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Episode #136: 'Municipal Power’s Role in Today’s Energy Transition ' with Branndon Kelley, Chief Strategy Officer of American Municipal Power [an Energy Central Power Perspectives™ Podcast]

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The world of energy is vast, and the landscape of U.S. utilities is a veritable alphabet suit of jurisdictions, RTOs, and stakeholders. While often the larger investor-owned giants grab the headlines, the truth is that millions of Americans and businesses depend on the direct action of the smaller municipal entities. These municipal power providers are thus a key cog in the path forwards as the comprehensive energy system strives towards an energy transition and hardening of the grid for greater reliability.

On this episode of the Energy Central Power Perspectives Podcast, podcast host Jason Price and producer Matt Chester are joined by Branndon Kelley, the recently appointed Chief Strategy Officer at American Municipal Power (AMP). Branndon provides a deep dive into the often-overlooked but immensely critical landscape of municipal power, sharing perspective from his front-row seat to the challenges, opportunities, and evolving strategies of municipal utilities. From electric vehicle adoption to navigating new regulations, this conversation promises rich insights for all stakeholders in the energy industry.

Prefer to Read vs. Listening? Scroll Down to Read Transcript.

Thanks to the sponsor of this episode of the Energy Central Power Perspectives Podcast: West Monroe.  

 

Key Links:

Branndon Kelley's Energy Central Profile: https://energycentral.com/member/profile/branndon-kelley

Did you know? The Energy Central Power Perspectives Podcast has been identified as one of the industry's 'Top Energy Podcasts': blog.feedspot.com/energy_podcasts/

 

TRANSCRIPT

Jason Price: 

Welcome to the Energy Central Power Perspectives podcast, the show that brings leading minds from the energy industry to discuss the challenges and trends that are transforming and modernizing our energy system. And a quick thank you to West Monroe, our sponsor of today's show. Now, let's talk energy.

I'm Jason Price, Energy Central podcast host and director, with West Monroe, coming to you from New York City. And with me, as always, from Orlando, Florida is Energy Central producer and community manager, Matt Chester.

Matt, so many of our conversations about the utility industry focus on the investor owned utilities that have wide service areas and immense budgets, but the landscape of small municipal utilities is actually just as impactful. Isn't that correct?

 

Matt Chester: 

Yeah, you're absolutely right, Jason. And while the names of major IOUs, perhaps ring as more familiar across the country based on that size and influence, in reality, the number of municipalities greatly outweighs the IOUs. There are nearly 2000 publicly owned utilities across the country. And so, while each of those municipal utilities tends to have a smaller footprint than the major IOU counterparts, that just affords those municipal utilities the ability to be closer to its community, in a way that reflects the population, what they want, what their needs and desires are, and even the culture of the community.

 

Jason Price: 

Yeah, thanks for that context. That's really helpful. So, clearly, the municipal side of the conversation is critical to bring in as the utility sector continues to evolve. And to do just that, we have a really terrific guest with us today. We're going to be joined by Branndon Kelley, who was recently promoted to the chief strategy officer at American Municipal Power, Inc. or AMP.

I'm eager to learn more about the role of AMP in these utility conversations, and to dive into the specifics of the municipal power landscape that perhaps we too often overlook. So, let's welcome our guest. Branndon Kelley, welcome to today's episode of the Energy Central Power Perspectives podcast.

 

Branndon Kelley: 

Well, thank you, Jason and Matt. It is a good thing for me to be here today, and I look forward to sharing with you a little bit about AMP and a little bit about my perspectives and what we, together myself and AMP, are doing to help our members face the future utility in this ever-changing industry. So, thank you.

 

Jason Price: 

For sure. And we really thank you for taking time to share this kind of insight and wisdom. We don't always get this, so thank you for taking time out of your busy day.

Branndon, why don't we dig into the conversation. I think it would be helpful for you to give an overview of what American Municipal Power is, who your members are, and what the overall goals are of the organization.

