Podcast
Energy Central
Hosted by Energy Central · EN
Welcome to the Energy Central Podcast Network—your ultimate resource for the biggest ideas, boldest perspectives, and best insights from across the electric power industry.
We publish…
Power Perspectives. From CEOs of major utilities to founders of energy tech startups pushing the envelope, Power Perspectives curates the news, thought leaders, and big picture conversations most important to modern power professionals—every week on Tuesdays.
The Watt & Why. Dive deep into utility business strategies, straight from the minds of the leaders deciding what comes next. Host Mike Smith leverages his own decades of power utility industry experience and leadership to get to the bottom of what inspires, drives, and challenges utility decision makers.
And there’s even more to come.
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24episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
Leadership lessons from transforming a 100-year-old utility
2w ago00:42:40Tap to summarizeCentral Hudson Gas & Electric is in the middle of a major five-year transformation aimed at becoming what CEO Stephanie Raymond calls a “premium utility” — one that leads on performance, reliability, trust, customer focus, and innovation. But what exactly does that mean?In this episode, host Kinsey Grant Baker chats with Stephanie Raymond of Central Hudson and Josh Eife, Managing Director at Greencastle, to unpack how Central Hudson 2.0 came together, what sparked the need for a sweeping reevaluation, and what happens when a utility decides the status quo is no longer enough. Stephanie walks us through the six pillars shaping the transformation: Growth, Organizational Effectiveness and Optimization, Workforce Engagement, Customer Excellence, Grid Resilience and Reliability, and Work Transformation. The conversation also gets into the practical reality of leading change while keeping day-to-day operations running.Now about a year into execution, the conversation covers what has changed, what surprised leadership, and what lessons emerged early in the process. For utility leaders navigating their own change journeys, this episode offers a grounded look at what it takes to build a “premium utility” in practice, and what that future might mean for both customers and employees.Thanks to Greencastle Consulting for making this episode possible. For nearly 30 years, Greencastle has implemented critical initiatives in highly regulated, high-stakes environments—like utilities—turning strategy into real, measurable results. 100% veteran-owned and operated and headquartered in Pennsylvania, Greencastle specializes in strategy execution: aligning leadership, strengthening governance, and ensuring critical initiatives actually deliver. Whether you’re navigating enterprise-level transformations, grid modernization, or other complex technology programs and regulatory demands, Greencastle embeds with your team to drive clarity, accountability, and real outcomes.Signup for the Energy Central Daily Newsletter: https://energycentral.beehiiv.com/subscribe
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China is outbuilding the US power grid—and it’s not close
2w ago00:38:26Tap to summarizeChina’s energy buildout has become one of the defining stories of the global energy transition. And the impacts aren’t constrained just to what happens in China, but the impacts are felt globally and are critical for U.S. utilities and policymakers to understand.In this episode, host Kinsey Grant Baker sits down with Henry Sanderson, journalist, author, and founder of the Volt Insight newsletter, to explore how China became the world’s largest energy infrastructure builder and what that means for everything from renewables to AI to global competitiveness. Henry explains how China’s power system differs from those in the U.S. and Europe, why the country has been able to scale clean energy technologies so quickly, and how its state-directed investment model has enabled massive buildout in generation, transmission, batteries, and grid modernization.Henry also zooms out to the global implications, discussing China’s dominance in supply chains for solar, batteries, and other clean energy technologies, how that gives the country economic and geopolitical leverage, and whether the U.S. can still compete in an energy system increasingly shaped by electrification and AI. For utility leaders trying to understand where the future of energy power, manufacturing, and grid investment is heading, this conversation offers a clear and sobering look at the scale of China’s advantage.Volt Insight: https://voltrush.substack.com/?utm_campaign=profile_chipsSignup for the Energy Central Daily Newsletter: https://energycentral.beehiiv.com/subscribe
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The modeling breakthrough changing emergency preparedness
3w ago00:43:58Tap to summarizeHydroelectric utilities face a different kind of risk than most other power operators: when a dam is involved, the consequences of failure are not just operational, but they are deeply tied to emergency planning, evacuation, and public safety. That means planning is even more important, and the statistical methods behind that planning must be regularly examined.To get into this critical topic, Kinsey Grant Baker speaks with Chris Goodell of Kleinschmidt Associates, along with Priya Jain and Eric Toth of East Bay Municipal Utility District, about how a pioneering probabilistic approach to dam-breach inundation mapping is changing the way utilities think about uncertainty, response, and communication. Their conversation walks through how inundation maps are used by planners, first responders, and downstream communities when every minute matters. The episode also explores how the team managed tens of thousands of scenarios, how outputs were