Each year, Energy Central proudly recognizes the Top Voices across our six networks. These individuals have gone above and beyond in sharing their expertise, insights, and thought leadership with our community, delivering high-value content and sparking meaningful discussions about the future of energy. In a year full of challenges and opportunities, their contributions have shaped the conversation around the most pressing topics in the energy sector.
We asked each of our 2024 Top Voices honorees three important questions this year:
- What was the most significant trend in the energy and utility sector in 2024 and how do you think it changed or impacted the industry?
- What do you anticipate will be the story to watch in 2025?
- What’s a recommendation you have for our Energy Central community—an article, podcast episode, book, video, etc.—that’s elevated the way you think about our industry?
Keep reading to hear from the Top Voices in the Intelligent Utility Network (and stay tuned all week as these Top Voices get published in each of the six networks—we’ll update this article with links to all Top Voices as they go live).
- Top Voices in Energy Management Article
- Top Voices in Energy & Sustainability Article
- Top Voices in EnergyBiz Article
- Top Voices in Generation Article
- Top Voiecs in Grid Article
By the way: Want to be a Top Voice for 2025? Now’s the time to start sparking conversation on Energy Central.
Sanjiv Lalit
Company: Siemens
Title: Solution Architect
Energy Central Member since 2024
Key Community Contribution: DERMS Todays challenges and the Future Path
The biggest story in 2024: The swift expansion of clean energy technologies and their easy integration into the utility ecosystem represent a significant milestone, confirming that the utility industry is now closer to achieving robustness and is better equipped to handle new convergences. This transformation shift increased economic efficiency, and proactive consumer engagement.
What to watch in 2025: In 2025, a key headline story is likely to be centered around the accelerated global transition towards net-zero emissions, maximum output using AI cyber security and digitalization. Additionally, new Political changes in the major markets also can impact the dynamics and reshape the energy policies, this makes upcoming year crucial to watch in energy sector.
Sanjiv's recommendation: I can suggest my latest LinkedIn post on one of my best executed projects.
Brandon Potter
Company: Earth First Community
Title: Sr. Interconnection & Integration Strategy Analyst / Solutions Architect
Energy Central Member since 2023
Key Community Contribution: Virtual Power Plants: Empowering Sustainable and Resilient Community-centric AI-Powered Smart Microgrids
The biggest story in 2024: The acceleration of AI-driven solutions for decentralized grid optimization and renewable energy integration has redefined the energy landscape in 2024. By fostering the development of Smart Microgrid ecosystems, these advancements enhance grid resilience, streamline interconnection processes, and provide real-time predictive analytics. This trend reduces operational costs and sets the foundation for a scalable, replicable, and adaptive energy infrastructure, empowering communities and advancing the renewable energy transition.
What to watch in 2025: The spotlight will be on the organizations that best commercialize the Virtual Power Plants (VPPs) that manage these energy systems. By leveraging technologies such as AI-enhanced analytics and predictive forecasting, IoT/edge computing, blockchain for transparency, and advanced geospatial siting technologies, these future-thinking organizations will empower prosumers, redefine energy ownership, and transform utility business models. These advanced technologies will be pivotal in achieving sustainability goals and accelerating the global energy transition.
Brandon's recommendation: I recommend exploring the Department of Energy’s Pathways to Commercialization Liftoff Reports, particularly the Virtual Power Plants and the recently published Transmission Interconnection Roadmap, providing future-ready insights into aligning technology with policy to drive renewable energy adoption and to accelerate the trajectory of the renewable energy industry.
I also invite you to explore the insightful expertise of Rod Walton and Kathy Hitchens from Microgrid Knowledge whose work is to lead the way by providing unparalleled, up-to-date news and resources on microgrids and distributed energy resources.
Bruce Albright
Company: Burns & McDonnell
Title: 5G Solutions Manager
Energy Central Member since 2019
Key Community Contribution: Unlocking the Future of Utility Private LTE with Bruce Albright of Burns & McDonnell [Power Perspectives Conversations at DISTRIBUTECH 2024]
The biggest story in 2024: A significant trend in the energy sector is grid modernization. This term encompasses all the necessary changes to our power grid to meet future demands. The grid is changing rapidly due to the evolution of power infrastructure and the increasing need for greater capacity, driven by unprecedented load growth from data centers, AI, and fleet electrification, as well as two-way power flow from DERs. Utilities are undertaking major programs to add resiliency to the electric grid in the face of changing demand on the grid, as well as increased mitigation needs for wildfires and extreme weather events, as well as cyber security threats.
Many utilities are deploying data monitoring and control devices to address the new demands on the grid to understand the distribution system in real-time. This data must be collected and processed to make decisions quicker than ever. Real-time data for grid control is crucial and directly drives the need for broadband data to the field. While the public sector offers some solutions, the persistent cyber threats and issues with public cellular access raise concerns. The need for a comprehensive communications strategy addressing these new requirements is paramount.
What to watch in 2025: Salt Typhoon: This emerging threat to our communications infrastructure is significant, especially as many utilities use public cellular networks because of the lower barrier to entry, the necessity for capacity, and lower broadband latency. Can utilities rely on public cellular networks to control their critical assets? They can, but should they is actively being questioned and for good reason. Encryption and endpoint security can protect data, but if bad actors can take down the network itself, the utility is no better off than when they had no communications.
