Energy Central is fortunate to have a wide variety of partners across the electric power ecosystem. These partners include industry consultants, solution providers, and more, and when we bring these partners onto the Energy Central Power Perspectives Podcast, the result is often quite eye-opening. 

While the utility companies themselves are the lifeblood of the sector, these Energy Central partners are often the ones driving new changes and opportunities, bringing their expertise and ideas to the utilities to drive the future. Listen into these partner episodes to hear top insights from our friends and partners across the landscape.

Energy Central Partners: Featured Episodes

Utility companies are always positioned in a unique way compared with other companies, as the product they provide is essential for safe, healthy, and productive functioning of every family and every business. Having power bills rise too much can be a crisis for families who may be unable to pay or forced to choose between putting food on the table and keeping the lights on. The potential of inequity and crisis has only become even more apparent amid the pandemic and the recent economic struggles across the country.

With over 60% of Americans actively living paycheck to paycheck, this crisis of energy affordability needs leadership and ingenuity to ensure that energy systems are looked at holistically with affordability being a paramount consideration. These are the issues that drive Jim Madej, the CEO of Franklin Energy, as he and his team work to design and implement energy efficiency and renewable energy solutions for their utility partners. Jim is motivated by the idea of keeping energy affordable for all customers, and doing so in a way that aligns with the clean energy transition, and in this episode he joins podcast host Jason Price and producer Matt Chester to highlight what utility leaders should be doing to meet these necessary goals.

Key Links:
Jim Madej's Energy Central Profile: https://energycentral.com/member/profile/jim-madej

Energy Central Post with Full Episode Transcript: https://energycentral.com/o/energy-central/episode-73-making-energy-work-americas-working-families-jim-madej-ceo-franklin

Clean Should Mean Affordable: How Smart Clean Energy Policy Can Help Resuscitate the American Dream: https://energycentral.com/o/franklin-energy/clean-should-mean-affordable-how-smart-clean-energy-policy-can-help-resuscitate

Link to register as a member of the Energy Central Community: www.energycentral.com/user/register

Did you know? The Energy Central Power Perspectives Podcast has been identified as one of the industry's 'Top 25 Energy Podcasts': blog.feedspot.com/energy_podcasts

73. 'Making Energy Work For America's Working Families' With Jim Madej, CEO Of Franklin Energy

Cybersecurity topics have been elevated to top of mind for utility executives across the industry, a promising trend from years past where not enough attention was paid to this area, but many key decisionmakers still struggle to understand the best course of action that they need to take. With grid-wide security needed to prevent vulnerabilities that can upend the power systems on which we rely, these leaders in energy must lean dutifully on the expertise of the cybersecurity experts. And luckily for the industry, these experts have been putting serious time and effort into outlining the pest practice standards and frameworks that should be implemented across utility enterprises.

A key body in these efforts has been the North American Energy Standards Board (NAESB), including their initiatives to implement public key infrastructure (PKI) across the wholesale power sector. Joining the podcast for this episode is one of the drivers of that focus, Lila Kee, Chief Product Officer at Global Sign. Having been integral to these efforts to promote encryption, data integrity, and authentication for online transactions at the scale the power grid requires, Lila joins podcast host Jason Price and producer Matt Chester to sing the praises of NAESB protocols and share how and why energy stakeholders should embrace these frameworks and standards.

Key Links:
Energy Central Post with Full Episode Transcript: https://energycentral.com/o/energy-central/episode-78-how-wholesale-electric-participants-have-adopted-north-american-energy

Link to Register for Energy Central: energycentral.com/user/register

Lila Kee's Energy Central Profile: https://energycentral.com/member/profile/lila-kee 

Top ten cybersecurity tips for the electric sector: https://energycentral.com/c/iu/top%C2%A0ten%C2%A0cybersecurity-tips-electric-sector

Did you know? The Energy Central Power Perspectives Podcast has been identified as one of the industry's 'Top 25 Energy Podcasts': blog.feedspot.com/energy_podcasts

78. 'How Wholesale Electric Participants Have Adopted NAESB PKI' With Lila Kee

Much has been made about the need to modernize the U.S. power grid, and recent developments at the federal level have made it clear that public funding to upgrade and expand our transmission and distribution infrastructure is on the way. Whether already designated by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act passed by Congress in late 2021 or potential new funding that may come in forthcoming legislation and budgets, the scale of spending is looking like it's going to finally catch up to what's been long needed, but vast quantities of money without an intelligent plan for how and where to spend them is shortsighted.

