The power grid’s rapid, fundamental, and accelerating transformation dominates utility industry decisions in more and more obvious ways. From grappling with policy and regulatory mandates to responding to customer demands to integrating large amounts of intermittent renewable generation, the sheer volume of new challenges and decisions utilities have to make can be overwhelming. Despite all of the change utilities are navigating, their most basic mission remains the same: the uninterrupted delivery of safe and affordable electricity. In other words, reliability is as much a bedrock objective as it has always been for utilities. And a mix of factors, including increasingly extreme weather, policy changes, and economics makes the job of hardening the grid to ensure resiliency and reliability a task both more challenging and more important to get right. Which is why choices about how utilities design overhead lines and choose conductors and other equipment need to be approached deliberately and with the benefit of experience and expertise.

This podcast series will provide expert insights into the questions and topics utilities need to address to properly harden their systems for a future full of change. The three-part podcast series will have episodes focusing on:
• Overhead line design principles
• Strategic undergrounding and high voltage installation
• Intelligent grid/services