All Things DER: How to Foster Innovative Thinking and Create Cultural Change Within a Company

by Dr. Elizabeth Cook, General Manager of Advanced Grid Solutions, Duquesne Light Company

Welcome to the All Things DER podcast! In this podcast, we’ll be digging in, defining, and discussing where the new energy economy is heading with electric industry leaders, and explore all the ways that distributed energy resources can modernize and improve our ever-evolving power grid.

In today’s episode, we’re talking with Alan MacAnespie, the Principal Innovation Specialist at Baltimore Gas & Electric. We discuss the importance of “out of the box” thinking while maintaining a disciplined approach to innovation that fosters creativity and drives the new energy economy forward within a company. From the value of innovation to the need for a cultural mindset shift, we dig into a variety of ways to continually make leaps towards cleaner energy and fostering innovative thinkers for the next generation of the power industry.

Here’s what you’ll discover:

  • How distributed energy is fundamentally changing how we adapt to the grid, and what this means for the future
  • What the “Path to Clean” initiative is, and how it relates to setting company-wide goals that foster creativity
  • How “out of the box” thinking doesn’t equate to frivolous spending, and what a disciplined approach to innovation entails
  • Why value should be the main goal of innovation, and how innovation isn’t the end goal, but the way of getting there
  • Why budgeting and funding innovation is integral in fostering an environment of creativity within a company
  • How innovation is a mindset shift that requires leadership
  • Practical ways to change a company culture that resists innovative thinking