 

Branndon Kelley: 

Yeah. By definition, American Municipal Power is a nonprofit wholesale power supplier and services provider, and we have 133 members that's throughout nine states. So, that's Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, as well as the Delaware Municipal Electric Cooperative, which is located in Delaware, that serves a number of municipal members themselves. Together, these municipal owned utilities service, approximately 650,000 electric customers, if you look across the 133 members, our average municipal is about 7,500 electric meters. If you take out the two top end largest members, we get closer to 5,000 and below, just below count of number of meters we serve. So, our municipal members are made up of small municipals, within those nine states. Our members receive their power supply from a diverse resource mix that includes wholesale power purchases that we make on their behalf, as well as open market and energy produced at our member owned facilities. So, we own behalf of our members own a number of generation facilities, as well as purchase power agreements for them.

Our history, if you really think about our history, it really was formed to help bring people together. The heart of our organization is this idea of joint action. The few come together to make a large voice, to be able to get things done, to make things more efficient or effective, to face difficult things or challenges, and bring a level of sophistication, and to tackle the complexity that maybe one individual member, a 500-meter electric customer member might not be able to face on their own, but the power of joint action helps them do that.

 

Jason Price: 

Well, that's helpful context, Branndon.

So, help us understand the role of chief strategy officer. What does this mean? What background or skillset helps make an effective strategy officer, and what does your typical day look like?

 

Branndon Kelley: 

Yeah. Well, what makes a good chief strategy officer, I think, really depends on the person that's taking the role and what the objectives of the organization is for that role. Specifically, I can talk about myself. I think what makes me, a good chief strategy officer for American Municipal Power, is the fact that I have a background in consulting. So, being able to look at problems. But maybe more importantly than looking at the problems is help bring people together to find solutions. I've spent a career focusing on solutions. I spent my entire career going into organizations, while early part of my career was, and most of my career was in technology, specifically like a chief information officer role. I really took that role in a different angle, which was not necessarily operational focused. I mean, obviously, that was important. But going in and looking at problems, and then finding solutions. So, being very transformational.

And I think that's what makes me, a good candidate, or me, the good fit for AMP, because it's really still that same concept of being transformational, looking at problems, coming up with solutions, bringing people together, helping them to ask the questions, why? And maybe more importantly, why not? Why are we not doing this? Why are we doing it this way? What is other ways to look at things? And while, historically, that focus has been around technology and technology enablement, it's really the same basic concepts, applying that to all business practices, whether it be something that we're going to do in finance or something we're going to do in safety, et cetera. So, that, specifically, I think, is how I tie in and what makes me a good candidate.

What is the role of a chief strategy officer at American Municipal Power? I really look at it in two sort of areas. One is that inwards innovation, as I call it, the other one is that outwards innovation. Again, as I just mentioned, utilizing the skills and experiences I've had of looking at problems and looking at processes and coming up with solutions, driving efficiency and effectiveness. So, looking at all that stuff that happens within an organization, whether it's stuff as simple as sending out bills, which seems simple, but maybe it really isn't, or something as more complex of building a new service offering, or members in making sure that, financially, it makes sense, and that there isn't a solution in the market that would make more sense or there's a gap we're filling, and helping pull together that business plan and all those components to take that ultimately to the board and drive it. The outwards innovation is probably the thing that's sort of getting the most press, and that's just changing environment in the utility.

And so, focusing on all these changes that are happening, whether it's distributed energy or the technology sensors, "smart grid", all these things that are happening in our space, that's really changing a business, that for a hundred years is pretty stale, stagnant. You put electrons on a piece of wire and someone consumed them without much intelligence in between, really drive... Now, it's all being driven by intelligence. And where was that electron produced and where did it come from? Is it carbon free? Is it not carbon free? Customers, whether it's industrial, commercial or residential, they want to have input into those selections. And so, it's really going to require us to drive technology. And so, focusing on that.

So, not only my job, as the chief strategy officer, is to help the organization not get caught up in the hype, help guide the conversations to get a narrow focus on where we should be spending time, energy, and effort, very specifically on what things that benefit our members the most.

 

Jason Price: 

Great.

