All Things DER: How to Better Serve Customers and Manage the Increased Electrification of Fleets
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 of All Things DER, we’re talking with Christina Alston, the Transmission Development Manager at the Georgia Transmission Cooperative. As one of the largest transmission cooperatives in the country, GTC exists to serve its customers with the increasing demands of DER to bring power to people when they need it most. We discuss the importance of allowing time for the utility industry to meet the increasing demands of its customers, while working simultaneously within an organization to anticipate and plan for the implementation of new technologies in the coming years.
Here’s what you’ll discover:
- Where DER has the greatest capacity to beneficially impact the electrification of the transmission system
- Why planning for increased hot spots with the electrification of fleets is critical for long term success
- How the incremental cost of adding proper upgrades to the power grid during the construction phase will be key to a timely transition of serving new technologies
- How the power industry spent the last three decades convincing people to use less of the product, and why that’s changing
- Why collaboration among GIS, customer, and marketing personnel within an organization is crucial for planning for this new phase of power grid evolution
- What people must understand about the utility industry and its mission to serve in the safest, most cost-effective manner