Given the scale and complexity of the grid, even the most tuned-in grid professionals in the utility industry can struggle to grasp the best approach to the billions of dollars coming to the grid. That's why Bill Meehan and Pat Hohl, Directors of Electric Utility Solutions at Esri, advocate for a geographic approach to these investments. By tapping into the treasure troves of grid-wide data and utilizing tools like GIS and other geography-based approaches, the most efficient and intelligent decisions can be made. But doing so is no small feat, so Pat and Bill join the Energy Central podcast as returning guests to share with podcast host Jason Price and producer Matt Chester their thought process for what will ensure optimal distribution of funds.

Key Links
Link to Create Your Own Profile on Energy Central: energycentral.com/user/register

Energy Central Post with Full Episode Transcript: https://energycentral.com/o/energy-central/episode-80-taking-geographic-approach-public-grid-investment-bill-meehan-and-pat

Bill Meehan's Energy Central Profile:https://energycentral.com/member/profile/360/about

Bill's first apperance on the podcast:https://energycentral.com/c/iu/energy-central-power-perspectives%E2%84%A2-podcast-episode-12-%E2%80%98-unlock-modern-utility-gis
Pat Hohl's Energy Central Profile:https://energycentral.com/member/profile/204983/about

Pat's first appearance on the podcast:https://energycentral.com/c/iu/energy-central-power-perspectives%E2%84%A2-podcast-episode-10-%E2%80%98-past-future-circuits-how

Devouring Underutilized Data With Spatial Analytics: https://energycentral.com/o/esri/devouring-underutilized-data-spatial-analytics

Pop Quiz – What Happened on October 19, 1973: https://energycentral.com/o/esri/pop-quiz-%E2%80%93-what-happened-october-19-1973

Geospatial Infrastructure - Utility Lessons Learned with Pat Hohl and Bill Meehan - Episode #6: https://energycentral.com/o/esri/geospatial-infrastructure-utility-lessons-learned-pat-hohl-and-bill-meehan

Did you know? The Energy Central Power Perspectives Podcast has been identified as one of the industry's 'Top 25 Energy Podcasts': blog.feedspot.com/energy_podcasts

80: 'Taking A Geographic Approach To Public Grid Investment' With Bill Meehan And Pat Hohl Of Esri

The evolution of transportation systems to be electrified has been a rising story in the power sector for years, and thanks to advancing technologies and progressing electric vehicle (EV) policies it is also poised to be the defining story for utilities over the next decade or two. EVs bring the electric power sector and the transportation industry together like never before, and because the changes needed are so unprecedented, power leaders don't have a singular playbook to follow on how these coming years should play out. 

While thought leaders in the energy space agree that change is coming and utilities must prepare, the precise strategy for this transformation does not have a consensus. As these conversations play out, geographic information systems (GIS) and related tools will be critical, but the exact way to utilize these solutions even sparks debate. And so on this episode of the Energy Central Power Perspective Podcast, returning guests Bill Meehan and Pat Hohl, both Directors of Electric Utility Solutions at Esri, join podcast host Jason Price and producer Matt Chester to take these debates to the airwaves. What should utility leaders be doing today to prepare for the EV future of tomorrow? What are the best ways to integrate GIS tools in that process? And how exactly will the next 5, 10, 20 years play out? Bill and Pat go point-counterpoint in the Power Perspectives Podcast's first debate. 

Key Links:
Energy Central Post with Full Episode Transcript: https://energycentral.com/o/energy-central/episode-95-debating-utilities-role-transportation-electrification-esris-bill

Esri's Electric Utilities Page: https://www.esri.com/en-us/industries/electric/overview

Bill Meehan's Energy Central Profile:https://energycentral.com/member/profile/360/about

Bill's first apperance on the podcast:https://energycentral.com/c/iu/energy-central-power-perspectives%E2%84%A2-podcast-episode-12-%E2%80%98-unlock-modern-utility-gis

Modeling Electric Distribution with GIS By Bill Meehan: https://www.esri.com/about/newsroom/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/modeling-electric.pdf

GIS for Enhanced Electric Utility Performance by Bill Meehan: https://www.amazon.com/Enhanced-Electric-Utility-Performance-Engineering/dp/1608075591/ref=sr_1_1?crid=9UCPMZE5TCYB&keywords=enhanced+electric+utility+performance+with+GIS&qid=1663019244&sprefix=enhanced+electric+utility+performance+with+gis%2Caps%2C170&sr=8-1

Pat Hohl's Energy Central Profile:https://energycentral.com/member/profile/204983/about

Pat's first appearance on the podcast:https://energycentral.com/c/iu/energy-central-power-perspectives%E2%84%A2-podcast-episode-10-%E2%80%98-past-future-circuits-how

Bill and Pat's Podcast Episoe from Earlier this Year: https://energycentral.com/o/energy-central/episode-80-taking-geographic-approach-public-grid-investment-bill-meehan-and-pat 

