Energy Solutions: A Podcast From EPSA – Details, episodes & analysis

To meet the nation’s rising demand for electricity, we need to build a lot of power generation, and fast, and keep what we have. What’s the best way to get there? What policies and market foundations can best incentivize the investment and enable the buildout needed while mitigating costs and keeping the grid reliable? 

In part 1 of the final episode of our four-part series exploring the challenge and opportunity presented by rising power demand, we interview state and national policy leaders Texas Representative August Pfluger and Arizona Commissioner Lea Marquez Peterson.

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Meeting the rapid growth in electric demand posed by AI and data centers, manufacturing, electrification, and other factors requires a significant buildout of electric power resources on a tight timeline. Solving for decarbonization and reliability adds to the challenge – requiring not just existing generation resources, but new technologies and innovative approaches. For competitive power suppliers, the challenge is also an opportunity. Independent power producers are at the forefront of both providing existing dispatchable generation and connecting critical new resources to the grid – including battery storage, carbon capture and storage, hydrogen, more efficient gas generation, and more. We hear from Competitive Power Ventures, Invenergy, and Vistra Corp. on the solutions they’re currently providing and what they’re eyeing for the future.  

This is the third episode in a four-part series from Energy Solutions, exploring the challenge and opportunity presented by rising power demand, policy and market design considerations, and ways to meet the moment. 

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In this episode, the head of the nation’s regulatory authority for power system reliability gives an update on the reliability and security of the grid – discussing steps to improve performance after 2022’s Winter Storm Elliott and other extreme weather events, the top reliability risks for the power system, and progress on gas-electric harmonization. Listen in to NERC and EPSA Presidents and CEOs Jim Robb and Todd Snitchler’s conversation. 

This is part of our special series featuring four fireside chats from EPSA’s 3rd Annual Competitive Power Summit on March 26. Listen in for audio from the day’s conversations, featuring grid reliability experts, top energy executives, trade association leaders, and competitive power generators, as they discuss reliability, innovation to deliver the energy expansion, state energy priorities, ways to integrate clean power into the grid, and more. 

• Ep 38(b): Power Generators CPV and GE Vernova Talk new Tech to for Reliable Energy Expansion: Competitive Power Summit Fireside Chats  
• Ep 38(c): What Have the top Utility Regulators Been Up To? NARUC President Fedorchak Shares Priorities: Competitive Power Summit Fireside Chats  
• Ep 38(d): Clean Power and Reliability With ACP’s Jason Grumet: Competitive Power Summit Fireside Chats  

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EPSA’s 3rd annual Competitive Power Summit is just over a week away. What better way to gear up for the Summit than to hear from our speakers themselves? We brought our four panel moderators onto the pod—Politico's Catherine Morehouse, the Forum Consulting’s Ben Marter, former WSJ and Washington Post reporter Tim Puko, and Bloomberg’s Daniel Moore—to discuss the thoughts and questions they’re most looking forward to bringing to their panels.

Want to see them in person? Register here for the Competitive Power Summit on Tuesday, March 26 in Washington, DC: bit.ly/epsa24register

Find this episode's guests on X/Twitter:
Catherine Morehouse: @cmorehouse10
Tim Puko: @TimPuko
Ben Marter: @BenMarter
Daniel Moore: @bydanielmoore

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What will it take to meet the nation’s rising power demand? NARUC President and North Dakota Public Service Commissioner Julie Fedorchak joins EPSA President and CEO Todd Snitchler for this episode, where she shares the initiatives that she has taken to solve the challenges facing a system being asked to perform in ways it has never had to before. Fedorchak unpacks her concerns for power grid reliability amidst a changing resource mix, and why the Peace Garden State continues to prioritize dispatchable generation. 

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Electricity demand is growing for the first time in years. Are grid operators and competitive power suppliers prepared to maintain reliability while balancing decarbonization mandates? Nathan Hanson, President of LS Power Generation, believes that maintaining a healthy market for firm generation resources will be essential to meet the growing demand from data centers, manufacturing, and transportation electrification. How stakeholders address these challenges could mean the difference between economic progress or dislocation.

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From New York to California, what are the top issues facing America’s electric grid? We gather leaders from the organizations representing competitive power suppliers in RTOs and ISOs throughout the nation to discuss the top stories from the past year – and what to expect in 2024 when it comes to delivering reliable electricity while reducing carbon emissions, serving rapidly rising demand, and mitigating consumer costs.

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Winter is coming. Is America’s power grid ready? That’s top of mind for Chairman Willie Phillips, who heads the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. In this episode, he addresses infrastructure development and streamlining to meet growing energy demand, making sure the power system can weather extreme heat and cold, and the importance of affordability and environmental justice. But as you’ll hear, reliability remains the top priority. 

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Wyoming is the top coal-producing state in the U.S. But like much of the country, the state is transitioning to new sources of energy. This comes as the region faces reliability challenges from heat, drought, and other factors. How are Wyoming and other Western states balancing the growth of lower carbon power sources with the need for a reliable grid and continued economic growth? The University of Wyoming’s Kara Fornstrom, formerly Director of State Regulatory Policy for the Southwest Power Pool and Chair of the Wyoming Public Service Commission, weighs in. 

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From wildfires to winter storms to cyber and physical attacks, the power system is under greater stress than ever – all while under pressure to transition rapidly to new sources of electricity. In this episode, Todd speaks with Katherine Blunt, reporter for The Wall Street Journal and author of California Burning, a look at PG&E operations and the fallout from 2017 and 2018’s tragic wildfires. Katherine discusses the state of America’s changing electric grid and mounting reliability concerns – and the power we rely on is impacted by efforts to reduce emissions, extreme weather and climate change, and the business decisions utilities and power companies make.   

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