Episode #53: 'Shining a Light on the Solar Grid of Tomorrow' with Garrett Nilsen, Acting Director of U.S. DOE Solar Energy Technologies Office [an Energy Central Power Perspectives™ Podcast]

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Thanks to the sponsors of this episode of the Energy Central Power Perspectives Podcast: West Monroe, Esri, Anterix, and ScottMadden. 

Key Links

• Solar Futures Study: https://www.energy.gov/eere/solar/solar-futures-study
• SHINES funding program: https://www.energy.gov/eere/solar/sustainable-and-holistic-integration-energy-storage-and-solar-pv-shines 
• Webinar with presentations from SHINES awardees, with slides: https://www.energy.gov/eere/solar/right-combination-solar-storage-and-demand-response-webinar-series

• Solar Prize Round 5, which is taking submissions till Oct. 5: https://www.energy.gov/eere/solar/american-made-solar-prize-round-5

• ALL the American-Made Challenges: https://americanmadechallenges.org/

• Incubator funding program, which awarded $25M for the grid-forming technologies consortium led by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory: https://www.energy.gov/eere/solar/solar-energy-technologies-office-fiscal-year-2021-systems-integration-and-hardware

• SETO Systems Integration: https://www.energy.gov/eere/solar/systems-integration

• SETO Manufacturing and Competitiveness: https://www.energy.gov/eere/solar/manufacturing-and-competitiveness

• SETO’s newsletter to get the latest on funding opportunities, prize competitions, webinars, and more: https://www.energy.gov/eere/solar/solar-newsletter

See Below for an Exclusive Bonus Clip: Available only on EnergyCentral.com for our Community Members

TRANSCRIPT

Jason Price: 

Welcome to Energy Central Power Perspectives Podcast. The show where we invite thought leaders in the energy and utilities industry to share about their passion projects, solutions, and thought leadership. Today, we're privileged to welcome the guests from the US Department of Energy. Who's eager to share with us his perspectives on a wide array of topics about how the federal government is driving change toward tomorrow's grid. My name is Jason Price of West Monroe, and I'm coming to you from New York city. Joining me from Orlando, Florida, is Matt Chester, Energy Central's Community Manager and Podcast Producer. Matt, today's episode is poised to be a great one. Don't you think?

Matt Chester: 

I think you're right about that Jason. This should be an exciting episode covering some really timely topics. And once again, we're going to be guided by one of the industry's leading voices coming from within DOE.

Jason Price: 

Yeah, I agree. The efforts to modernize the grid has really hit its stride in recent years, becoming a popular infrastructure investment, and demonstrating the ability to create jobs and power customers, like never before, and be a key pillar towards the clean energy future that we're all striving for. And looking to make that imagined modern grid, one with automation, renewable energy, distributed energy, and more, all wrapped into it, the federal government is playing a critical role. Specifically, the DOE has the power of the purse, to invest in new pilot programs, early stage R and D, and more. Especially with the Biden administration pushing on climate and decarbonization goals as a key part of its platform, as well as the ongoing discussions about the infrastructure bill, the DOE is emboldened like never before to shepherd in that process.

Jason Price: 

For this episode, we wanted to get as inside of a view into the DOE perspective, as we could, to find out what technologies they're betting on, what the process is, and making those bets and the more. And luckily we've found an esteemed guest who's excited to answer that call. But before we introduce him to the podcast booth, we want to first acknowledge the energy central partners for making today's episode possible.

Jason Price: 

To West Monroe. West Monroe works with the nation's largest electric gas and water utilities, and their telecommunication, grid modernization and digital and workforce transformations. West Monroe brings a multidisciplinary team that blends utility operations, and technology expertise to address modernizing aging infrastructure, advisory on transportation electrification, ADMS deployments, data and analytics, and cybersecurity. To Esri. Esri is an international supplier of geographic information, GIS software, web GIS, and geo database management applications. To Guide House, formerly Navigate Research. A premier market research and advisory firm covering the global energy transformation. To Anterix. Anterix is focused on delivering transformative broadband that enables the modernization of critical infrastructure for the energy, transportation, logistics and other sectors of our economy. And to Scott Madden. Scott Madden is a management consulting firm serving clients across the energy utility ecosystem. Areas of focus include transmission and distribution, the grid edge, generation, energy markets, rates and regulations, corporate sustainability and corporate services. The firm helps clients develop and implement strategies, improve critical operations, recognize departments and entire companies, we organize departments and entire companies, and implement married initiatives.

