Video recording of the session at the bottom of this post, along with open Q&A discussion from the session taking place actively on the Energy Central Community:
The United States Energy Association examined new, transformative technologies which are entering the electric utility space at its latest virtual press briefing on May 7.
The format for these briefings is well-established: A panel of experts is interviewed by a panel of senior reporters who cover energy. Ideally, reporters get information for a story they can write that day or bank for future stories.
The May 7 briefing looked at a panoply of new technologies coming down the pike for utilities, including the incorporation of AI agents in many aspects of their operations, small modular reactors, fusion, new conductors, new low-head hydro, solutions to inertia problems, storage in all forms, and distributed energy applications and tools.
These new technologies are being developed at a time when electricity is rising in importance and demand is increasing with AI data centers and new uses.
As usual for this briefing series, Mark Menezes, USEA President and CEO, and a Deputy Secretary of Energy in the first Trump Administration, was on hand to contribute his experience and deep knowledge of energy and electric utilities. Journalist and broadcaster Llewellyn King, who is well known in the energy and electric utility sectors, organizes and moderates the briefings.
“This time round, we have an extraordinary lineup of experts and senior energy writers,” King said.
On the experts panel:
- Ted Ko, Founder and Executive Director, EPDI
- Ron Schoff, Director of R&D, EPRI
- Jason Huang, CEO and Co-founder, TS Conductor
- Chris Ritter, Division Director, Scientific Computing and AI, Idaho National Laboratory
- Key Han, President and Chief Scientist, DD Motion
- Ravindra Vora, CEO, Transventure Energy LLC
- Kevin Wolf, CEO and Co-founder, Windharvest.com
- Bryan Spear, CEO, Technosylva
- Whit Irvin Jr., President and CEO, Q Hydrogen
On the reporters panel:
- Peter Behr, Politico’s E&E News
- Vijay Vaitheeswaram, The Economist
- Matt Chester, Energy Central
- Adam Clayton Powell III, PBS
- Ken Silverstein, Forbes
- Evan Halper, The Washington Post
Ongoing Q&As Taking Place Post Session on EnergyCentral.com:
- When major outages happen, like recently in the Iberian Peninsula, who really pays? For example, Winter Storm Uri in February 2021 cost $16 billion. How are such costs considered in standard PUC LCOE analysis?
- How many hours of backup power can battery systems provide today? Is it enough to fill in the gap for cities and mass transit systems of outages last for days?
- Do you think previously awarded DOE GRIP funding will survive the current federal budget cuts?
- What are your thoughts of hyperscalers choosing for their power source gas today and ramping towards SMRs by 2035, all in a “behind the meter” fashion, rather than wind and solar that can’t deliver 24/7 power even with batteries?
- How is AI helping utilities cope with resilience in the face of wildfires, icing, and extreme weather events?
- What do you think about the SMR fleet model via Order Book? For example, isn’t in the case that the way to estimate cost on SMRs is to first ask ‘how many are we manufacturing’ since building one SMR does not yield a decent cost estimate?