Taking the Community Pulse: How Prepared Are Utilities for the EV Revolution?: https://energycentral.com/o/esri/taking-community-pulse-how-prepared-are-utilities-ev-revolution 

Did you know? The Energy Central Power Perspectives Podcast has been identified as one of the industry's 'Top 25 Energy Podcasts': blog.feedspot.com/energy_podcasts

95. 'Debating Utilities' Role In Transportation Electrification' With Esri's Bill Meehan & Pat Hohl

The utility industry is amidst a revolution of the types, complexity, and scale of advanced technologies that are transforming the sector. Building on the foundation of successful smart grid deployments over the past decade, we are now in the golden age where operational data, new ways of working and emerging applications are converging to help the sector achieve ambitious decarbonization targets. For power companies, understanding the array of applications, vendors and successful implementations will be key as we continue this decade of clean technology deployments. 

As such, this episode of the Energy Central Power Perspectives Podcast seeks to explore how the current landscape of solutions are poised to deliver, and how frontier technologies will accelerate this evolution. To discuss these topics, this week's episode features a tremendous trio from Indigo. David Groarke (Managing Director), Paul Sayour (Strategy & Research Analyst), and Leo Trudel (Innovation & Technology Director) join podcast host Jason Price and producer Matt Chester to break down the fast-moving area of grid tech and give our listeners an inside view of the state of these markets and where they are seeing opportunities for power companies.

Key Links
Energy Central Post with Full Episode Transcript: https://energycentral.com/o/energy-central/episode-98-advancing-world-grid-tech-david-groarke-paul-sayour-and-leo-trudel

Grid Tech – Analyzing the Decade of Deployment: https://energycentral.com/o/indigo/grid-tech-%E2%80%93-analyzing-decade-deployment 

The Grid Tech 150 - Identifying the Leading Utility Partners and Applications: https://energycentral.com/c/gr/grid-tech-150-identifying-leading-utility-partners-and-applications

David Groarke's Energy Central Profile: https://energycentral.com/member/profile/david-groarke

Paul Sayour's Energy Central Profile: https://energycentral.com/member/profile/paul-sayour

Leo Trudel's Enregy Central Profile: https://energycentral.com/member/profile/leo-trudel

Did you know? The Energy Central Power Perspectives Podcast has been identified as one of the industry's 'Top 25 Energy Podcasts': https://blog.feedspot.com/energy_podcasts/

98. 'Maximizing Innovative Grid Tech to Transform the Power Sector' With Indigo Advisory Group

What if your next utility crew didn’t drive, but flew? Autonomous drones are no longer experimental toys, they’re rapidly become indispensable tools for utilities facing today’s most pressing challenges: extreme weather, aging infrastructure, and reliability amid rising demand. 

In this episode of *Power Perspectives*, we explore how autonomous drones are becoming essential tools for modern utilities—helping detect failures before they happen, reducing field crew risks, and speeding up outage response. To highlight this topic, our guest is Christina Park, Senior Director of Energy Strategy at Skydio, an industry leader at the forefront of AI-powered drone technology. Christina shares lessons from her years leading digital transformation at NYPA and explains how utilities can successfully scale drone programs from one-off pilots to enterprise-wide deployments.

From the role of autonomy and AI to tackling inertia within large utility organizations, Christina offers a clear-eyed look at the real-world challenges—and massive opportunities—that drones bring to energy infrastructure.

Key Links:
Energy Central Post with Episode Transcript: https://www.energycentral.com/podcasts/post/why-every-utility-will-have-a-drone-fleet-sooner-than-you-think-OwiMdjzaSz1cLgt

Video version on YouTube: https://youtu.be/MV7aGqwfIDA

Christina Park on Energy Central: https://www.energycentral.com/member/ahfqLnthAM

Ask a Question to Our Future Guests: Do you have a burning question for the utility executives and energy industry thought leaders that we feature each week on Power Perspectives? Leave us a message here for your chance to be featured in an upcoming episode: www.speakpipe.com/EnergyCentralPodcast

Why every utility will have a drone fleet sooner than you think

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, hosted by Jason Price and Matt Chester.

Piloting the Future. Hosts Kim Gergen and Lee Krevat go deep with the leaders, innovators, and forward thinkers responsible for not just imagining where our power future is headed…but building it day by day.

The GISt. This action-packed limited series demystifies the rapidly evolving world of Geographic Information Systems through focused, expert-led deep dives into the most future-defining GIS topics.

And there’s even more to come.

Energy Central is a community where 250K electric power professionals share, learn, and connect in a collaborative environment. Want to join in? Visit www.EnergyCentral.com to register for free.