Branndon, the impetus of today's conversation was that, you recently took over the role of chief strategy officer. Can you tell us what this new role entails and how you're looking to direct the strategy of your organization new and exciting ways? What are the opportunities you find most uniquely exciting? And on the other side of the coin, the challenges that have you most focused on? And even your interaction with the CEO, I think, would be really interesting. Can you share some insight on that?

 

Branndon Kelley: 

I think you mentioned in the introduction, I'm the first chief strategy officer at American Municipal Power. So, it's not a role that existed beforehand. I think if you ask Jolene Thompson, who's our CEO, and folks on our board that ultimately made the decision to create this role, and then thankfully choose me to be the first, they would say, "Our industry is changing, drastically." I mentioned that previously. Our organization now is over 50 years old, and while the core of joint action is what it is our organization is about, the challenges that we face are changing. Those challenges include all that technology, regulatory, compliance, customers, et cetera. All that stuff is sort of changing. And so, we, as an organization, we turned 50, and now we're 52 years old as an organization, we needed to start thinking a little differently.

I like to say, think different, act different, be different. But stay true to our core, which is our member focus. And really, the joint action aspect of really coming together to solve complex problems, on behalf of our members. So, that's what they would say is, this sort of this going forward, there's this sort of turbulence, this is happening as organization, we really need someone focused on what's happening outwards, as far as the industry goes, and helping prepare inwards our organization.

In my role, very tactically what it entails, as I mentioned in my description of AMP, we have a number of programs and services, right? So, we offer a whole slew of different programs. So, at the heart or the foundation of our organization, it's power supply, whether there's a purchase power agreements or generation, we own and operate on behalf of our member. But around all that is all the supporting services and programs that a municipal utility needs, to be able to run an effective and efficient utility. Stuff like safety, stuff like financial, short-term barrings and things of that nature. Stuff like technology services, stuff like technical services, engineering and design, maintenance of member owned or municipal owned generation and facilities, and a whole bunch of other of these things.

And so, over the years, we've developed the programs and services as a result of members' needs. Our members raise their hand and say, "Hey, we really need help here. We really need help there." And as those programs mature and become a part of the organization, it's really on a day-to-day basis. What I'm starting to do is look at those things to make sure, A, there's still a need and desire for those. B, are we still effectively and efficiently running those and meeting the member needs?

Just because you're not hearing noise, meaning people complaining, doesn't mean you're living up to your full expectations or your full potential, I guess, I should say. So, taking another look at those, putting together business plans, whether it's cost benefit analysis, doing a competitive market research to say, "Hey, we are providing this service. But you know what? Someone down the street's providing at a much competitive rate and maybe more effective." And maybe it's like, "Let's transition that to a white label." But fully looking at all those types of services, tactically, on a day-to-day basis, that we currently do.

The other part of that is as... And I don't want to sound like a broken record, but I think it's important. You mentioned that the investor owned utilities and the municipal utilities are different in their makeup, but many of the challenges or most of the challenges are very similar. The difference is the amount of resources, whether it's people or dollars or time, to be able to dedicate to respond to those. And so, part of me being the chief strategy officer is to look at these new things that are happening. And are there ways for us to develop programs or service offerings or bundle things together, that can ultimately be able to deliver those solutions down to those individual municipal members? That otherwise, without the power of joint action, that's... Again, what we're really talking about, and you'll hear me say that over and over and over again, without the power of joint action, they wouldn't be able to be delivered at that level.

 

Jason Price: 

Yeah. No, that's great.

Branndon, that's really helpful. But if I may ask, taking it a little bit out of the abstract into the actual, talk to us about how AMP guides the conversations at municipalities. Frame it in the conversation around, let's say, EV, which I'm sure is top of mind, with all the municipalities that are members of yours. How is the conversation guided? What are the areas of support you provide? And basically, are they taking advantage of what AMP has to offer?

 

Branndon Kelley: 

Yeah. So, what you're hitting on there is a huge challenge for us, because you have to understand that, when we're talking to our members, these municipals across the nine states, you have various people we're talking to. In a lot of cases, we're talking to the electric superintendent or the electric utility director or manager of the electric system, and obviously, they have a pretty good hold on what's happening in the industry and the need to respond to things like electric vehicles. But in a lot of cases, we're talking about elected officials, and there's a turnover to that. Or we're talking, in the city or the municipal, we'll have a village administrator or city manager, and they may or may not really know or understand the electric utility industry. So, we have to be able to have those conversations in multiple different levels.