Jason Price: 

And now on to today's guest. We're thrilled to introduce to our audience, Garrett Nilsen. Garrett is the acting director of DOE's Solar Energy Technologies office. Prior to ascending to his role of deputy director, just last year, Garrett spent nearly a decade in DOE's Solar Office, first as a technical advisor, and later as the Manager of the Manufacturing and Competitiveness Program and the Soft Cost Program.

Jason Price: 

Garrett's background in physics and solar engineering led him straight to the DOE offices to get his hands dirty, and energy technology, research development, demonstration, and deployment. Today, Garrett, like the rest of the DOE, has quite the full plate. Solar Energy Technologies Office specifically funds early stage research, and development projects in three technology areas. Photovoltaics, concentrating solar thermal power, and systems integration. And addresses US competitiveness manufacturing of solar technology and soft costs related to solar installations. These wide varying areas keep Garrett quite busy, but they're essential towards creating a more friendly environment for solar energy on the grid. And with an administration that really wants to put the pedal to the metal, when it comes to grid decarbonization, I'm sure Garrett's phone never stops ringing. And we're grateful to just have him on the episode today. So let's not keep him waiting any longer. Garret Nilsen, welcome to the Energy Central Power Perspectives Podcast.

Garrett Nilsen: 

Hey guys, I'm absolutely thrilled to be here and representing the DOE. And I'm really excited to be here and thrilled to be sharing all of the great work that the department of energy is doing in this space for you and your audience. It's really a great and exciting time to be involved in the clean energy sector. And I'm more than happy to share that with you and the rest of the Energy Central Power Podcasts Perspectives community.

Jason Price: 

Awesome. Well Garrett, we're thrilled to have you here. So let's just jump into it. The timing of you being on this podcast couldn't be better. As I know, your office recently released the Solar Future Study that looks at what's needed in the coming years to meet grid wide goals, along with what you've called some eye-popping numbers. For anyone who hasn't had a chance to pick up this report, what are some of the key takeaways you want to highlight?

Garrett Nilsen: 

Yeah, absolutely. And I agree the timing couldn't be better. So our future study was a culmination of over a year of work from the National Renewable Energy Lab, in concert with the Solar Energy Technologies Office, really taking a hard look at what we're going to need to be doing and what the future could look like in 2035 and 2050. So I'm going to be talking in a number of capacity numbers here and data. For this audience, I think I'm going to be sticking with numbers in AC just as something for this audience to be aware of as I talk through them. So there are about 80 gigawatts of solar on the grid today. According to our studies, we're going to be closer to about one terawatt of solar by 2035 and 1.6 terawatts of solar by 2050. We can reach those points where we have solar representing about 45% of the energy supply, with a goal of ultimately decarbonizing that energy supply in line with the administration goals.

Garrett Nilsen: 

Currently the EIA, the Energy Information Agency inside of the Department of Energy, shows that solar will grow at about 10 to 25 gigawatts per year through 2050. Totaling only 450 gigawatts by 2035 and 700 gigawatts by 2050. So we're really going to need to see change in terms of how much solar is deployed, and not only deployed, but also getting onto the grid.

Garrett Nilsen: 

Taking that even further, some preliminary modeling shows that's completely decarbonized the entire energy system. It could end up in a situation where you have as much as three terawatts of solar on the energy system, electric system, I should say. And so this is clearly a massive list that needs to be done, and it's not only the parties who are building the systems, but it's absolutely the parties like your audience. Who're going to have to integrate all of this onto the grid today. As part of that, we'd see a massive role for energy storage. So we all know that energy storage is something that's only now starting to come into its own, but we need to see a massive rollout of capacity there. Getting to 280 to 390 gigawatts by 2035, and 930 to 1700 gigawatts by 2050.

