You are receiving this email because of your affiliation with Alltricity Network (formerly RMEL)
From The Desk of Ken Wilmot (Alltricity Network Executive Director)
It seems one word sums up the current sentiment across our membership—Active! We couldn’t agree more, especially as we ramp up our offerings and dive into the Alltricity Network version of March Madness. Our Education Committees are hard at work planning top-notch events throughout March and April, all leading up to the 2025 Alltricity Network Spring Conference in Dallas, TX. Be sure to explore the opportunities listed on our Events & Education Calendar to grow your network and advance your professional development.
With so much happening, time is flying by—and before we know it, the 2025 Alltricity Network Spring Conference will be here. We’re pleased to share more new and exciting information about the big spring event, including the Agenda At-A-Glance, golf outing information, Next Generation Pre-Conference Workshop Agenda, and much more. Take a moment to read through the latest updates below—we look forward to seeing you there!
VIEW THE AGENDA AT-A-GLANCE & REGISTER FOR THE 2025 ALLTRICITY NETWORK SPRING CONFERENCE
May 5-7, 2025 | Dallas, TX | Early Bird rates for groups & individuals end March 21—register early & save!
Check out the newly released 2025 Spring Conference Agenda At-A-Glance to view the session topics and speakers for the three education tracks: Generation, Transmission & Distribution, and Management, as well as other conference events, including the full schedule, Keynote speakers, Senior Leadership panelists, Alltricity Scholarship Foundation golf outing, Next Generation Pre-Conference Workshop, sponsored receptions, and more!
Designed for utility professionals in management, engineering, planning, and operations, this conference offers valuable education and networking tailored to your needs. See the 2025 Alltricity Network Spring Conference webpage for all details and don’t miss your opportunity to connect, learn, gain insights to navigate the dynamic electric utility landscape!
Register now (Early Bird rates end March 21) and book your discounted hotel room by April 13, 2025.
Kick Off Your 2025 Spring Conference at the Golf Outing
Tee off at 8:00 a.m. on Monday, May 5 at the Luna Vista Golf Course and reconnect with industry colleagues and friends over a round of golf for a good cause! Benefiting scholarships for deserving students pursuing careers in the electric utility industry provided by the Alltricity Scholarship Foundation, the registration fee for this golf outing includes green fees, cart, box breakfast, range balls, and winner prizes.
The NextGeneration Pre-Conference Workshop Returns
Taking place Monday, May 5 from 2:30-6:00 p.m., ahead of the 2025 Alltricity Network Spring Conference, The 2025 workshop theme is “Leading Through Change: Overcoming Resistance and Driving Success” and is designed for emerging leaders, and those who manage or mentor future leaders in the electric utility industry. This interactive event will introduce you to many change management concepts and strategies to manage the change cycle, resistance, communication, and build support networks to drive growth—both personally and within your organization. Equip yourself with the tools to lead, adapt, and thrive through change. View the full Pre-Conference Workshop Agenda to learn more about the sessions and speakers!
Register now and don’t miss this chance to grow your career. Member price is only $100 when bundling with a full Spring Conference registration. 3.0 Professional Development Hours (PDHs) certificates will be awarded upon completion.
Spring Conference Sponsorship Opportunities Available
Reach a diverse electric utility audience and enhance your organization's visibility at the 2025 Spring Conference through Tabletop Sponsorships. View sponsorship opportunities and reserve your spot today as we have sold out in the past! If you have questions or would like to discuss a customized opportunity, please contact us at info@alltricitynetwork.org.
SPONSOR REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN FOR THE 2025 ALLTRICITY SCHOLARSHIP FOUNDATION GOLF TOURNAMENT!
June 24, 2025 | Arrowhead Golf Club | Littleton, CO
Get ready to hit the greens for a day of fun, networking, and making a difference! The 2025 Golf Tournament, hosted by the Alltricity Scholarship Foundation, is your chance to combine a great day of golf with a meaningful mission: supporting the next generation of electric utility industry professionals through scholarships. Since 2000, the Alltricity Scholarship Foundation has awarded 644 scholarships, distributing over $1.4 million to students, thanks to the generosity and participation of supporters like you in this and other Foundation events. Learn more about the 2025 Golf Tournament and view the event brochure.
Registration Schedule *Register early—space fills up quickly!* In recent years, the Golf Tournament has sold out within just a few days of opening, during the Sponsor Registration window.
