Business Acumen for Emerging Leaders: Challenge (Jul 31-Aug 03)

Come see Puget Sound Energy's Snoqualmie hydroelectric facility. We'll load the bus promptly at 11:45 am for our scenic hour long ride into the heart of the Cascade Mountains. Safety Waivers will need to be filled out ahead of time and all PPE will be provided. Please eat lunch on your own before the tour. 

Welcome to Puget Sound Energy

Gaming the System: Engaging Customers through Intrinsic Motivation 
Speaker(s): Jon Dies, Manager, Pipeline Integrity Projects, ATCO Natural Gas, Josh Ruddick, Engineering Supervisor, Eugene Water & Electric Board, Megan Poshka, Customer Service Operations Manager, Idaho Power Company, Travis Britanik, Director, Strategy, Pacific Gas and Electric Company, Cassie Houser, Operations Superintendent, Snohomish County PUD, Lauren Briggs, Manager, Balancing Authority Function, Tucson Electric Power

How can utilities entice customers to reshape their energy usage? Gamify it! Interactive load management is important for easing the energy transition. Learn how to employ your utility’s customer-facing solutions, building in game elements to increase participation and engagement.

De-carbonization – A Time for Leadership
Speaker(s): Travis Allen, Strategic Account Manager, Altec, Inc., Frank Sanderson, Manager – T&D Safety, Arizona Public Service Company, Kyna Alders, Deputy Chief Operating Officer (Acting), Bonneville Power Administration, Hamid Shaker, Manager, Advanced Analytics, ENMAX Corporation, Jaime Ulestad, Business Systems Senior Manager, NW Natural, Jillian Rich, Senior Strategic Business Planner, Sacramento Municipal Utility District

Decarbonization is an energy transition unlike anything the utility industry has seen before. It has taken over 160 years for the industry to slowly evolve from wood to natural gas, but achieving net zero requires building 6-9x more renewables, expanding transmission and distribution and overhauling some utility practices in less than 30 years. Our presentation posits that, at its heart, a change of this magnitude is a leadership challenge. We will explore the critical role leaders play for organizations tackling this technical, political, and resource-intensive goal. We will provide thought-provoking case studies, deep dives into the hard and soft elements of change leadership, and representative successes and failures of leading utilities. Whether you are years into the decarbonization challenge or just getting started, come learn tools for being the leader your utility needs you to be.

Utility Knowledge Network
Speaker(s): Tara McGowan, Engineering Manager, Colorado Springs Utilities, Jacob Darrington, Manager, Regulatory Affairs, Intermountain Gas Company, Jay Bick, Advanced Clean Technology Engineering Manager, San Diego Gas & Electric Company, Nanette Salamon, Manager Supply Planning, SaskPower

The utility industry is experiencing significant staffing challenges and a growing knowledge deficiency.  To address these issues, we are proposing a simple web-based platform where utility employees can engage with one another in a non-solicitation and confidential manner to share information, discuss problems, and propose solutions.  The platform could also be used by participants to post work requests for external Subject Matter Experts to address specific problems or provide cross training.

This platform would enable utilities to:

• Share the shrinking base of experienced technical employees
• Leverage the small but growing base of employees with experience specific to the energy transition
• Support the training and development of employees 
• Engage employees that may otherwise seek external opportunities or retirement 
• Reduce or eliminate redundant work across utilities 

The goal of this platform is to help utilities better accomplish the work of today and to improve their ability to thrive in the future energy landscape.

Utilities United for Energy Affordability
Speaker(s): Matthew Barnes, Area Manager, BC Hydro, Alberto Bueno, Substation Engineer, El Paso Electric Company, Brandy Powers, Director, Brand, Advertising and Customer Communications, NorthWestern Energy, Jennifer Womack, Manager Cyber Defense Center, Puget Sound Energy, Nadia Aftab, Interim Program Manager – Facilities Integrity Management, Southern California Gas Company, Nathan Manning, Civil Engineering Manager, Tacoma Power

With aging infrastructure, rapidly changing technology and ever increasing demands on our customer’s pocketbooks, utilities have to find a way to reliably meet future clean energy demands while keeping costs affordable. In this presentation, we will discuss the reasons behind the affordability crisis, showcase some of the programs offered by the utilities and explore opportunities to protect vulnerable customers together.

Unlocking the Potential of Energy as a Service Business Models
Speaker(s): Xin Shane, Manager, Organized Market Settlement and Analytics, Avista Corp., Tasha Christensen, Dominion Energy, Brian Williams, Electric Services Manager, Los Angeles Department of Water & Power, Vinh Nguyen, Manager, Capital Portfolio Delivery, Portland General Electric, Jennifer Rooke, Manager, Power Contracts, SaskPower, Sam Chesnut, Operations Supervisor – Sumas, Washington, Williams Northwest Pipeline

What do you get when you mix advancing technologies, changing regulations and customers seeking convenience, customization, and control at the best possible price? The end of Blockbuster Video. This is exactly where the energy industry is heading if we don’t change and adapt our business model to stay relevant. As distributed electric generation, storage technologies, smart devices and other energy management systems become widely available, and the push of renewable goals and electrification, new service providers are venturing into energy space and offering creative service products to our customers. This will reduce our customer’s dependency on us utilities, which in turn leads to declining revenues and increases in rates for other customers. As a utility, we have choices: we can continue focusing on traditional business models, we can partner with these service providers to facilitate competition and customer choices or we can expand our dominant role in the grid by offering services ourselves. Join us as we explore different business models, technologies, services currently being offered, and the role utilities will play in taking the energy industry into the next century.   

Workforce of the Future
Speaker(s): David Kavanagh, Senior Manager of Operations, EPCOR Distribution and Transmission Inc., Dorothy Sidhu, Manager, People Development, FortisBC, Kristin Watt, Manager, Air Quality Services, Salt River Project, Delcina Lal, Key Customer Manager, Seattle City Light, Breanna Medina, Senior Manager, Southern California Edison, Adam Shochat, Manager, Engineering, Southwest Gas Corporation

Utilities across North America are struggling to attract talent and this challenge will only continue to compound over the next decade. Aging demographics, rapidly changing skill requirements, and a declining workforce with greater employment choices creates less interest in careers within the skilled trades space. This causes industry-wide concerns about the resilience of our labor workforce.
 
Specifically, we seek to develop and identify strategies to attract a diverse workforce into the utilities industries. Our group will detail the benefits of creating both individual and industry-wide utility apprenticeship programs to capitalize on traditionally untapped labor streams, remove barriers to utility employment, and create greater diversity. As an industry, we can leverage these strategies to broaden the depth and breadth of our candidate pools, as we build our workforce of the future.