Garrett Nilsen: 

Not only that there will also be the need to be increasing and modifying the transmission capacity in the US so we can get smooth solar energy from so many regions where it's needed. This incapacity would grow 40% by 2035 and up to 90% by 2050. So clearly, there are a number of challenges that need to be done. Now, this report doesn't talk specifically about how transmission capacity aspect will be executed, but it's really just about illustrating the size of the opportunity and the challenge for the nation. But the good news is that we are in nation of people who get stuff done.

Garrett Nilsen: 

And as part of that, there is an incredible employment opportunity to answer, as well. Achieving deep de-carbonization, which is one scenario that this report looks into, by deep de-carbonization, we mean reducing 95% of carbon production across all energy. This could be a massive opportunity to save people money. Not only in terms of avoiding climate damages, but also increasing air quality and employing people. Why some of our models we see that solar can employ 500,000 to 1.5 million people by 2035. Across the entire clean energy transition we're looking at potentially three million positions, while displacing only tens of thousands, a few tens of thousands of fossil industry jobs. So this is really an incredible economic opportunity for the individuals in the US and obviously the nation as a whole. And if we can do this, then we're going to really help drive economic activity, which has a number of other benefits.

Garrett Nilsen: 

Finally, there's also opportunities that we need to be building out and manufacturing everything involved. So if we really drive and push for domestic supply chain, which is something that we're absolutely gunning for, that is another area of potential, significant job growth as well.

Garrett Nilsen: 

So under all of this, there's really a lot of great opportunities, but a number of challenges. Not only in terms of the sheer numbers of things that need to go on to the grid, or the sheer numbers of systems that need to be installed, or the millions and millions and millions of solar panels, but also making sure that we have a fair and equitable access to all of these benefits of solar as well. So we're also focusing on how all American individuals can access solar energy, and save money, and reduce their energy burden, regardless of geographic locations, socioeconomics, or anything of that nature. So it's a tall order that's ahead and I really encourage folks to take a look at the report. It's got a myriad of details and goes and talks about this much more eloquently than I potentially might be able to. And really put some hard numbers behind these scenarios. And so it's really exciting for us to be helping strive for these goals under the offices of the Biden administration.

Jason Price: 

These are ambitious goals. What do we, specifically the utility leaders listening in today, need to do to make them a reality?

Garrett Nilsen: 

It's a little cliche, but I just want to say that, I think the biggest thing to understand is that we're in a period of rapid change in the energy sector. And now we need to be ready to take steps along this transition as they present themselves. Of course, utilities and grid operators, have to ensure the lights stay on, and at the lowest cost energy can be delivered to their customers, reliably and securely. However, that does not have to be in conflict with modernizing and decarbonizing the electric grid, and deploying massive knots in solar wind and other assets. The main point that I really want to make, is not for anyone to rule out a new technology or business model. I mean that in the sense, that everything is evolving very rapidly. Yesterday's state-of-the-art is not today's state-of-the-art, and today's state-of-the-art is not going to be tomorrow state-of-the-art.

Garrett Nilsen: 

When you're evaluating new technologies or tools as reasonable, do not rule them out entirely. Look at them through the lens of how they're going to help you and help your stakeholders today, and then make the decision that you think is best for the stakeholders that you need to be responsible for. However, do not rule something out solely because it is not ready today.

Garrett Nilsen: 

There are a number of people still, when they think about the cost of solar energy, LCOE that can be delivered to the grid, they might look at the cost as they were three years ago, five year ago or 10 years ago, before energy had seen massive cost declines. Along with storage technology as well right now. So I think everyone in the energy sector needs to continually reassess and question their assumptions, and make sure that they have the appropriate knowledge, but as up-to-date as possible to be making decisions.

Garrett Nilsen: 

So again, just to quickly summarize, I would just say, look at everything hard and make sure you're making the right decision today for your constituents. But things may change by tomorrow, and you just want to make sure that you're continuing to reassess how you're making those decisions, and what the most up-to-date knowledge of new technologies is, so that you can be using what the latest and greatest thing is for your constituents.

Jason Price: 

Garrett, let's backtrack for a second and talk about your role in all of this. Can you give us the elevator pitch for what exactly is the Solar Energy Technologies Office and what your role is as acting director?