And so, one of the things that we're working on to do that, and one of the things that I was tasked with in this new role is to help pull together a team of folks, and we're building this presentation that can, depending on the audience, depending on the person that's consuming the information, will be presented in a different way. And it's really to get into front of councils or city managers or mayors or utility directors, and talk to them about this changing industry.

One specific area we'll focus on, that you asked about, is electric vehicles. A lot of times, what we'll hear is, "Hey, we're a small town and wherever in our membership, no one here is going to buy an electric vehicle." And then, as you're setting it, you go to town square and you're sitting there, and you count three Teslas that go by within the next two hours. It isn't a question, are they going to, they already have and you don't know it. And more importantly, you don't necessarily even understand the impact that that's going to have on your electric system. So, education is always one of the first core areas that AMP focuses on.

Well, let me talk real quick. We have a group of members that come together on a monthly basis, that's led by one person on our board, called the focus board committee. That committee of these members and internal staff is really to help educate and these hot topic and these new trending things that are happening in industry. So, just meet with those. We have outside speakers come in, giving people a flavor of what's happening, what to expect. So, really, an educational, but also a working committee that presents things out of that. What we found, a few years ago, was this fact that our members needed to really start getting information on how to prepare for electric vehicles.

So, out of our focus forward group, we created our EV planning toolkit. We created and we maintain this. Meaning, things are changing, information's changing, cars are changing, charging infrastructure is increasing and changing and getting better. So, what we do is, we have this toolkit, and this is educational information that has all the different aspects of, whether it's the types of electric vehicles out there, the infrastructure that's available and you might need and how to plan it, as well as future considerations. Things to start thinking about.

I heard it recently, someone says, "The electric grid is not prepared for everyone to have an electric car." And then, another person said, "That is true, but what the electric grid really isn't prepared is for every household to have two electric cars." And if you think about it, that's a pretty powerful statement because, what household just has one car?

The other program that we have is called the WattPlan. And so, this goes beyond direct help for the members. So, we've developed this interactive website tool that can be branded by the individual members. So, AMP sort of maintains the core functionality of it, and then we offer it down to our members who then can re-offer it down to their customers. It's interactive website that allows consumers, their customers, to directly learn about all the benefits of electric vehicles, compare models, user specific figures on the impacts of electric vehicles, sort of give them all the information. It also provides data points that can assist the utility for resource planning. So, as the consumers are going through there, to sort of look at what their electric vehicles, we're collecting data that this number of people in your community are interested in being able to use that to help.

So, there are two specific areas that are sort of what I'll call launched, our members immediately are taking access of. And then, maybe more recently, being developed is rate structure. So, our members have asked us, our board has directed us. We are looking at helping develop toolkits or tools, if you will, that our individual utilities will help them be able to build rate structures for electric charging.

 

Jason Price: 

That's really helpful. So, clearly, AMP is providing coordination, leadership, insight, guidance to all your members which is, no doubt, incredibly valuable. If you're a small muni with 5,000 meters or you're muni with 75,000 meters, you're facing some similar challenges, and it plays an incredibly important role in this transformation. So, totally get it and really appreciate your anecdotes here. It's very helpful.

So, we brought up the IOUs. The IOUs have a regulatory body that they have to contend with. Municipalities do not have to answer to the regulators. You don't have a commission that reviews every investment that the munis make. So, can you speak to the AMP rule when it comes to what falls into the regulatory side of the equation? I know you're not a lobbying organization, but what about new policies that come about, for example, from IRA, the IRA program? Are you assisting utilities in applying for funds, to pursue these kinds of incentives that the government's offering? Are there newly available offering insights that you bring? Maybe describe your role in the world that sort of bounces along the lines of government requirements or regulations or any sort of federal or state level support.

