, Senior Contributor at Forbes. They join Kim and Lee in a deeply insightful, forward-thinking conversation about breaking through gridlock by overcoming this capital bias. Don’t miss this one—building the grid of the future requires taking some risks…safely. And this week, we’re exploring how that becomes possible. #energy #tech #bigtech #ai #infrastructure #energygrid

The U.S. electric grid is under historic pressure. Record-breaking demand from electrification, AI, and data centers is colliding with extreme weather and aging infrastructure, while policy fights and project cancellations stall the very transmission projects needed to strengthen reliability. For utility leaders, the question isn’t if these stresses will hit home — it’s how quickly and how prepared they’ll be when they do. In this episode of Power Perspectives Podcast, host Jason Price and producer Matt Chester sit down with Christina Hayes, Executive Director of Americans for a Clean Energy Grid, to unpack why transmission is the backbone of the energy transition — and why utilities can’t afford to ignore it. Christina shares insights from ACEG’s latest research and publications, breaks down the permitting roadblocks, and offers practical guidance on what CEOs and decision-makers must know to navigate this make-or-break moment for the grid. Key Links Sign up for the Energy Central Daily Newsletter: energycentral.beehiiv.com/subscribe Energy Central Post for this episode: https://www.energycentral.com/podcasts/post/why-transmission-could-save-or-sink-the-energy-transition-91bMwgXGfiaqbmF Video version on YouTube: https://youtu.be/XUCjBs16qNI Ask a Question to Our Future Guests: Do you have a burning question for the utility executives and energy industry thought leaders that we feature each week on Power Perspectives? Leave us a message here for your chance to be featured in an upcoming episode: www.speakpipe.com/EnergyCentralPodcast Fewer New Miles: Strategic Industries Held Back by Slow Pace of Transmission: https://cleanenergygrid.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/ACEG_Grid-Strategies_Fewer-New-Miles-2025_Rev-1.pdf Large-Scale Transmission Deployment Saves Consumers Money: https://cleanenergygrid.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/GS_Transmission-Deployment-Saves-Consumers-Money_vf.pdf Resource Adequacy Value Of Interregional Transmission: https://cleanenergygrid.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/250610_RAValueInterregionalTx_Corrections.pdf

When we look to the future of the electric utility industry, what do we see? Better data. More efficiencies. Smarter grids. Simpler asset management. At least—that’s what we’re all hoping for. To make it happen? It’s all about location, location, location. And that’s where GIS comes in: Moving into the future of power, GIS will be instrumental in challenging the status quo, improving utilities’ understanding of where things are (from outages to assets to customers), leveling up what regulatory compliance really means, and breaking down siloes across the power org. Today on our finale of The GISt, we hear from Dr. Comfort Manyame, director of geospatial R&D at EMPACT Engineering and an expert in GIS for nearly 30 years. Dr. Manyame covers it all, from the intersection of GIS and AI to the skillset of the next generation of remarkable power professionals. Accessible GIS is the key to bringing this industry into its next era. Today, we’re talking about how that happens, who stands to benefit the most, and where we’re headed next.

Being a leader is about more than just knowing electrons. It’s about showing up every day ready to set the pace and tone for your team—this episode is the playbook for doing just that. Today on Piloting the Future, Kim & Lee tackle the idea of influence beyond authority—how energy leaders are becoming change champions, no matter their titles, budgets, or team sizes. We’ve got two experts leading the charge: Jody Allison (VP of Customer Transformation at Xcel Energy) & Brandy Bolden (Chief Customer Officer at SMUD). Jody and Brandy are serving up an insightful look at how they drive change in their orgs—managing ambiguity, driving strategic efforts, leveraging AI as a teammate, finding the value prop in customer expectations, winning community support, getting comfortable with risk, navigating authenticity vs. reality…and so much more. This conversation is a great listen for anyone eager to learn how to navigate the non-technical aspects of their jobs (because those matter, a lot). Want to know what leadership in the modern utility world looks like? Hit play. Learn more about Utility2030 here: https://www.utility2030.org/leadership #energy #leadership #leadershipdevelopment #utilities