Garrett Nilsen: 

Absolutely, and I'm glad we got a chance here. So the Department of Energy is obviously a very large organization, funded with tens of billions of dollars a year. So our energy office sits inside of what's called the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Arm of the DOE. So we focus on reducing the levelized cost of electricity from photovoltaic, and concentrating solar thermal power being deployed in the US. All while showing equitable access to solar energy for all Americans, ensuring that we be safe, reliable, resilient, and secure energy grid, minimization of environmental impacts from the solar. We want to show that we're developing living wage jobs for anybody who's working in this solar energy space. And then ultimately that the US can capitalize on its R and D, with domestic manufacturing and domestic value creation.

Garrett Nilsen: 

The solar energy office does this by investing in research, development and demonstration of new technologies, as well as working on non-hardware solutions to reduce what we call solar soft costs. So the cost of anything you can't hold in your hands, like permitting, citing, interconnection, and more, to reach all of these goals above. On top of all of this, we are the US government experts on solar energy, and engage government wide on any issue that relates to solar. As the acting director of the office, I lead a staff of almost 80 technical experts, administrative and operation staff, that identifies, funds and manages research, development and demonstration projects across all the areas I mentioned previously. We also lead our engagement with the administration, and represent the solar energy office both inside the US government and to the outside world, such as through this podcast, which again, I'm absolutely thrilled to be here for.

Jason Price: 

Terrific. You touch upon the current administration, and we have a President that wants to go full steam towards clean energy. What areas is DOE focusing on to help make that happen? And how are you spending our taxpayer dollars?

Garrett Nilsen: 

Absolutely, it's a great question. In the solar energy office, we continue to push the boundaries of the areas that we're working in. Traditionally, when people think about us, they think about new solar cell materials, or things of that nature, but we accomplish, and work on much, much more, touching all of the kind of goals of decarbonizing the energy sector by 2050. So we're investing very aggressively in the grid tech of the future and all of the subsequent components that could go into a solar energy system.

Garrett Nilsen: 

So some of the main areas of emphasis for us, of course, is thinking about the grid of the future, both at the distribution and bulk levels, trying to ensure that we have a secure grid, by investing in cybersecurity. We invest in the operations of the grid, expanding of the grid. I'll talk a little while about kind of some of the sensing and communications work that we're thinking about as a ripe area for investment. Then of course, ensuring that we have all of the right technologies that are needed to integrate, kind of in a largely in inverter based future on the electric grid. And then making sure that we're obviously demonstrating those, such that grid operators, like your audience, are comfortable with them and can integrate them confidently into their work stream and into their, sorry, so that they can integrate them confidently into the portions of their grid that they're responsible for.

Garrett Nilsen: 

On that, there are some kind of new areas that people might be surprised to hear that we work in, concentrating solar thermal power is another kind of generation that we've worked on. Not only for central, kind of low generation. We're also looking at ways, that how can we use that heat to decarbonize, traditionally, very carbon intensive processes? Such as desalination at the low 10% of the spectrum or cement making, steel making, and chemical production.

Garrett Nilsen: 

Along the vein of concentrating solar power we're also looking at developing thermal energy storage assets, that could be integrated with a CFD plant, but also potentially for them to be a standalone. There could be a future where we could, we were retrofitting a retiring coal plants to be a thermal storage asset. And this is the kind of thing that we put a long view and a long lens, in terms of what the future could be when we think of that.

Garrett Nilsen: 

Another really interesting area, is kind of on the land use end of things. So how do we think about the intersection of solar and agriculture? There's actually some really interesting synergies that come when you can put solar panels high enough above some agricultural land, both in terms of the production of the solar and the production of the land itself.

Garrett Nilsen: 

And of course, as I mentioned earlier, we're really focused on the equity as it relates to solar energy. Does not only access the solar in order to reduce people's energy burdens, but also on developing jobs and increasing access to those, and opportunities for community wealth building. The administration is committed to ensure that the clean tech revolution and all of its benefits is available to every single American, regardless of location, income and more. And the solar energy office is very proud to be making these kinds of investments.

Jason Price: 

Let's talk about the technological level. Can you share some of the work your office is doing to move the grid along towards these goals?