translated into actionable information, and why this approach can give emergency managers and utility teams a much more complete picture of risk.By diving into a real world case study, these experts highlight what the probabilistic work can reveal, and how it reshapes next steps for the project team. For utility decisionmakers, this timely discussion shows how embracing uncertainty — rather than simplifying it away — can lead to stronger planning, clearer communication, and better outcomes when infrastructure risk is on the line.Thanks to this episode’s sponsor, Kleinschmidt Associates. Kleinschmidt Associates provides engineering, regulatory, and environmental consulting to energy companies and government agencies across North America. For over half a century, we have delivered innovative, practical solutions to complex challenges and sensitive issues. Working at the intersection of science, policy, and engineering, we provide practical solutions for complex renewable energy, water, and environmental projects.Signup for the Energy Central Daily Newsletter: https://energycentral.beehiiv.com/subscribe
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Inside ComEd’s $15B plan to modernize the power grid, with CEO Gil Quiniones
3w ago00:42:03Tap to summarizeHow does a major utility plan for an energy future that is growing more complex by the day? From data centers to an aging grid to an affordability crisis and more, utility leaders are staring down challenges that are more intertwined and urgent than ever, and managing them all is no small feat.In this episode, host Kinsey Grant Baker chats with Gil Quiniones, CEO of ComEd, to unpack the utility’s latest four-year plan and how it addresses some of the biggest pressures reshaping the grid: explosive data center demand, aging infrastructure, affordability concerns, and reliability expectations that keep rising every year. Gil walks us through what makes northern Illinois such a magnet for hyperscale growth, how ComEd is planning for concentrated load without overbuilding or shifting costs to other customers, and what it means to operate a transmission-and-distribution utility without owning generation.Listen in to get the inside scoop about how ComEd is thinking about affordability, equity, and near-term energy efficiency solutions while still making the long-term investments needed to strengthen the grid.Signup for the Energy Central Daily Newsletter: https://energycentral.beehiiv.com/subscribe
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How utilities get field data when GNSS fails
4w ago00:29:04Tap to summarizeUtilities depend on accurate field data to keep maps current, manage vegetation, and respond quickly when the grid is under stress, but that gets much harder when the global navigation satellite system (GNSS) isn’t reliable, access is restricted, or conditions make it unsafe for crews to get close.In this episode of Power Perspectives, host Kinsey Grant Baker chats with Laser Tech’s Derrick Reish, Steve Colburn, and Joe Cronn to explore how utilities collect critical measurements in urban, forested, and GNSS-denied environments without sacrificing speed, safety, or data quality. The conversation digs into the real-world consequences of measurement gaps across utility workflows, from planning and compliance to emergency response and outage recovery.To explore how laser rangefinders can help fill those gaps in the field, Derrick, Steve, and Joe walk through how the tools work, when utilities realize they need them, what a pilot or deployment typically looks like, and what best practices help teams get the most value from them. For utility leaders looking to maintain reliable data in difficult conditions, this episodes offers a practical look at how to measure what matters when the usual tools fall short.Thanks to Laser Tech for sponsoring this episode. Collect accurate asset positions in GNSS-impaired environments with LaserGIS. Using offset laser measurement methods, field crews can maximize productivity while working more efficiently in the field. When crews can collect GIS data faster, staying under budget becomes much more likely. And with laser offset workflows, teams can save time while still capturing critical measurement data—all from safe locations.Signup for the Energy Central Daily Newsletter: https://energycentral.beehiiv.com/subscribe
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Debunking the red vs. blue energy myth
4w ago00:28:02Tap to summarizeEnergy has become one of the most politically charged topics in the country, but is the red-vs-blue framing actually helping us understand what is happening in the power sector? Or is it a shorthand that creates assumptions that don’t hold up to scrutiny?In this episode, host Kinsey Grant Baker sits down with Energy Central’s Community Manager Matt Chester to dig into a recent piece he published to explore just those questions. This conversation explores why energy so often gets treated like a political litmus test, and what that perspective misses about how utilities actually make decisions. They dig into the data behind coal retirements, nuclear adoption, and other hot topics in the world of energy policy to show that the real picture is far more complicated than oversimplified partisan talking points suggest.At its core, this episode asks a simple but important question: what happens when the industry stops assuming every energy issue is purely political and starts looking at the actual economics, infrastructure, and customer realities underneath?Energy Isn’t Red vs. Blue. So Why Do We Keep Pretending It Is? ****https://energycentral.substack.com/p/energy-isnt-red-vs-blue-so-why-doSignup for the Energy Central Daily Newsletter: https://energycentral.beehiiv.com/subscribe
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Inside PSE&G's $30B plan to storm-proof the power grid
