With Great Power

When Charles Hua served as a senior policy advisor in the Department of Energy in 2023, he had an epiphany: some of the biggest hurdles to deploying powerful grid technologies are not technological, they’re regulatory. It was a realization that led him to dig into the world of energy regulation and the role of public utility commissions in grid modernization efforts. From there, he founded PowerLines — a national education nonprofit that advocates for an energy system that better serves American consumers. This was back in 2024, just as load growth started driving up utility rates. This week on With Great Power, Charles Hua talks about the midterm elections, specifically the 36 gubernatorial races and nine states that are electing PUC commissioners. He and Brad talk about PowerLines’ election dashboard which monitors the impact these races could have on energy policy in their respective states  and how these races are playing out in today's politically-charged landscape.Credits: Hosted by Brad Langley. Produced by Mary Catherine O'Connor. Edited by Anne Bailey. Original music and engineering by Sean Marquand. Stephen Lacey is executive editor. The GridX production team includes Jenni Barber, Samantha McCabe, and Brad Langley. 

Arushi Sharma Frank started working in the energy industry in the early 2010s and quickly learned how vital state and federal regulatory bodies are to the energy transition. Years later, as part of Tesla’s U.S. energy policy team, she convinced Texas regulators to allow Tesla to connect a 100 megawatt battery to the grid. More recently,  she developed new ERCOT rules that allow data centers to connect to the grid much faster.Arushi invests in and supports clean energy startups as the founder and principal of Luminary Strategies, a venture studio she launched in 2024. But she also spends a lot of time contributing to efforts to improve grid infrastructure. Without the technology startups she supports, consumers' trust in the grid can’t be restored, she says. This week on With Great Power, Arushi Sharma Frank describes her vision for “prosperous infrastructure” and her recent work with Texas regulators. She also talks about some of the startups she’s working with, as well as how she sees AI impacting the power sector.Credits: Hosted by Brad Langley. Produced by Mary Catherine O'Connor. Edited by Anne Bailey. Original music and engineering by Sean Marquand. Stephen Lacey is executive editor. The GridX production team includes Jenni Barber, Samantha McCabe, and Brad Langley. 

Back in the early 2000s, Sanem Sergici met some researchers from The Brattle Group at an energy industry conference. She was pursuing a doctorate in applied economics at the time, and decided that a Brattle Group internship would be the perfect way to spend that summer. If one existed... It took some work, but Sanem convinced the firm that it needed an internship program. Twenty years on, that effort paid off. She’s now a partner at the firm — and she’s one of the power sector's leading experts on rate design and grid economics. This week on With Great Power, Sanem shares what recent Brattle research shows about how utilities can use technology, markets, and smarter rate design to address rising costs without leaving customers behind.Credits: Hosted by Brad Langley. Produced by Mary Catherine O'Connor. Edited by Anne Bailey. Original music and engineering by Sean Marquand. Stephen Lacey is executive editor. The GridX production team includes Jenni Barber, Samantha McCabe, and Brad Langley.

As a young lawyer working for an environmental nonprofit, Allison Clements always thought politics would prevent her from becoming an energy regulator. But by the time Senator Chuck Schumer recommended her to replace Cheryl LaFleur on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in 2019,  Allison had already been practicing energy regulatory law for 15 years, and she had the clean energy deployment experience the commission needed.When she left the Commission in 2024, Allison launched 804 Advisory to help  investors, developers, and nonprofits navigate energy decisions. This week on With Great Power, Allison shares why she thinks the energy affordability crisis and the growing data center backlash is quickening the pace of regulatory reforms. She also talks about how New Jersey and other states are advancing policies aimed at deploying clean, affordable energy. And she explains why she's so bullish on the opportunities for residential batteries and plug-in solar right now.Credits: Hosted by Brad Langley. Produced by Mary Catherine O'Connor. Edited by Anne Bailey. Original music and engineering by Sean Marquand. Stephen Lacey is executive editor. The GridX production team includes Jenni Barber, Samantha McCabe and Brad Langley. 

Some people turn to YouTube to watch music videos, clips of their favorite television shows, or how-to videos. Brian Lusher turned to it for a different reason.  Years ago, Brian started downloading academic lectures about the energy industry on YouTube so he’d have something tolisten to on long drives. At the time, he was a reliability engineer for an on-site power plant at a manufacturing facility. But his self-guided, deep dive into the industry helped land him a job at Duke Energy, where he’s director of demand response today. This week on With Great Power, Brian describes some of the programs that Duke has deployed to help both residential and commercial customers manage their energy use. He also shares how demand response and virtual power plant programs fit into Duke Energy's larger strategy to manage load growth, including from data centers. Credits: Hosted by Brad Langley. Produced by Mary Catherine O'Connor. Edited by Anne Bailey. Original music and engineering by Sean Marquand. Stephen Lacey is executive editor. The GridX production team includes Jenni Barber, Samantha McCabe and Brad Langley.  