Garrett Nilsen: 

Absolutely. And there's a lot of work in this space that gets me really excited, and I'll apologize in advance to people from our grid team. If they're listening cause they do so much good work, and I'm sure I'll be missing at least one or two things here. I hope you know, we are really focused on some newer technologies basis, particularly getting them to the point of being demonstrated, such that they can be integrated into the grid in the future. Some of the areas where we're looking hard at our micro grids, hybrid plants, and advanced inverters and other kinds of grid forming technologies.

Garrett Nilsen: 

Specifically, I'm going to start on the last one first, because this is where I'm extremely, extremely excited. So we recently just announced an award of $25 million, to the National Renewable Energy Lab, and a group of partners to create a consortium that's focused on advancing grid, forming technologies and associated industry standards.

Garrett Nilsen: 

So we can coordinate and integrate large amounts of inverter based renewable energy assets on the grid. So clearly we've lived in a world working for very inertially based, but today, we're going to be moving more and more to a world where we have more inverter based assets. Where the energy going on to the grid is going flowing through power electronics, whether it be from a wind plant or from the solar plant and so forth. And this consortium is going to be working with national ads, universities, minority serving institutions, equipment manufacturers, utilities, bulk system operators, and more, with a goal of continuing to be able to push the envelope in terms of what is the next generation of these power electronics going to look like. We're also ensuring that we are setting up the appropriate standards and understanding their operation, also doing a lot in the demonstration space.

Garrett Nilsen: 

So how can we stress test these tools and as close to a real world or an actual real world environments, as much as possible to ensure that all people who are operating the grid can trust these technologies, such that there is no kind of slowing force in terms of integrating large amounts of solar energy onto the grid.

Garrett Nilsen: 

But what's also of great importance that I mentioned earlier is understanding how the grid is operating. And so in this case, we're really focused on how do we develop the sensors of the future and subsequently communicate that back to grid operators.

Garrett Nilsen: 

So one topic that we're particularly interested in the coming year is, is how do we ensure that we have that situational awareness, particularly on the distribution grid, for distribution grid operators. And how do we bring more information to bear for all of the people who need to operate the grid at all scales. This not only includes, behind the meter monitoring and how do you communicate that back, but all the way through to how do we develop new forecasting techniques and new forecasting methods? So, that we can understand what solar generation is going to be hours or days into the future, and we can be planning the grid accordingly.

Garrett Nilsen: 

I'll end mentioning one more thing in this area. We are very focused on workforce of the future. We have a program going on with the Electric Power Research Institute that I'm really proud of. It's called Great With Data, and it focuses on updating Power Systems Engineering curriculum at universities nationwide. And so this is something that started with a prior program called Geared, where we are working with universities, dozens and dozens of universities to update this curriculum for undergraduate and graduate students.

Garrett Nilsen: 

So that we are teaching what the grid of the future is actually going to be. So moving away from kind of the hub and spoke model from the way the grid has been operated in the past and how it's been taught in the schools. To something that is more forward-looking. To understanding how two-way power flows in a room to understand what the role of big data and communications is going to be in terms of operating the grid in the future. And of course, ensuring that people are well aware and understand the impact of cyber security, cyber hygiene, and so forth. Certainly those that are showed that there's really a holistic view that we're taking out in terms of doing a massive number of different kinds of projects and work that could be relevant to your stakeholders. And there's of course, much, much more going on, I encourage folks to visit our website to find out more.

Jason Price: 

That's great. And you are also devoting a special attention to the entrepreneurial side of this space. So share with us what those efforts look like and why are they so important?

Garrett Nilsen: 

Absolutely. I'm happy to discuss this, I come from a small business background, so this has a very soft spot in my heart. First, why is it so important? The US has a long history of entrepreneurship, thriving innovation and new industries. From the early days of things like semiconductors to clean tech entrepreneurs that were worked from early days of things like semiconductors to clean tech entrepreneurs. And all these people have needed government funding at some point, to move stuff from the the R and D level into the market space. And we're very excited to be sitting at one of those inflection points, where we can move the great research that get done that our national labs and universities, to entities that can ultimately bring them to the market to benefit the American taxpayer and to benefit the American economy.