 

Branndon Kelley: 

Yeah. So, let me make a comment to one of the first things you said about the fact that municipals do not have to answer, in most cases, to utility commissions. And I'll just say this, that is true, I guess, by definition. However, I think it's important for listeners to understand that municipal utilities answer to, ultimately, the consumer, and probably the most transparent sort of way that you can imagine. So, if not all, most municipals have a monthly council meeting where the utilities business is a part of that agenda. That agenda is published, the resident can come, they can go to the podium, they can voice their opinion for whatever the allotted amount of time is, they can walk into, whether it's the utility directors or the mayor or the city manager or even the councilman's office, knock on their door. You got to remember, the people that's running that utility are in the community.

It's true, there's not this specific utility commission. Municipal utilities offer the most transparent way of delivering electricity, in my opinion, because the consumer voice is so close to the electric utility of that city. And likewise, the electric utility is so close to consumer voice, that's why, overall, municipal utilities are typically more reliable because when the electricity's out, also the worker in that utility's electricity is out, and they know the folks.

And so, I caution people often that say, "Oh, well, municipals don't have this utility commission looking over them." Well, maybe not." But what they do have is the consumer voice, whether that consumer voice is directly at the council meetings, on the city's Facebook page, social media, whatever it might be.

Now, to answer your specific question about sort of, we're not a lobbying organization. That's true. So, when necessary, what AMP will do is intervene in federal and state regulatory procedures, conducted by any state or federal regulatory agencies, whose decisions and activities would affect someone in our municipal electric system. Specifically, in Ohio, we have the Ohio Municipal Electric Association. Most of all our other states have some other electric association. In Ohio, AMP works very closely with OMEA, the Ohio Municipal Electric Association, as I said, on legislative issues, both federal and state level. OMEA is the liaison for the Ohio Municipal Electric systems and does provide that legislative monitoring for AMP.

And then, we also have staff who work closely in our member communities on a whole bunch of different regulatory issues, at both state and federal level. And I don't want to just specifically just leave it to OMEA. We have partners and electric associations in many of our other states as well, and we work with them in a very similar role as I just described. Parallel to the legislative efforts that I just described, AMP does closely follow regulatory actions that could have an effect on municipal electric systems, whether that's at the state, regional, federal level. We do work closely with the regulatory agencies that include, obviously, all the big ones, EPA, FERC, whether it's the state, public utility commissions or the regional transmission organizations, RTOs, the different reliability councils and the different energy efficiency agencies. We're a member of American Public Power Association. We're a member of the Large Public Power Council. We pay all the dues for our members to be a member of APPA as well.

So, this isn't in my forte, but obviously it's part of the executive team here. We are engaged at every level that we can be, to make sure that things that are being introduced, or rules or changes that could have, whether it's a positive impact or negative impact on AMP and/or our members, that we are fighting for or we are introducing language, or at least pushing along the objectives for public power.

 

Jason Price: 

Okay. I want to also ask you about something that is facing the entire industry. So, whether you're an IOU, a muni or co-op, it's across the board. The challenge is building and retaining a top tier workforce. So, what are the unique challenges and opportunities when it comes to attracting talent, and how does AMP assist its members with that?

 

Branndon Kelley: 

Yeah. So, I look at this question here, and it's really two places. You're talking about AMP and what we're doing to attract talent and retain that talent, and then what we're doing to help our members do the same. So, let me talk about AMP for a second. From the perspective of tracking talent, one of the things that we're doing is, we heavily invest in an intern program, and we've had some great success there. So, really, the idea is, get the talent in early, at the end of their college career. As they're beginning their career, get them in early. It really creates a mutually beneficial thing. New ideas from people that haven't been out in the workforce, haven't been had their minds made up, if you will. A lot of times, they have exposure to new technology. Bring them in so that the mutual benefit from our perspective is, we get those ideas, we get them in, we can get them working on things.

The other side is, we can give them experience in an industry that's very in need of talent. And so, we utilize that program. And what that does is, at times, and we've been very successful at that is, allows us to create a talent pool that has some sense of loyalty because we have helped them, grew them, if you will. And so, when we can hire full-time people, we can bring them in. And not only have we created some loyalty for them to join, then we can help foster that throughout and build career. So, we've had some great success at that. Specifically, the leaders in my group, my director of innovation and strategy that works directly for me, he started in AMP numerous years ago as an intern. And we have fostered that relationship. So, that's one of the things we do.

