Avi Gopstein is the smart grid program manager and group leader at NIST, the US federal government’s National Institute of Standards & Technology, which has played and still plays an ongoing key role in the development of interoperability standards and testing in the smart grid world. He explained how standards enable the smart grid, especially behind the meter as the energy world works to abolish carbon emissions completely with renewables, demand response, and electric vehicles, and much more – and he shared examples of where the industry is headed with standards profiles that help bring order where existing or new standards can cover a complex variety of use cases.

CPower has been offering demand response aggregation for C&I customers for many years and as the electric industry and marketplace has been evolving, the firm has gained lots of experience in turning opportunities to find great value in how energy and DERs are managed into grid-balancing and energy market financial wins for its customers and the utilities that serve them, and they told us all about it...

John Marcolini is senior VP of the network solutions business unit at Itron and his division was faced with the interesting challenge of deploying the network for the smart meter rollout of Con Edison in the five boroughs of New York City, a city of some 60,000 buildings plus all the subway stations – and he shared with us his insights about the project.

Andy has been working with utility software for many years including at IBM and Schneider Electric and started as CEO at MPrest in April, helping grow the company that invented the Iron Dome system that protects Israel from missiles and that helps electric utilities around the globe automate their critical systems. He told us about his firm’s technology and his predictions for the future...

Sonnen US VP Adam Gentner is in charge of the premium products and projects business unit that specializes in virtual power plants (VPPs) using the firm’s home- and business-based battery systems and its own proprietary software. Claudia Kolbinger is VP in charge of the consumer products business which is focused on business development with large partners. The firm has deployed a large VPP in Germany and has several others elsewhere and is building on its existing success to bring the prosumer, grid-balancing, wholesale market, and carbon reduction benefits of VPPs to homes and businesses everywhere.

Hitachi Energy Senior Vice President of Enterprise Software Solutions Bryan Freehoff spoke with us about his firm's Asset Performance Management software or APM and the value it brings electric utilities in multiple ways including critical safety awareness during fire season. Please note that since we spoke to Bryan on this call, his company changed its name from Hitachi ABB Power Grids to Hitachi Energy.

Allan shared with us details about how SEPA conceived of and created its first-ever utility transformation challenge, an in-depth series of surveys that culminated in a report issued this year to help SEPA members and the industry at large see clearly what can be accomplished as the industry ramps up its modernization efforts. This episode was recorded earlier this year but due to our scheduling limitations, it is being released at a key moment in history as the world meets in Glasgow Scotland and discuss what can be accomplished to further the battle against climate change...