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Audra Drazga
Audra Drazga
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Announcing Energy Central's 2024 Innovation Champions

Back in April, the Energy Central Community Management Team published our annual call for nominations for utility professionals who should be considered Champions of Innovation. As a part of our yearly Special Issue soliciting stories on Innovation in the Power Sector, we also run this annual opportunity for power sector professionals to nominate their peers, partners, or even themselves to spotlight who is leading the industry into new heights and embracing the critical spirit of innovation.

As usual, the Energy Central Community responded in force and nominated dozens of qualified leaders, and we turned to a panel of committed members of our community to serve as the judges of these submissions. Guided by choosing who they found to be on the most cutting edge of innovation and who has concrete results showing the payoff for their hard work, this committee ultimately guided us in naming Four Champions and Four Honorable Mentions as our 2024 Innovation Champions in the Electric Power Industry.

These winners were actually first publicly announced as a part of the PowerSession called "De-Risking and Accelerating Innovation Inside Regulated Utilities [an Energy Central PowerSession™]," which can now be watched On-Demand here. Below you'll see a quick video on that announcement of the winners, with some of them making an appearance to make some comments on their selection: 

 

Each of the four selected Champions will participate in an exclusive interview to share their story and lessons learned in their efforts that could benefit the community. In no particular order, our Champions are as follows:

  • Amy Grice, Chief Operating Officer, Peninsula Light Company: 
    • Amy has been integrally involved in PenLight's big data, digital twins, and grid automation projects. Her focus on grid modernization, data-driven decisions, and innovation have been instrumental in guiding PenLight's use of advanced   OT and IT systems, such as ADMS, GIS, and innovative analytic tools, to significantly improve the distribution system's efficiency and outage response. First as System Engineer, Supervisor and then as Chief Operating Officer, Amy has played a key role in planning and managing the technology improvements required for modernizing the Penlight grid. Under her guidance, Penlight has moved all of its operational information with SCADA into its full ADMS system, so that the system is fully digital.
  • Kim Rush, SVP and Chief Operating Officer, NW Natural
    • Kim was nominated for her work in a novel hydrogen production technique utilizing methane pyrolysis. This is method of producing hydrogen that does not produce carbon emissions - thereby reducing the utility's emissions - but it also produces solid carbon as a byproduct, which can then be used as a valuable material input. Specifically, this lends itself to other infrastructure projects like asphalt for pot hole repair or use as an agent in other construction materials.  The project includes a three-year partnership with a regional energy-technology company, Modern Hydrogen, to produce hydrogen that will be blended into NW Natural's gas use. This future-looking partnership and technique is a proving ground for efficient and cost-effective hydrogen production that is also green and creates spinoff value.
  • Geof Syphers, CEO, Sonoma Clean Power
    • Full Interview published here: Pioneering Renewable Energy Choice: An Interview with Geof Syphers, CEO at Sonoma Clean Power [Recognizing One of the 2024 Energy Central Innovation Champions]
    • Geof serves as Sonoma Clean Power’s CEO and he was nominated for his leadership in the company’s work to solve the climate crisis today by serving nearly half a million people with clean energy from more renewable sources. He has been at the helm of SCP since its inception in 2014 as a community choice program to give customers an option beyond the for-profit investor-owned utility at competitive rates. At the time, SCP was only the second community choice program in California, and today serves as a model and leader for the now 25 operational programs in the state, serving more than 14 million customers and contributing more than 14,000 megawatts of new renewable power.
  • Dr. Leonid Lev, CTO of Cyber Entrepreneur and Business Development, Israel Electric Corporation
    • ​​​​​​​Dr. Lev was nominated for his leadership in the field of critical infrastructure digitalization and cybersecurity. In his role at Israel Electric Corporation (IEC), Dr. Lev has spearheaded numerous research and development projects that has led to groundbreaking solutions that address the most pressing challenges facing the power industry, including the development of a dynamic digital twin designed to emulate, simulate, and validate updates and operational events for utilities companies and critical infrastructures. This proprietary patented technology allows for the testing of endless operational events and cyber scenarios in a near-real-time safe environment before deployment.

In the coming weeks, we'll be publishing interviews with these leaders (which will get linked above), so you can benefit from the takeaway lessons learned and even ask these experts some questions of your own in the comments!

While narrowing down to the four Champions of Innovation was indeed challenging, we also had so many other worthy nominees that we wanted to call out a couple more for the great work they're doing, recognizing them as Honorable Mentions: 

  • Patrick Carberry, Senior Manager, Engineering & Design, Baltimore Gas & Electric
  • Kerri Carnes, Director of Customer to Grid Solutions, Arizona Public Service
  • Jarrod Harper, Manager of IT Enterprise Systems, Vermont Electric Power Company
  • Allegra Hodges, Head of Strategic Innovation, Portland General Electric

 

Finally, we want to do a shout out to a couple of our Energy Central Members who participated as part of the review committee in selecting the finalists: Thanks to Bill Connor, Larry Bekkedahl, Kevin Anderson, and Ryan Quint  for graciously sharing your time and insights in this process-- we could not have done it without you!
 

Audra C Drazga
VP of The Power Industry Network

Congratulations to all who have been recognized. Energy Central is extremely eager to see your transformative ideas continue to shape the future of the sector. And thank you to everyone who was involved in this process—from the winners and other nominees to those who did the nominating to the Review Committee to each and every member of the Energy Central Community who continues to foster the necessary mindset toward new thinking and sharing lessons learned across the industry with your peers!