The other thing we do probably more tactically is, we do salary studies, and I should say, compensation studies, because it's not all just about salary. I make sure that we are being competitive. I mean, specifically, at AMP, we're in Columbus, Ohio. It's a very hotbed for talent. A lot of companies are based here. A lot of people don't know that A lot of companies are headed here. Just within the last day, Wells Fargo announced they're building a technology hub here, hired 600 people with a minimum wage, I think of like $60 an hour. And Intel's building a huge factory here. And Facebook, and Microsoft, and Amazon, and Google all have data centers here. And not to mention, our organizations that's been here for a long time, whether it's nationwide insurance or all the retail and banking, very large investor owned utility is based downtown. So, it's a very competitive market for us to maintain people, so it's important for us to do that compensation study, just to make sure that when we're looking at it from a total compensation perspective, we're being fair and competitive. So, that's a part of it.

The other part of that is, we are a nimble and a smaller organization, especially compared to all the ones I just mentioned, is being able to let people sort of get out of their comfort zone, get out of what it is their job title says it is, whether that's through an innovation team or that's through different committees and groups that we have, whether that's just them expanding their role, working on things, whether that's because a member has some need that comes at us. And a lot of times, what that does is that, it helps people grow. They grow their skillset, they grow their exposure, they get the opportunity to maybe go see members, maybe present something to the board, et cetera. And that creates some sort of loyalty. I would say, work-life balance is very important to us, and we recognize that. We recognize that your work here at AMP is important, but maybe more important to you is the time with your family. The executive management team does a really good job to make sure that, not only do you understand that, we understand that, and we're creating an environment that supports that.

So, I'll just leave those things. I mean, there's many other things I could talk about. We're doing an AMP to attract and retain. Some of the things that we help with our members is, we provide them data. Some of these things that I just mentioned to you, we'll provide to our members. One of the biggest areas that our members are faced with, trying to attract and retain talent, is around the lineworker aspect, just because a lot of times, in municipals, they don't necessarily pay from a cash compensation perspective as much as maybe an investor owned.

And with some of the craziness that's happening across the country, there's a lot of opportunities for people to, whether it's go west to California, and do these short-term or long-term gigs, and make a lot of money helping restore damage from wildfires or whatever it might be. There is a lot of turnover, at times, within our membership around the lineworker. So, we've established a lineworker program. We've had it for a number of years. It is a registered apprentice sponsor. This allows our members to register with their apprentices for certification through our AMP's registered apprentice program, with AMP serving as the group sponsor. So, we're the sponsor. We have went through and got this program approved and/or certified, if you will, by the United States Department of Labor, as well as the Ohio State Apprenticeship Council.

And what we're really doing here is, we have a whole training facility. Actually, where I'm sitting at now doing this interview, I look to my right, out the window, I can see the facility there. We have a line yard. I think it was last week or the week before, we had 26 people from all throughout our membership over there. And what they're doing is, they're getting classroom training, they're getting laboratory training, they're getting field training to go out in the yard. We combine that with their on-the-job training to ultimately help them get their certifications. There's four levels to that, all the way from, basically, basic to advanced. So, that's one of the ways that we're helping build talent and help train our talent. So, if you go to work for one of our municipals, the municipal is a member of AMP, they participate in our training program. You, as an employee, know that you are going to get the proper training, and you're going to get the support you need to be able to do your job, as well as is anyone.

The other thing is promoting the idea of public power, right? So, all the reasons that public power... And public power is in my blood. I live in a public power community. Obviously, I've worked here at AMP and public power municipal electric for now 14 years. Yes. Is there more financial opportunities, at least on the surface in the investor end world? The answer to that question is, probably, yes, but there is no, in my opinion, more transparency or sort of loyalty, if you will, not only to the customer, but to the employee. You are a part of that community, you are a part of that utility, that utility is a part of the community, and ultimately it creates this, what I believe, is a much stronger bond between employee, utility company, if you will, and customer.

