Electric Perspectives

054 Electric Perspectives: EEI 2022 Highlights: Energy Resilience, Geopolitics, Supply Chains, Hydrogen, and More!

This episode is the third and final part of our series featuring the highlights of EEI 2022, our annual thought leadership forum. Tune in to hear leading experts discuss energy resilience, geopolitics and the impacts to supply chains, hydrogen rising as a clean fuel, and innovative workforce development programs. Guests include Rod West, Entergy group president of utility operations; Laszlo von Lazar, Black & Veatch president of energy and process industries; Matt O' Keefe, head of O Power, Oracle Energy and Water; GE Power Chief Marketing Officer Brian Gutknecht; and Dr. Belenthia Berry, St. Petersburg College's dean of workforce development and corporate partnerships.

For more highlights of EEI 2022, visit EEI's website. Be sure to mark your calendar for EEI 2023, which will be hosted in Austin, Texas, from June 11-13.

 

053 Electric Perspectives: Enhancing Industry Coordination and Building Resilience After Superstorm Sandy

Ten years ago, Superstorm Sandy brought severe winds and devastating flooding to New Jersey and New York. At one point, it engulfed 800 miles between the East Coast and the Great Lakes region, impacting customers in several additional states. The storm caused one of the most massive power outages in U.S. history, with about 8.5 million customers losing power at some point in parts of the Mid-Atlantic, Northeast, and the Ohio Valley. The electric power industry always has focused on strengthening its industry-government partnerships and on improving emergency response plans and processes, but Superstorm Sandy was a catalyst for rethinking how the industry organizes itself to manage major incidents. Those efforts resulted in significant enhancements over the past decade. 

 

On this episode, we are joined by American Electric Power Chair and CEO Nick Akins and EEI Senior Vice President of Security and Preparedness Scott Aaronson to discuss the lessons that the electric power industry learned from Superstorm Sandy, how the industry has worked with federal partners to improve emergency coordination, and how Superstorm Sandy forever changed the way electric companies plan for natural disasters. 

052 Electric Perspectives: Partnering to Stop Scams

November 13-19 is International Fraud Awareness Week, and November 16 is Utility Scams Awareness Day. EEI’s member electric companies will join other utilities to raise customer awareness of imposter utility scams and ways to stop them with the help of Utilities United Against Scams (UUAS), a consortium of more than 150 U.S. and Canadian electric, water, and natural gas utilities (and their respective trade associations).

On this episode, we are joined by UUAS Executive Director Monica Martinez and UUAS Chair Bud Ajdukovic, who also serves as the Kissimmee Utility Authority Customer Service Manager, to discuss the trends in utility scams, what customers should do if they suspect they are being scammed, and more.

051 Global Circuit: Co-creating Energy Solutions with Local Communities

As electric companies focus on increasing reliable electricity access within their communities, they are working alongside Indigenous community stakeholders to provide communities services they need. What are the ways in which electric companies can co-create energy solutions with their local communities? What should leadership look like to support employees and customers? And why is it critical to make the energy decision-making process more inclusive? Jay Grewal, President and CEO of Manitoba Hydro, joins this episode of Global Circuit.

 

The Global Circuit is brought to you by EEI International Programs as part of EEI’s Electric Perspectives podcast. For more information about EEI International Programs, visit https://www.eei.org/about-eei/international-members

050 Electric Perspectives: Leading the Clean Energy Transformation

There has been tremendous progress on the climate policy front over the past year in the United States, including the bipartisan infrastructure law, the robust clean energy tax package included in the Inflation Reduction Act, and the CHIPS and Science Act. Taken together, these new laws firmly place the United States at the forefront of global efforts to deploy new carbon-free technologies and to drive down carbon emissions. On this episode, we are joined by Eric Holdsworth, EEI managing director of Clean Energy and Environmental Policy, who traveled with EEI leaders to several major clean energy events during National Clean Energy Week and Climate Week NYC. We discuss what happened at those events, how the recent legislative wins benefit our customers, and how EEI and our member companies will be demonstrating our clean energy leadership on the global stage at COP-27 next month in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt.

049 Electric Perspectives: Celebrating Electric Vehicles

This week is National Drive Electric Week, and we are highlighting the substantial investments that America’s electric companies are making to accelerate the electrification of transportation and the adoption of electric vehicles (EVs). Kellen Schefter, EEI senior director of Electric Transportation, is joined by Scott Barrios, Entergy manager of Business Development, and Aki Marceau, Hawaiian Electric Electrification of Transportation director, to discuss their efforts to install EV fast chargers, how they are making switching to EVs easier for customers, how EVs play into our clean energy transition, and more.

 

Be sure to visit theelectricgeneration.org, EEI's newly relaunched site that showcases stories of how the National Electric Highway Coalition members are deploying EV fast chargers across the country and making progress on their goals. 

048 Global Circuit: Adopting A Customer-Centric Strategy for the Energy Transition

The energy transition requires an evolution of the customer experience and customer-centric strategies. How does approaching the transition from a tech perspective help? What can electric companies do to facilitate customer acceptance for the energy transition? How can electric companies help customers in times of crises? Greg Jackson, Founder and CEO of Octopus Energy Group joins this episode of Electric Perspectives Global Circuit. 

 

The Global Circuit is brought to you by EEI International Programs as part of EEI’s Electric Perspectives podcast. For more information about EEI International Programs, visit https://www.eei.org/about-eei/international-members

047 Electric Perspectives: Helping Customers Access LIHEAP Assistance

August is LIHEAP Action Month, an opportunity to highlight the federally funded Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), which provides financial support to vulnerable households and families to cover heating and cooling and other energy related costs. Electric companies and state LIHEAP administrators partner to help families access this critical funding, and they are working together to streamline the process of identifying income eligible households. 

In this episode, EEI Vice President of Customer Solutions Lisa Wood sits down with Tamara Johnson, DTE Energy customer service director, to discuss DTE Energy's successful collaboration with the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services and their efforts to significantly streamline the process of getting LIHEAP funds to households in need.

046 Electric Perspectives: EEI 2022 Highlights: EVs, ESG, and Cybersecurity

This episode is the second part of our three-part series featuring the highlights of EEI 2022, our annual thought leadership forum. In this episode, you will hear conversations about topics including electric transportation, ESG, and cybersecurity featuring Michael Webber, Chief Technology Officer, Energy Impact Partners, and Josey Centennial Professor in Energy Resources at the University of Texas at Austin; EEI Director of Electric Transportation Kellen Schefter; Dan Hahn, Partner – Energy, Sustainability, and Infrastructure at Guidehouse; Deloitte's Specialist Lead – EV Strategy and Planning Adrian Rouse and Vice Chair of U.S. Power, Utilities & Renewables Leader Jim Thompson; and Kim Zetter, journalist and author of Countdown to Zero Day: Stuxnet and the Launch of the World’s First Digital Weapon.

Also featured are virtual remarks by Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and highlights from a keynote featuring Duke Energy Chair, President, and CEO Lynn Good and Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Jen Easterly.

045 Electric Perspectives: Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm on America’s Resilient Clean Energy Future

During EEI 2022, EEI’s annual thought leadership forum, we were honored to be joined by U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm. This episode includes the EEI 2022 keynote discussion between Secretary Granholm and EEI Chair Warner Baxter, executive chairman of Ameren Corporation, during which they covered the path to a clean energy future, the technologies needed to meet our goals, today’s geopolitical and supply chain challenges, the importance of industry-government partnerships, and more. Read all about the discussions at EEI 2022 here.