APPA National Conference
Joy Ditto is CEO of the American Public Power Association. Julia Hamm is CEO of the Smart Electric Power Alliance. Paul Lau is CEO of the Sacramento Municipal Utility District. James Lavelle is Manager at Holyoke Gas & Electric. Debra Smith is CEO of Seattle City Light.
As the energy industry increasingly moves toward a clean and modern grid, public power utility leaders take varied approaches to driving this transformation that fit their community goals and desires. There is no one size fits all approach.
This panel of public power leaders at American Public Power Association's National Conference explored how they motivate their organizations to shift away from the status quo and foster strategic change, from making progress on carbon reduction goals to deploying new grid technologies and engaging key stakeholders to keep the process transparent, accountable, and equitable. Enjoy these excerpts.
Moderator and CEO, American Public Power Association, Joy Ditto: The panelists are going to share their utilities' efforts as they relate to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, deploying new grid technologies, and engaging key stakeholders to ensure transparency, accountability, and equity as part of their processes. Public power leaders have really stepped up to meet this transformation challenge.
CEO, Smart Electric Power Alliance, Julia Hamm: SEPA earlier this year launched the results of its first annual Utility Transformation Challenge, and the basis of that is a utility industry-wide survey we conducted in the summer of 2020 to assess where individual utilities are, and the industry is as a whole, in this transformation to a cleaner and more modern grid.