Garrett Nilsen: 

So how we engage with entrepreneurs has evolved over the years, and we have a number of great programs that I can certainly just really briefly tell your audience about. For decades, we've run the small business innovation research program, which is a congressionally mandated program that runs across all of the government. And it's really focused on how do we bring small businesses, get them to really understand, how do we assess the feasibility of a new technology, and then ultimately move it through to an earlier stage prototypes that can tell if there's the appropriate function and the possibility to have the appropriate function when moved towards, more closer to the market.

Garrett Nilsen: 

A second area that we've worked on for a long time is what we call our incubator program. So this started in 2007. We've had hundreds of businesses go through and we've seen them subsequently go on to raise billions of dollars and create market impacting products. This program will fund anywhere from few hundred thousand dollars for a couple of million dollars across any of the technologies we work on. To move an idea from that early stage rock concept, so I would call it a commercially relevant prototype. So a prototype that is ready to show the full function of what it would need to do in operational environment, but maybe might not totally be in that final package. So you could think of kind of a large brig bread boarded inverter, where we're stress testing the functionality, while it might show all the function that ultimately the grid's going to need, obviously we'll take some companies just shrink it down to the size of it actually be deployed in the field.

Garrett Nilsen: 

Another area that's newer to us, that we've been running in the last five years, is our prize programs for our American made challenges. So these are multiple programs, one for desalination, one for hardware, and one for software right now. They're multimillion dollar prize competitions, where groups compete to kind of move up a mountain of prizes where they can get additional cash support from the DOE, and also one thing that's really exciting is getting vouchers from the DOE. Which allow people to kind of have time with national lab experts and others who are the people who received the voucher themselves.

Garrett Nilsen: 

I want to say real quick, the prize program just ended and round five is open for submissions now. So we're really excited to see what people can come up with there. We have had a couple projects in years past that were very grid focused. We've had resilient power systems from Texas. They'll bring a new kind of hybrid inverter that will hopefully make interconnection easier between solar storage and the grid. This is why we're doing new wide band gap technologies as well on the semiconductor side. We have an old group too called Max Out Renewables, who was really created an appliance level flywheel for residential solar installations, such that if there were an outage, it could act like a micro grid and potentially even provide grid services as well.

Garrett Nilsen: 

So there's a lot that we've got going on in the renewable energy entrepreneurship and startup space. And I would just say that again, if there are people in your audience who are really passionate about trying to help people move technology to market, I highly encourage you to look into these programs and figure out how you can get involved. Because we really do want to make sure that we are connecting everyone as much as possible in this clean tech ecosystem. So we can all make sure that all Americans are benefiting from these technologies as fast as possible.

Jason Price: 

This is all great information, Garrett. So glad to have you on this call. So we want to know more about you, Garrett. So we have, what's called a lightning round. So switching gears for a moment, the next set of questions I'm going to ask are geared to understand more who is Garrett Nilsen. And your response is in the form of a single phrase or sentence. So are you ready?

Garrett Nilsen: 

Let's do it.

Jason Price: 

Dream vacation spot?

Garrett Nilsen: 

I'm a big fan of being what I would call water adjacent. So near water, maybe not in the water, but I can see it. And I've had my eye on, I think, Spain for a while. So I'd love to get back to the Mediterranean at some point, once things loosen up a little bit more.

Jason Price: 

Last book or article that really made you think?

Garrett Nilsen: 

Yeah, this book was really kind of impacted me and I really encouraged folks to read it, if you are interested in the cyberspace. But read a book recently called, This Is How They Tell Me The World Ends by Nicole Perlroth, who's a journalist for the New York Times. It's about cyber weapons and the modern landscape of cybersecurity.

Jason Price: 

What is your go to movie snack?

Garrett Nilsen: 

So it's a little old timey, and I know a lot of people pushed back on it. I'm going to say Sno-Caps. I'm not even sure they still sell them at movie theaters, which shows you how often I go. But Sno-Caps or Nonpareils, I believe they're called, are definitely my go-to.

Jason Price: 

What would you be doing if your career hadn't taken you to solar energy?

Garrett Nilsen: 

I'm probably too old and not talented enough to say professional baseball player, at this point. So coming back down to earth a little, I'd probably be doing research or hopefully guiding research at a technology company in the clean tech space.

Jason Price: 

And what are you most optimistic about?

