For more than a century, electric utilities have planned, funded, and operated around two core infrastructures: the transmission grid and the distribution grid. That model is changing. The electric grid now taking shape is more automated, more distributed, more dynamic and more dependent on real-time decision-making. Similarly, a utility’s communications network no longer simply enables operations; it is becoming embedded within them. It provides visibility, enables coordination, and supports control—capabilities that increasingly influence reliability, resilience, restoration performance, and operational effectiveness. The communications grid has become operationally consequential in its own right. In effect, the industry has created a Third Grid—whether it recognizes it or not.
In this exclusive Energy Central PowerSession, we’ll hear from utility industry leaders that are at the forefront of making the Third Grid an operational reality in their organizations, about what that means to them. If communications are now embedded in how the grid operates, then it can no longer be treated only as a technical upgrade or a support function. It has become a capital strategy decision.
We’ll discuss why traditional communications business cases often fall short, how leading utilities are approaching private LTE and other operational communications platforms, and what utilities risk when they continue building modernization programs on fragmented networks that were never designed as one coordinated architecture. We hope that you’ll join us on August 12th for this engaging, thought-provoking discussion.
Panelists
Jim Jones, Vice President & CIO, Great River EnergyÂ
Kenneth Radedeau, CTO, Transportation, Energy, Public Sector, Nokia
Jon Conway, Vice President, Networks, Integration & Automation, T&D, Burns & McDonnell
Mike Smith, KLN Group (Moderator)