- Sponsor Registration Only: March 3-24 Registration is open!
- General Registration: March 24-31
- Open Registration: March 31-June 6
View full Golf Tournament Registration Schedule details and sponsorship opportunities and we look forward to teeing off with you, for a GREAT cause, soon!
ALLTRICITY NETWORK AS YOUR RESOURCE
Alltricity Network is here as a resource for you and your organization. We encourage you to share our development opportunities with your peers, workgroups, and professional network! For the latest events, visit the Alltricity Network Events & Education Calendar on our website.
Our Education Committees—comprised of dedicated members—work hard to provide timely, relevant, and thoughtfully curated educational and networking opportunities. If there are topics or workshops you’d find valuable for the industry, we’d love to hear from you—feel free to contact us anytime!
|
Empowering Operations: Lineworker Safety, Skills & Leadership Workshop - March 18-19, 2025 (San Antonio, TX)
2025 Transmission & Substation Renewables Conference - March 19-20, 2025 (Westminster, CO)
DER Distribution Engineering Workshop - April 8-9, 2025 (Lakewood, CO)
2025 Next Generation Pre-Conference Workshop - May 5, 2025 (Dallas, TX—hosted prior to the 2025 Alltricity Network Spring Conference)
2025 Alltricity Network Spring Management, Engineering, & Operations Conference - May 5-7, 2025 (Dallas, TX)
2025 Safety Conference - May 21-23, 2025 (Tempe, AZ)
2025 Alltricity Scholarship Foundation Golf Tournament - June 24, 2025 (Littleton, CO)
2025 Large Projects Conference - June 25-26, 2025 (Westminster, CO)
August 2025 Safety Roundtable - August 21, 2025 (Aurora, CO)
2025 Alltricity Network Fall Convention - September 29-October 1, 2025 (Kansas City, MO)
PLANNING SESSION: 2026 Alltricity Network Spring Conference - October 16, 2025 (Location TBA)
November 2025 Safety Roundtable - November 4, 2025 (Kansas City, MO)
PLANNING SESSION: 2026 Alltricity Network Fall Convention - November 13, 2025 (Location TBA)
The association's trusted network is accessible on LinkedIn. Working side-by-side in a cooperative manner, Alltricity Network members band together for the common goal of bettering the industry and improving service for utility customers. For more than 120 years, these key principles have proven successful and, more importantly, are tried-and-true methods for building strong business relationships.
Four of the AI industry’s biggest players plan to invest a combined $325 billion in capital expenditures in 2025, much of it for data centers and associated hardware. The planned spending announcements came after the January release of the highly efficient, open-source AI platform DeepSeek, which led some experts and investors to question just how much infrastructure the AI boom actually requires.
|
The EIA expect 63 gigawatts (GW) of new utility-scale electric-generating capacity to be added to the U.S. power grid in 2025 in their latest Preliminary Monthly Electric Generator Inventory report. This amount represents an almost 30% increase from 2024 when 48.6 GW of capacity was installed, the largest capacity installation in a single year since 2002.
Electricity generators plan to retire 12.3 gigawatts (GW) of capacity in 2025, a 65% increase in retirements compared with 2024. Last year, 7.5 GW was retired from the U.S. power grid, the least generation retired since 2011, according to data reported in the EIA's latest inventory of electric generators. Coal generating capacity accounts for the largest share of planned capacity retirements (66%), followed by natural gas (21%).
|
The Arizona House Committee on Natural Resources, Energy, and Water has passed House Majority Leader Michael Carbone’s legislation to accelerate the development of small modular reactors (SMRs) co-located with industrial energy users like data centers or uses to replace or expand generation at existing baseload powerplants.
Electricity demand in the United States will grow 2% annually over the next quarter century, driven by data centers and building electrification, industry and transportation, the head of the National Electrical Manufacturers Association said. “By the time we get to 2050, [that’s] 50% growth over where we are today,” Phillips said. “In large part, data centers over the next decade are going to be the key driver.”
|
Water and power utilities are incorporating resilience into their vocabularies, at least partially inspired by the effects of climate change. Extreme weather events are becoming more frequent and more severe, directly impacting the critical services utilities provide. To prepare, they’re integrating “resilience” into their systems and planning processes. What does resilience mean to each utility though?
|
Energy storage is at the center of the global low-carbon transition. The global energy storage market added a record 45 gigawatts of new capacity in 2023, according to an analysis of BloombergNEF. That’s roughly three times the amount tallied for 2022. New technologies relying on materials such as chicken feathers and food waste can help cut the environmental footprint of energy storage.
|
The survey found that digital technology investments remain a strategic priority for energy companies, with 92% of energy executives planning to invest in digital technologies. However, only 27% of companies are currently engaged in retraining and reskilling efforts to meet evolving workforce demands.
