Grid Forward Chats

May 08 2024 5
Grid Forward Chats Podcast artwork

Listen in as Bryce Yonker, executive director of Grid Forward, talks with regional and national leaders who are working to modernize the electric grid. In about half an hour, Grid Forward Chats will give you candid insights, new observations and a feel for how our utilities, grid operators, government offices and technology providers think, feel and grapple with the fast evolving energy landscape.

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Episode 6, Season 5 – Scaling Virtual Power Plants to Their Fullest Potential

May 08 2024 43 mins  
Maintaining a flexible energy grid is critical to modern day power. Decarbonation goals, policy changes and a migration of people due to the pandemic have all drastically changed the landscape of power supply needs in recent years. On top of that, consumers are adopting distributive energy resources, or DERS, causing the grid to no longer be a one-way system from generation to load

Episode 5, Season 5 - How AI Can Help Us Build a More Resilient, Decarbonized, and Secure Grid

Apr 30 2024 38 mins  
Artificial Intelligence has the potential to accelerate innovation in the energy grid in terms of resiliency, decarbonization and security. AI has already shown how it can analyze vast amounts of data to help grid operators make near-real-time decisions. As the grid digitizes, AI can help the industry make full use of all its energy resources and infrastructure. However, change is

Episode 4, Season 5 – How Rates and Markets Can Help Meet Rising Demand with APS and EEI

Apr 18 2024 35 mins  
Demand for electricity has exploded over the past several years, and nowhere more so than at Arizona Public Service Company. Grid hardening, storage solutions, flexible rates, transmission projects, federal investments — all of these are part of the solution to make the grid ready for escalating demand. Yet progress needs to be scalable and affordable to meet the needs in the wes

Episode 3, Season 5 – Making the Grid Modern and Affordable

Apr 08 2024 35 mins  
The National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates (NASUCA) represents the interests of utility consumers before state and federal regulators and in the courts. David Springe, Executive Director of NASUCA, discusses how modernizing the grid impacts affordability for the consumer. As infrastructure ages and electrification needs change, modernizing the grid is mandatory. H

Episode 2, Season 5 - Shifting Energy Market Dynamics: A Conversation with The Leaders of AESO, ERCOT and SPP

Mar 20 2024 38 mins  
On this episode, we have three leaders from organized energy markets to address the shifting dynamics within the industry. They discuss which technologies are being developed in their various regions and how those assets are impacting the energy market. Bryce also asks our guests what they are doing to combat volatilities due to peak loads often being met. Of course, the impact of

Episode 1, Season 5 – Discussion with the White House: The Federal Toolkit to Advance the Grid

Mar 07 2024 31 mins  
To kick off this podcast season we have Whitney Muse, Senior Policy Advisor at the White House in the Office of Clean Energy Innovation and Implementation for a conversation about the federal toolkit of resources that are in place to help advance the grid. This includes billions of dollars from grants, tax credits, loans and financing for infrastructure expansion, resilience, and t

Episode 11, Season 4 – Leading the Nation’s Largest Energy Delivery Company to Invest in Local Communities

Oct 10 2023 38 mins  
Even though Exelon is the largest energy delivery company in America, the company is committed to investing in local communities and helping all of their operating utilities achieve their goals. CEO Calvin Butler discusses how Exelon turns government policies into action and how it has also applied for $700 million in federal funding for infrastructure projects to address the needs

Episode 10, Season 4 – The Complex Barriers to Building Transmission Infrastructure

Aug 30 2023 44 mins  
What are the barriers to building transmission infrastructure? We know them well as planning, permitting, and paying. Rob Gramlich (founder and president of Grid Strategies LLC, executive director of Americans for a Clean Energy Grid and executive director of the WATT Coalition) joins the former chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Rich Glick to unpack the complexit

Episode 9, Season 4 – Wildfire & The Grid and Firsthand Account of Lahaina Fires

Aug 30 2023 49 mins  
This special episode of Grid Forward chats starts with a conversation with Katherine Blunt, a reporter from the Wall Street Journal. Katherine recently published book California Burning which has been widely read and details PG&E in regard to the devastating California wildfires. Katherine and Bryce talk about lessons that grid stakeholders are learning as wildfires have increa

Episode 8, Season 4 – Building Out the Global Supply Chain to Support a Clean Energy Future

Aug 11 2023 29 mins  
Henry Sanderson, Executive Director of Benchmark Mineral Intelligence and author Volt Rush, wrote the book after he became aware of the scale of the resources needed for the clean energy transition. For the supply chain to provide the materials necessary for next-generation batteries, sourcing needs to be diversified to decrease risk. Geopolitical issues must also be considered whe