Utility Insights on the Accelerating Energy Transition

Industry leaders, customers and partners sat down with Stephanie Koldoziej, portfolio director, transmission and distribution at Clarion Events, at Itron Inspire 2023 to share their perspectives on how cities and utilities are adapting to the energy transition and the challenges and opportunities that come with it.  

Check out the interviews below to hear what these leaders had to say and keep reading to get the highlights: 

• Stefan Zschiegner, Itron: Grid Edge 
• Dan Pfeiffer, Itron: IIJA and Utilities
• Tom Deitrich, Itron: Preparing for the Energy Transition 
• Marina Donovan, Itron: Resourcefulness Insight Report 
• Carlos Lopez, Itron: Smart Cities 
• Jenifer Picciurro, Las Vegas Valley Water District: Resourcefulness Award 
• Torrey Cardinalli, Verizon Global Enterprise: Utilities and Private Networks 
• Robert Puente, San Antonio Water System: Utilities and Shared Success 

Exploring the Grid Edge  

Itron’s Stefan Zschiegner, vice president of product management for Outcomes, discusses the challenges and opportunities facing utilities at the grid edge. The transition to renewable energy, the adoption of electric vehicles and changes in consumer behavior are all happening at the grid edge, which is impacting utilities’ ability to maintain visibility and control into the distribution grid. This presents an opportunity for utilities to engage stakeholders and upgrade infrastructure to ensure resilient, reliable and safe energy and water delivery to their communities. In collaboration with our ecosystem of technology partners, Itron can help utilities approach these challenges in a way that is open, flexible and agile to their needs today and in the future. 

The Role of IIJA in the Energy Transition 
Itron’s Dan Pfeiffer, vice president of government and regulatory affairs, discusses how the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) is helping utilities and cities meet their grid infrastructure goals as well as how the legislation differs from the American Recovery and Investment Act (ARRA), enacted in 2009. Pfeiffer highlights the size of grants as a big differentiator. While ARRA awarded much larger grants, the IIJA is distributing more of them. In addition, ARRA’s focus was on carbon reduction and creating jobs, while the IIJA focuses on those pieces in addition to environmental justice, equity and union jobs. The IIJA also places a higher priority on serving disadvantaged urban and rural communities. Project proposals that are geared toward underserved areas are more likely to receive grant funding. 

Creating a More Sustainable Future 
Itron’s president and CEO, Tom Deitrich, discusses the impact of the energy transition on electric, gas and water utilities and how they can prepare for the challenges and opportunities ahead. Tom highlights two main components of the transition. The first is the shift to a cleaner, more sustainable future by Integrating renewables into the grid, which includes the generation side down to the distributed energy resources (DERs) at the edge of the grid. The second component underscores the importance of creating reliable and affordable solutions utilities can put in place. Tom emphasizes that reliability and resiliency are top priorities for utilities moving forward in addition to increased engagement with consumers as the energy transition forges ahead.  

Recapping the Resourcefulness Insight Report 
Marina Donovan, vice president of global marketing, ESG and public affairs, discusses the findings of Itron’s Resourcefulness Insight Report, which explores the impacts of the energy transition on utilities. This year, Itron partnered with Public Utilities Fortnightly to interview 10 state commissioners and 250 utility executives from across the United States to get their perspective on the opportunities and barriers they see coming as the energy transition progresses and how they expect to meet these hurdles head on. The report highlighted the increase in public demand as a big driver of the accelerating transition, barriers utilities are facing, including infrastructure upgrades and technology investments, as well as the need for ongoing education and dialogue among consumers, policy makers, regulators and utilities.

Illuminating Smarter Cities 
Itron’s Carlos Lopez, senior product marketing manager, discusses the role of smart streetlights in creating smart cities. Streetlights are an essential community service and consume as much as 40 percent of a municipal energy budget. Streetlights are also the second largest user of electricity, below energy from buildings. As legacy streetlights continue to be failure prone and costly with labor intensive maintenance, cities are converting to LEDs and smart lighting systems, which can reduce energy and operational costs by 50 percent or more. With Itron’s smart lighting systems, cities and utilities can utilize streetlights as an asset for safety that enables social and economic vitality in their communities.  

Resourcefulness Award Interview 
Jenifer Picciurro, customer care and field service specialist with Las Vegas Valley Water District (LVVWD), discusses the utility’s award-winning water program. Up against a 20-year drought, the utility’s number one concern continues to be conservation, which led to the implementation of advanced metering infrastructure (AMI). This enables LVVWD to obtain data and automate processes, such as customer notification if their usage is high due to a leak, malfunction, etc. Jenifer shares that automation and real-time communication with customers have made the transition seamless and built the foundation for the utility’s continued success with their water conservation efforts. 

Leveraging the Benefits of Private Networks 
Torrey Cardinalli, managing director of enterprise sales at Verizon Global Enterprise, discusses private networks and their role in enabling grid visibility for utilities. Private networks represent the next era of networking generations from cellular wireless providers. Everyone is familiar with public networks, but private networks bring more visibility and control to utilities and enterprises. With more visibility and control, utilities can get a better understanding of how their networks are performing and make changes more dynamically, ultimately ensuring their network and the grid are more resilient, reliable, safe and efficient.  

Utility Collaboration and Shared Success 
Robert Puente, president and CEO of San Antonio Water System, discusses the water utility’s collaboration with CPS Energy and challenges that are unique to their service area. In addition, Robert discusses the tremendous success of their water conservation programs, which have allowed the utility to use the same amount of water today as they were 30 years ago despite the massive growth in the community.