Only reliable networks can enhance the resiliency of the electric grid. Utilities looking toward private wireless networks naturally create a smaller cyber attack surface given that many have no need for 3rdparty access, management, and various 3rd party integrations carriers use to provide the myriads of customer service offerings utilities simply do not need. Reliability is only increased by utilities having direct control of the repair and maintenance of their private communication networks, adding to the predictability of their communication networks. We have engaged with utilities across the US to plan, deploy, and operationalize private networks for over two decades and the pace is only increasing.
Bruce's recommendation: Follow Doug Houseman!
And there is always good content on Energy Central
Mauricio Subieta, Ph.D.
Company: Nokia
Title: Energy CTO
Energy Central Member since 2024
Key Community Contribution: Episode #168: 'Securing the Future with Quantum-Safe Networks for Utilities, Part 1' with Nokia’s Mauricio Subieta, Chief Technology Officer, and Hansen Chan, IP Solution Marketing Manager [an Energy Central Power Perspectives™ Podcast]
The biggest story in 2024: AI has arguably had the most significant, albeit indirect, impact on the utility sector over the past year. The energy demands of data centers powering large language model (LLM) training and handling real-time user queries far exceed those of traditional data center applications. This has compelled utilities to not only expand their capacity but also integrate external sources, primarily Distributed Energy Resources (DERs), to meet the rising demand.
The integration of DERs has, in turn, driven the need for a comprehensive revamp of communication platforms. Utilities now face heightened requirements for availability, reliability, and ultra-low latency to ensure seamless interconnection with these external systems.
Compounding the challenge, the rapid adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) has placed additional strain on utilities' production and distribution networks. The combined effect of AI-driven energy demands and the surge in EV usage has created unprecedented stress on the grid, pushing utilities to innovate and adapt to sustain electricity supply and meet this new era of consumption.
What to watch in 2025: I anticipate three major topics dominating headlines in the coming year.
1. Nuclear Energy Resurgence: The growing demand for energy has already led to discussions about bringing decommissioned nuclear plants back online. Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) are poised to gain more interest, especially to support new data center deployments. As nuclear energy takes a more central role, discussions around safety, reliability, and risk will become increasingly important and newsworthy.
2. Evolution of Operational Technology (OT) Clouds: The adoption of IEC 61850 as the gold standard for substation deployments, combined with advancements in virtualized Intelligent Electronic Devices (IEDs) and relays within virtualized Process Automation Controllers (vPAC), is transforming utility infrastructure. Substations equipped with data centers and their orchestration capabilities are paving the way for OT cloud developments.
3. Cybersecurity and Critical Infrastructure: Renewed cyberattacks on critical infrastructure will keep cybersecurity at the forefront. Innovations like quantum-safe networks are expected to gather attention as they evolve to address these challenges. These advancements will drive further progress in the industry, leading to stricter compliance requirements and regulatory updates.
I think these three topics—nuclear energy, OT clouds, and cybersecurity—will gather much of the industry discussions and will somewhat shape the trajectory of energy and utility sectors in the coming year.
Mauricio's recommendation: I highly recommend the Energy Central Perspectives podcast. It’s an excellent resource for staying informed about utility trends, technological advancements, and compelling stories that highlight how utilities are evolving to meet current and future demands. The podcast delves into innovative ways technologies are being leveraged, making it a valuable listen for anyone interested in the present and future of the energy sector.
Mike Goggin
Company: SSP Innovations
Title: Senior Product Manager
Energy Central Member since 2023
Key Community Contribution: Think Differently: Why GIS and Modern Network Management are Intertwined
The biggest story in 2024: I believe the most significant trend in 2024 was the focus on AI. All you had to do is walk the Expo at DistribuTECH and see pretty much every vendor had something AI. While AI is still fairly new there was some immediate success stories, and it got peoples gears moving on how this tech can drive business value. It also was another reminder on how important data is.
What to watch in 2025: I think AI is going to continue to be a headline in 2025 but believe Large Language Models will get the attention for its ability to change the way we interact with our systems.
Mike's recommendation: I’ve enjoyed “The Grid Mod Pod” podcast from Elizabeth Cook for insights into power engineering.
Brad Johnson
Company: Bentley
Title: Director, Electric Utilities Solutions
Energy Central Member since 2023
Key Community Contribution: ON-DEMAND WEBINAR - Leveraging Digital Tools to Plan, Build, and Deliver the Next Evolution of the Grid
The biggest story in 2024: Utilities and Regulators are embracing more advanced forms of elastic infrastructure, adopting cloud-based capabilities at an increasing rate. Given the scale of the work ahead of us as an industry, we are unable to hire our way to address the growing backlog of work, requiring the adoption of new methods and tools to keep up. Hosted and cloud resources have become as secure or more secure all things considered than many home-grown and self-hosted services.
What to watch in 2025: 2025 will bring growing pressure to address the changing landscape of where electricity is produced as well as how much and where it is consumed. Advances in AI/ML, global economic growth, and supply constraints for materials and professionals will have a forcing impact on how work is executed. Given this, Utilities will move out of their “that’s how we’ve done things” comfort zone and try a new approach to work, but do so in a thoughtful and methodical way.
Brad's recommendation: Sometimes, the best way to advance infrastructure is taking a contrarian view of a problem or challenge. Exo Inc. demonstrated that taking a second look at a complex issue can save time, money, and improve reliability. When an infrastructure owner had an aging transmission river span, they hired Exo to confirm whether it needed to be rebuilt or could be refurbished. Leveraging technology, they not only save $70m and nearly 10 years of project time, it inspired the consideration of changing an international standard to include a design technique that was proven more reliable than first thought! Ohio Falls River Crossing Towers | Bentley Systems | Infrastructure Engineering Software Company