Garrett Nilsen: 

For me, it's the speed of technology change and the access that it can give to people, whether it be access to internet, energy, water, or more. There's still an unbelievable number of people without access to those things. And the more that we can do to speed the delivery of those things, that the more of the world's creativity we can unleash to make the world a better place tomorrow.

Jason Price: 

Terrific. Well, thanks for your real insight into what makes you tick. Since you put up with that, we're thrilled to give you the last word, if nothing else, what single message do you hope our utility professional audience takes away from this conversation?

Garrett Nilsen: 

Absolutely. Thanks for the opportunity. And I just touched on it and I touch on it a couple of times, but you know, we are in a time of rapid change both technology-wise, but also in the energy sector, and utility professionals are in the middle of that transition. So these technologies are being developed and deployed more rapidly than ever. So the DOE is here to help entities, like all of you, in any way that we can in terms of bringing that next generation of technology in the market space. So while change can be hard, I think it's also an even more so, very exciting, and we are absolutely willing to be working with the utility sector. Anyone who's working in the grid space through the extremely, extremely exciting times. And I just want us all to keep that in mind, this is an exciting time to be alive. There's no better challenges to be working on, than I think the ones that we're discussing today,

Jason Price: 

I agree. You're doing extraordinary work Garrett, and I feel guilty for even taking you away from your busy duties, your daily responsibilities, but we're thrilled to have you here and sharing your insight to the energy central audience. We'll certainly be keeping an eye on all his initiatives for sure, but Garrett, thank you so much for joining us today.

Garrett Nilsen: 

Absolutely. Thank you very much for the invite. Keep up the great work. I love the podcast.

Jason Price: 

Well, once again, I'm your host Jason Price plug-in, and stay fully charged in the discussion by hopping into the community at energycentral.com, and we'll see you next time at the Energy Central Power Perspectives Podcast.

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The ‘Energy Central Power Perspectives™ Podcast’ is the premiere podcast series from Energy Central, a Power Industry Network of Communities built specifically for professionals in the electric power industry and a place where professionals can share, learn, and connect in a collaborative environment. Supported by leading industry organizations, our mission is to help global power industry professionals work better. Since 1995, we’ve been a trusted news and information source for professionals working in the power industry, and today our managed communities are a place for lively discussions, debates, and analysis to take place. If you’re not yet a member, visit www.EnergyCentral.com to register for free and join over 200,000 of your peers working in the power industry.

The Energy Central Power Perspectives™ Podcast is hosted by Jason Price, Community Ambassador of Energy Central. Jason is a Business Development Executive at West Monroe, working in the East Coast Energy and Utilities Group. Jason is joined in the podcast booth by the producer of the podcast, Matt Chester, who is also the Community Manager of Energy Central and energy analyst/independent consultant in energy policy, markets, and technology.  

If you want to be a guest on a future episode of the Energy Central Power Perspectives™ Podcast, let us know! We’ll be pulling guests from our community members who submit engaging content that gets our community talking, and perhaps that next guest will be you! Likewise, if you see an article submitted by a fellow Energy Central community member that you’d like to see broken down in more detail in a conversation, feel free to send us a note to nominate them.  For more information, contact us at community@energycentral.com. Podcast interviews are free for Expert Members and professionals who work for a utility.  We have package offers available for solution providers and vendors. 

Happy listening, and stay tuned for our next episode! Like what you hear, have a suggestion for future episodes, or a question for our guest? Leave a note in the comments below.

All new episodes of the Energy Central Power Perspectives™ Podcast will be posted to the relevant Energy Central community group, but you can also subscribe to the podcast at all the major podcast outlets, including:

• Energy Central Power Perspectives™ Podcast on iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/energy-central-unnamed-podcast-series/id1488804391

• Energy Central Power Perspectives™ Podcast on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5jiUn8vzSq1t99WtECLn1j

• Energy Central Power Perspectives™ Podcast on Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/energy-central-tobenamed

• Energy Central Power Perspectives™ Podcast on TuneIn: https://tunein.com/podcasts/Business--Economics-Podcasts/Energy-Central-Podcast-p1274390/

• Energy Central Power Perspectives™ Podcast on SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/energycentral

Thanks once again to the sponsors of this episode of the Energy Central Power Perspectives Podcast: West Monroe, Esri, Anterix, and ScottMadden.