The conversation around AI in energy often centers on what it consumes. But what about what it can contribute? Nowhere is that question more relevant than in nuclear power — a resource that is both critical to decarbonization and too often slow to adopt new tools. In this episode of Power Perspectives, podcast host Jason Price and producer Matt Chester sit down with Trey Lauderdale, Founder & CEO of Atomic Canyon, a startup pioneering the first on-premise AI platform designed for nuclear power plants. Trey shares his unconventional journey from healthcare startups to energy innovation, and how his company is already helping modernize operations at Diablo Canyon, one of the country’s most critical nuclear facilities. He highlights the challenges (and surprising wins) of bringing AI to conservative utility environments, while laying out the playbook for how AI can cut reactor engineering timelines by years. If you’ve been watching the parallel hype cycles around AI and nuclear and wondering where they truly intersect, then buckle up and enjoy this conversation that cuts through the noise with a vision from inside the control room. Key Links Sign up for the Energy Central Daily Newsletter: energycentral.beehiiv.com/subscribe Energy Central Post for this episode: https://www.energycentral.com/podcasts/post/can-ai-modernize-nuclear-this-ceo-thinks-so-HXAZ6xmDCb3561h Video version on YouTube: https://youtu.be/yyMuQkEluA8 Ask a Question to Our Future Guests: Do you have a burning question for the utility executives and energy industry thought leaders that we feature each week on Power Perspectives? Leave us a message here for your chance to be featured in an upcoming episode: www.speakpipe.com/EnergyCentralPodcast Atomic Canyon: http://www.atomic-canyon.com/

The Esri Utility Network is more than a technology upgrade. It’s a strategic leap forward that helps utilities transform asset modeling, improve data security, and enhance operational decision-making…while enabling real-time visibility and better data sharing across departments to solve problems with less friction and greater interconnection. Making the jump to the Utility Network isn’t easy, though. That’s where today’s episode comes in—a detailed guide to the why, how, and when of making the leap to this new framework for mapping and planning. David Miller, Executive Consultant at SSP Innovations, leverages 20 years of expertise to help utilities migrate to the UN—and establish priorities, game plans, ambitions, and systems needs. Today on The GISt, he’s breaking down his process for utilities of all shapes and sizes. This episode is brought to you by SSP Innovations. SSP Innovations is a leading Esri Platinum Partner serving the electric and gas utility industries. Electric and gas utilities across North America trust SSP for strategic consulting, GIS and data managed services, Utility Network migrations, system integration, and long-term support. From the introduction of the Utility Network platform, SSP has led the way with strategic consulting, data preparation, and implementation services. Many of the largest utility companies in North America have chosen SSP for their Utility Network migration projects and celebrated their successful completion. Want to learn more about SSP Innovations? Right this way: https://www2.sspinnovations.com/utility-network-podcast

When a tech giant comes knocking, how does a utility say make room for them in a way that ensures the best outcomes for its existing customers? That’s the question at the heart of Mississippi’s leap into the global spotlight, as Amazon Web Services chose the state for one of its largest-ever data center investments. And for Entergy Mississippi, this wasn’t just about plugging in servers — it was a once-in-a-generation opportunity to modernize the grid, replace retiring generation, invest in community infrastructure, and keep rates affordable for customers, including the 20% living below the poverty line. In this episode of Power Perspectives, podcast host Jason Price and producer Matt Chester are joined by Haley Fisackerly, President and CEO of Entergy Mississippi. In this conversation, Haley outlines how this deal came together after years of effort, what it means for clean energy and resiliency in the region, and how his team manages to balance the demands of hyperscale data centers with the realities of local communities. From navigating regulatory hurdles to ensuring affordability and equity, Haley shares lessons every utility leader should hear before the next big tech partnership lands on their doorstep. Key Links: Sign up for the Energy Central Daily Newsletter: https://energycentral.beehiiv.com/subscribe Energy Central Post for this episode: https://www.energycentral.com/podcasts/post/how-this-utility-ceo-helped-land-amazon-s-16-billion-power-investment-HPe8T88l2ugWwIg Video version on YouTube: https://youtu.be/RLEYYpco_ws Ask a Question to Our Future Guests: Do you have a burning question for the utility executives and energy industry thought leaders that we feature each week on Power Perspectives? Leave us a message here for your chance to be featured in an upcoming episode: www.speakpipe.com/EnergyCentralPodcast