By 2029, full repeal of the investment and production tax credits would increase delivered electricity prices nationwide by 7.3% for residential customers and 10.6% for commercial and industrial customers, or 9.2% across all sectors, according to the NERA report that was written for the Clean Energy Buyers Association.
|
A report published by the German International broadcaster, Deutsche Welle, has warned that “hackers can easily access solar power plants due to weak passwords and vulnerable software, posing a significant threat to energy security,” and rooftop installations are at the heart of the concern.
|
Xcel Energy announced this week that it has been awarded three important projects by the Southwest Power Pool (“SPP”) to build new high voltage power lines that will improve electric reliability in Texas and New Mexico. One of these projects includes the first-ever 765 kV line in the entire SPP footprint, which will help manage electricity demand and move energy more efficiently.
Capturing carbon dioxide and storing it underground could mitigate the impact of greenhouse gas accumulation in our atmosphere. That’s why Tucson Electric Power is collaborating with the University of Arizona’s Arizona Geological Survey and several industry partners to evaluate if carbon dioxide, or CO2, can be stored deep in the subsurface of the Harquahala basin in western central Arizona.
|
Burns & McDonnell has launched FaciliRate, an application designed to assist utilities in meeting the requirements of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) Order 881. By automating key processes such as equipment data management, real-time weather integration and ambient adjusted rating (AAR) calculations, FaciliRate helps utilities enhance operational efficiency and maintain regulatory compliance.
Following a nationwide recruitment process, Platte River Power Authority (Platte River) recently hired Mark Weiss to serve as chief technology officer (CTO). The new position addresses skills and leadership needs as Platte River continues to make progress on its energy transition goals highlighted in the Resource Diversification Policy.
|
Lincoln Electric System customers have reduced the community’s net annual energy consumption by 147,000 megawatt-hours, the equivalent of the annual energy consumption of more than 15,000 homes, over 15 years through LES’ Sustainable Energy Program (SEP). The utility’s SEP offers financial incentives to promote energy efficiency, reduce wasted energy and provide customers with options to take a more active role in helping manage electricity demand for the entire service area.
Omaha Public Power District is forging ahead with major technology upgrades that will benefit customers. At this week’s board of directors committee meeting, OPPD staff outlined the work underway to transition to advanced metering infrastructure (AMI). When fully implemented over the next few years, AMI and its surrounding ecosystem will help OPPD identify and pinpoint outages faster and with greater precision.
|
As the first major component of its Eastern Colorado Transmission Expansion announced last April, Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association has completed and energized its 230-kilovolt (kV), Burlington-Lamar, Colo., transmission line, which along with other projects currently under construction, increases reliability for Tri-State's member distribution cooperatives, and provides for additional generation interconnection of more than 700 megawatts.
Researchers have quantified the role of the 'hydrogen economy' in making our society more sustainable. They present the results of extensive modellng of pathways to decarbonizing the European economy by 2050. They conclude that when it comes to providing a sustainable primary source of energy, electrification will prove to be the most cost-efficient route for most economic sectors with an average total share of around 60% in final energy consumption. In contrast, the projected share of direct hydrogen use will be 10% at the highest.
There's a lot of untapped potential in our homes and vehicles that could be harnessed to reinforce local power grids and make them more resilient to unforeseen outages, a new study shows. In response to a cyber attack or natural disaster, a backup network of decentralized devices -- such as residential solar panels, batteries, electric vehicles, heat pumps, and water heaters -- could restore electricity or relieve stress on the grid, MIT engineers say.
Researchers have developed a battery that can convert nuclear energy into electricity via light emission, a new study suggests. Nuclear power plants, which generate about 20% of all electricity produced in the United States, produce almost no greenhouse gas emissions. However, these systems do create radioactive waste, which can be dangerous to human health and the environment. Safely disposing of this waste can be challenging.
|
