Top Innovators
Public Utilities Fortnightly highlights and celebrates each year the innovators at utilities and what they created. In 2024, the awards were given out in October in Washington, D.C. and the majority of the conversations with these tenacious teams were featured in the October issue. Here, PUF brings the remaining four winners of the innovator awards: teams from Ameren, Entergy with Enchanted Rock, Ontario Power Generation, and PG&E. There is much to take in, learn from, and perhaps emulate.
PUF's Lori Burkhart: Neelofar, describe the innovation and its positive impact.
Neelofar Anjum: This innovation came because of the urgent need to develop a new method of protective relay settings to reduce catastrophic wildfire risk within our service territory. We have witnessed the pain of catastrophic wildfires, which can quickly spread once sparked.
While traditional methods of distribution protection have worked for many years, new ways of protecting the system are required as environmental conditions have changed the landscape of our service territory.
To innovate, we had to challenge our traditional thinking and long-standing practices as an energy provider. Instead of reliability being the primary objective, we had to think about how we can first ensure the safety of our communities, while still delivering reliable service.