Apr 2800:42:20Tap to summarizeSuperstorm Sandy was a turning point for utilities in New Jersey. And for PSE&G, it became the catalyst for one of the most ambitious resilience and hardening efforts in the country.In this episode, host Kinsey Grant Baker sits down with Paul Toscarelli, VP of Electric Operations at PSE&G to revisit the storm’s impact, the operational realities of recovery, and how the company turned that experience into a long-term modernization and emergency preparedness playbook. Paul walks through what Sandy looked like on the ground, how the utility’s response priorities were shaped in the moment, and what immediate lessons changed the utility’s approach to business continuity, resilience planning, and system hardening.Now a decade from that moment, this conversation explores the scale of the investments that followed, including the elevation of dozens of substations and installation of thousands of smart switching devices. How did those investments hold up? How does today’s landscape of electrification, distributed energy, and AI-driven load growth all change that playbook? Paul answers these questions and more on what other utilities can learn from New Jersey’s experience when it comes to preparing for the storms ahead.PSE&G being Jersey Ready: https://vimeo.com/1080299589/3f652b5220?share=copy&fl=cl&fe=ciSignup for the Energy Central Daily Newsletter: https://energycentral.beehiiv.com/subscribe
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When AI finally popped at Southern Company
Apr 2400:51:37Tap to summarizeUtilities everywhere are experimenting with what AI can do in one-off tools and pilot programs, but very few are actually scaling it across the enterprise. But when it comes to truly looking at the big picture of how AI can be a force multiplier, Southern Company is leading the way.To learn how and why the utility is taking a more comprehensive approach, host Kinsey Grant Baker chats with Southern Company’s Joyce Solomon, AMI Analytics and Data Science Manager, along with the utility’s partner in CGI’s Doug Leal, VP Consulting, Data & Analytics. Their conversation looks at how Southern Company, working with CGI, moved beyond proofs-of-concept to build the platform, governance, and culture needed for AI to actually take hold in the business. The story here is not just about technology, it’s about how innovation starts in one place and then begins to “pop” across the organization.From exploring the platform-first approach to how to frame AI as a tool that augments workers rather than replacing them, this episode highlights the key lessons learned to ensure that utilities successfully move from cautious interest to enterprise-wide momentum.Thanks to CGI for sponsoring this episode. CGI is among the largest IT and business consulting services firms in the world. CGI is insights-driven and outcomes-based to help accelerate returns on your investments.Learn more about CGI here: https://www.cgi.com/us/en-us/artificial-intelligenceSignup for the Energy Central Daily Newsletter: https://energycentral.beehiiv.com/subscribe
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The utility's new tools to fight an old foe: wildfires
Apr 2100:39:16Tap to summarizeWildfires are no longer a once-in-a-while risk for utilities. These days, they are a growing operational, financial, and human crisis. And power companies can’t wait and react anymore, they need to be proactive.In this episode, podcast host Kinsey Grant Baker sits down with Skye Perry, VP of Utilities at Fire Neural Network (FNN), to discuss how the scale of wildfire damage has surged, why utilities are under increasing pressure to show a tangible “standard of care,” and how the legal and reputational stakes have changed the way utilities think about risk.From the new tools in lightning detection, AI modeling, and geospatial data to the effectiveness of public safety power shutoffs, utility communications, and why education remains one of the biggest bottlenecks to broader adoption of wildfire technology, Skye shares an unmistakable playbook for utilities moving forward.FountaiNN: https://www.fireneuralnetwork.com/fountainnSignup for the Energy Central Daily Newsletter: https://energycentral.beehiiv.com/subscribe
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Is geothermal finally happening? A DOE leader weighs in
Apr 1400:32:48Tap to summarizeGeothermal has been part of the energy conversation for decades, but it is still too often stymied by a reputation of being too niche or small-scale to make a grid-wide difference. That perception, however, is beginning to change. As utilities face growing pressure to deliver firm, clean, and affordable power, geothermal is getting fresh attention as a resource that could play a much bigger role in the grid than many have assumed.To learn more about what the federal government’s perspective on geothermal energy is, host Kinsey Grant Baker welcomed Kyle Haustveit, the Assistant Secretary of Hydrocarbons and Geothermal Energy at the U.S. Department of Energy. Their conversation explores why 2026 just may be a pivotal year for geothermal and dispels what people still might be overlooking about the technology.The discussion also explains how DOE’s newly structured Hydrocarbons and Geothermal Energy Office is thinking about the present opportunities and what they means for deployment, R&D, demonstrations, and partnerships. So for stakeholders looking towards the future of the grid, this episode offers a clear-eyed look at where geothermal fits in the resource mix, what signals suggest real momentum, and what the first practical step should be for utilities that want to take the technology seriously.Signup for the Energy Central Daily Newsletter: https://energycentral.beehiiv.com/subscribe
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