Matt Ross feels at home in the ocean, on his surfboard. Strong currents, choppy conditions, and the occasional thrashing are all part of the experience — and the joy of a good, long wave makes it all worth it. So when a job pulled him too far from his favorite surf spots in San Francisco, he wasn’t happy. He knew he needed to find his next work challenge closer to home. He found that at GridX, where for the past seven years he’s brought his interest in data analytics and design to product roles, working toward his current role as vice president of delivery.  This week on With Great Power, Matt dives into the economics behind rising rates – and why he thinks that without affordable energy, the clean energy transition will stall. He shares some of his recent projects, designing and implementing time-varying rates with utilities. And he describes the ways that data centers could actually turn load growth into an opportunity to drive rates down.  Credits: Hosted by Brad Langley. Produced by Mary Catherine O’Connor. Edited by Anne Bailey. Original music and engineering by Sean Marquand. Stephen Lacey is executive editor. The GridX production team includes Jenni Barber, Samantha McCabe, and Brad Langley.

Alice Yake’s parents’ taught her and her brother the importance of fairness and discipline, but also how to overcome obstacles and tackle big problems.  Those life skills have served Alice throughout her career in the power sector, from a false start at Enron — just months before it declared bankruptcy — to a long, successful career at Xcel Energy. Last year, she left her role as the utility’s chief planning officer to become VP of GRIDS at Breakthrough Energy, the organization founded by Bill Gates to accelerate clean energy using philanthropy and investment funding. This week on With Great Power, Alice shares how she’s now helping energy planners across the world improve electric grids through open-source planning and modeling software. She also discusses the challenge of building a better workforce to modernize the grid, as well as the opportunities to integrate more distributed energy resources into infrastructure that can help meet growing demand for clean energy over the coming decades.  Credits: Hosted by Brad Langley. Produced by Mary Catherine O’Connor. Edited by Anne Bailey. Original music and engineering by Sean Marquand. Stephen Lacey is executive editor. The GridX production team includes Jenni Barber, Samantha McCabe, and Brad Langley.

Building a cleaner, resilient grid is no small task — especially today, as energy demand surges, electricity prices rise, and political headwinds strengthen. But over and over again, across six seasons of With Great Power, we've talked to people who keep charging ahead — turning obstacles into opportunity.  Right now, we're gearing up for another season. We’re talking to utility leaders who are tackling affordability and load growth. We’re exploring the frontiers of technology, markets, and the shifting policy landscape. We’re connecting with some of the leading innovators in the power sector. Season 7 of With Great Power starts soon. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Credits: Hosted by Brad Langley. Produced by Mary Catherine O’Connor. Edited by Anne Bailey. Original music and engineering by Sean Marquand. Stephen Lacey is executive editor. The GridX production team includes Jenni Barber, Samantha McCabe, and Brad Langley.

Brian Kurtz doesn’t shy away from a tough climb. He’s always loved the mountains, and in college he spent an entire semester “abroad” in the Western Rockies, learning about ecology while also trudging up and down mountains.  That experience taught him a framework called expedition behavior — a methodical approach to planning and executing a mission. Years later, Brian and his team at PSEG Long Island took on a different kind of mission, but one that still required a thoughtful, patient approach.  This week on With Great Power, Brian tells the story of how PSEG Long Island rose from the bottom of the 2014 J.D. Power customer satisfaction survey among large electric utility business customers in the East to the top in 2025. They talk about the key steps along the way — including a rate modernization program and improved customer communications. Credits: Hosted by Brad Langley. Produced by Mary Catherine O’Connor. Edited by Anne Bailey. Original music and engineering by Sean Marquand. Stephen Lacey is executive editor. The GridX production team includes Jenni Barber, Samantha McCabe, and Brad Langley.

Ellen Zuckerman followed her nose, literally, into her first career as an energy auditor in New York City. She had an uncanny ability to sniff out dangerous gas leaks in apartment buildings.  That led to energy efficiency work in states across the country – everything from helping utilities, regulators, and businesses advance efficiency projects to helping ratepayers lower their bills through weatherization programs In 2022, Google took notice and offered her a position with its community energy program – a program designed to fund energy efficiency programs in communities where the company is building data centers. This week on With Great Power, Ellen describes how this program works. She also outlines how Google has worked with regulators and utilities in Nevada, Minnesota, and other states to develop large load tariffs in support of bringing hundreds of megawatts of clean energy and storage to the grid. Credits: Hosted by Brad Langley. Produced by Mary Catherine O’Connor. Edited by Anne Bailey. Original music and engineering by Sean Marquand. Stephen Lacey is executive editor. The GridX production team includes Jenni Barber, Samantha McCabe, and Brad Langley.