Welcome Your New Expert Interview Series: Elizabeth Turnbull of Franklin Energy, New Expert in the Utility Management Group

In this Power Perspectives interview, Elizabeth delves deeper into the future of transportation electrification, the intertwined goals of the utility industry, and the importance of collective dialogue in driving change.

Read on to go on the journey through the electrified avenues of tomorrow with Elizabeth Turnbull:

Matt Chester: Thanks for joining our expert network, Elizabeth. We like to introduce experts to the community via the interviews so they know more about the people who are going to be providing insights. Can you give us a quick rundown of your role in the utility sector and maybe a background of the journey that got you there?

Elizabeth Turnbull: It’s great to be part of this community. My professional journey in electric vehicles started back in 2010. I was in graduate school and did an internship looking at what the Portland, Oregon, area could do to position itself as a leader in the coming wave of EV activity. This was the summer before the Nissan LEAF and the Chevy Volt were released, so there was a lot of enthusiasm for what was to come. I got hooked on the notion of fueling the nation’s on-road fleet with an electricity mix that is increasingly decarbonized.

After grad school, I joined Pacific Gas and Electric Company, where I was part of the team that launched the Charge Network program—which at the time was one of the largest utility programs installing commercial EV charging infrastructure. Then I moved back to Portland and joined Portland General Electric, where I helped build a team that launched numerous successful transportation electrification (TE) programs for residential and commercial customers—including fleet programs, an electric school bus program, and a community-based grant program. I also helped shape the regulatory framework that governs utility TE Plans in Oregon and drafted PGE’s $100 million 2023 TE Plan.

MC: Given that you’ve spent time working at a utility before moving to Franklin Energy, what perspectives do you have that you think utilities can benefit from?

ET: I’ve been in the trenches and have first-hand experience with many of the challenges utilities face when it comes to TE. I’ve handled things like designing programs, integrating equity, engaging stakeholders, and navigating the regulatory space, all the way through to coordinating new TE-related interconnection requests and working directly with residential and commercial customers to design their sites. TE is still in the very early stages of its development, and there isn’t one clearly dominant program delivery model. While our industry has decades of learning from energy efficiency programs, these lessons don’t always apply neatly to TE. Meanwhile, customers are hungry for support with TE, but their needs vary, and their timelines are unpredictable. That can be challenging for utilities who are newer to the space and looking to leverage best practices and be their customers’ trusted energy advisor. What I bring to utilities is a real lay of the land—an understanding of the program designs that exist, and a knowledge of what customers, in all their excitement and uncertainty about TE, really need. I help utilities design programs in a way that centers customer needs and meets regulatory goals.

MC: What do you view as the most notable challenge that Franklin Energy is working with the energy industry to overcome within Transportation Electrification, whether that’s technical, market-based, or regulatory? And how do you see those challenges evolving moving forward?

ET: Successful implementation of a TE program has myriad challenges, which is what makes it an adventure. Challenges certainly start in the regulatory space—not all regulators are familiar with EVs, and utilities are still working to adapt TE work to existing regulatory frameworks so that they can secure program approval. I think this challenge will evolve over time but in a fragmented way across regulatory jurisdictions. I expect that as a result, utility TE program designs will remain diverse. That makes it hard to compare programs and outcomes in an apples-to-apples way.

Depending on the program design, the technical challenges can be large or very large. But it’s fair to say that an EV charger is not just another energy efficiency measure, and it’s much more technically complex than a light bulb. Depending on the charger model, it might be a computer, a cash register, have access controls, be demand response connected, be app-enabled, have a human-machine interface, have power electronics, and run at up to a megawatt. And in commercial applications, it’s installed in a parking lot, meaning it must adhere to ADA, fire lane, and seismic codes. There are a lot of technical aspects for utilities to consider as this infrastructure gets installed, and that’s before we get to the issues we’ve all heard about with respect to EV charger reliability and maintenance, or touch on supply chain challenges in the utility sector in general.

With each of these areas, we’re on a swift learning curve in the industry. These challenges are not insurmountable; they just need to be anticipated and accommodated within program design, site design, and timelines.

MC: If you could offer a piece of advice to the utility industry broadly about what their approach should be in the coming years as concurrent goals of efficiency, clean energy, electrification, and grid modernization are all coming to a head, what would it be?

ET: The common threads among these goals are decarbonization and grid management. I think utilities should be front and center promoting their efforts to build a better, cleaner grid for the future, and talking about all these investments as the path that will get us there. That way, it’s put in context for customers and stakeholders to understand how the strategy is tied together.

That said, it can’t be all talk—utilities also need to do the hard work of breaking down silos internally and setting enterprise targets. We need to move beyond individual program targets and start seeing this work as a portfolio that’s all working together toward a collective goal. Long-term, I’d like to see those targets reflected in the regulatory frameworks that govern utility investments as well.

MC: Why did you feel compelled to get more involved in the Energy Central Community? And what value do you hope to bring to your peers on the platform?  

ET: We have a long road ahead, and so much yet to learn about what works and what doesn’t. I appreciate the exchange of ideas and conversations on platforms like Energy Central, and I hope to have conversations that advance our goals and help us think differently about the future.

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Thanks to Elizabeth Turnbull for joining me for this interview and for providing a wealth of insights and expertise to the Energy Central Community. You can trust that Elizabeth will be available for you to reach out and connect, ask questions, and more as an Energy Central member, so be sure to make her feel welcome when you see her across the platform.

The other expert interviews that we’ve completed in this series can be read here, and if you are interested in becoming an expert, you can reach out to me or you can apply here.