And so, promotion of public power and helping our members get that message out, is another way that we achieve talent. Also, promoting things like tuition reimbursement, different training opportunities across the board, not just for lineworker program... I'm talking more specifically, internally, in AMP, and giving that data sort of out to the membership as well.

 

Jason Price: 

Fantastic. Fantastic. Well, terrific. Thanks for the real insight today, Branndon. Really thorough responses, and greatly appreciate you fitting us into your busy schedule. I'll surely expect that our listeners will have lots of questions and comments from the conversation today on the Energy Central platform, so please be sure to check in on those questions and stay engaged.

So, until then, though, thanks again for sharing your insight on today's episode of the podcast, Branndon.

 

Branndon Kelley: 

Yeah, thank you. And I do really want to quickly respond to one of the questions that you had sent over which is, who are my role models? And my role models are my mom and my dad, both blue collar workers who sacrificed a lot to put me through college and give me the opportunities to allow me to work at AMP and help serve our members.

So, again, thank you both, to both you, Jason and Matt, for this opportunity. And I look forward to having future conversations, if time permits, as well as listening to other guests that's going to be on your podcast. So, thank you.

 

Jason Price: 

Absolutely. We appreciate that. And we definitely want you back on the episode, and hear how things are transpiring. So, let's be sure we stay in touch. We can check in, say, a year from now. Until then, though.

We want to also thank our sponsor of today's show. Thanks to West Monroe. West Monroe works with the nation's largest electric, gas, and water utilities in their telecommunication, grid modernization, and digital and workforce transformations. West Monroe brings a multidisciplinary team that blends utility, operations, and technology expertise to address modernizing aging infrastructure, advisory on transportation, electrification, ADMS deployments, data analytics, and cybersecurity.

Once again, I'm your host, Jason Price. Plug in and stay fully charged in the discussion by hopping into the community at energycentral.com, and we'll see you next time at the Energy Central Power Perspectives podcast.

 

 

About Energy Central Podcasts

The ‘Energy Central Power Perspectives™ Podcast’ features conversations with thought leaders in the utility sector. At least twice monthly, we connect with an Energy Central Power Industry Network community member to discuss compelling topics that impact professionals who work in the power industry. Some podcasts may be a continuation of thought-provoking posts or discussions started in the community or with an industry leader that is interested in sharing their expertise and doing a deeper dive into hot topics or issues relevant to the industry.

The ‘Energy Central Power Perspectives™ Podcast’ is the premiere podcast series from Energy Central, a Power Industry Network of Communities built specifically for professionals in the electric power industry and a place where professionals can share, learn, and connect in a collaborative environment. Supported by leading industry organizations, our mission is to help global power industry professionals work better. Since 1995, we’ve been a trusted news and information source for professionals working in the power industry, and today our managed communities are a place for lively discussions, debates, and analysis to take place. If you’re not yet a member, visit www.EnergyCentral.com to register for free and join over 200,000 of your peers working in the power industry.

The Energy Central Power Perspectives™ Podcast is hosted by Jason Price, Community Ambassador of Energy Central. Jason is a Business Development Executive at West Monroe, working in the East Coast Energy and Utilities Group. Jason is joined in the podcast booth by the producer of the podcast, Matt Chester, who is also the Community Manager of Energy Central and energy analyst/independent consultant in energy policy, markets, and technology.  

If you want to be a guest on a future episode of the Energy Central Power Perspectives™ Podcast, let us know! We’ll be pulling guests from our community members who submit engaging content that gets our community talking, and perhaps that next guest will be you! Likewise, if you see an article submitted by a fellow Energy Central community member that you’d like to see broken down in more detail in a conversation, feel free to send us a note to nominate them.  For more information, contact us at [email protected]. Podcast interviews are free for Expert Members and professionals who work for a utility.  We have package offers available for solution providers and vendors. 

Happy listening and stay tuned for our next episode! Like what you hear, have a suggestion for future episodes, or a question for our guest? Leave a note in the comments below.

All new episodes of the Energy Central Power Perspectives™ Podcast will be posted to the relevant Energy Central community group, but you can also subscribe to the podcast at all the major podcast outlets, including: