How Digital Grid Management Powers the Energy Transition for Consumers Energy [an Energy Central PowerSession™]

The transition from fossil fuels to clean energy can sometimes seem abstract and distant. But at Consumers Energy, Michigan’s largest energy provider, there’s nothing abstract about the transition; it’s well underway. The utility, which provides electricity or natural gas to about 70% of Michiganders, is on track to closing all its coal plants by 2025, 15 years earlier than originally planned. At the same time, Consumers Energy’s Clean Energy Plan provides a blueprint for an aggressive buildout of renewables. Even as Consumers embraces renewables, the utility remains steadfast in its commitment to providing reliable energy to its customers, even as extreme weather becomes more common. Achieving these and other important goals, however, requires the use of Operational Technology (OT) tools to effectively manage a changing and increasingly complex grid.

In this event, Consumers Energy will share how its implementation of AspenTech’s Digital Grid Management enterprise OT platform and applications for Generation Management, Transmission Management, Advanced Distribution Management, Outage Management, and Gas Pipeline Management are helping overcome the very real challenges of a changing energy system while continuously improving the service it provides to millions of customers.

PANEL:

Sally Jacquemin, VP and GM, Power & Utilities, Aspen Technology, Inc.

Alex DeKamp, Operational Technology – Critical Applications Manager, Consumers Energy

Josh Hall, Executive Director of IT Electric at Consumers Energy

Moderator: Chris Warren

Chris Warren has written about utilities and clean energy for over a decade. He was formerly the editor-in-chief of the U.S. edition of Photon, a solar industry trade publication. Chris is also a frequent contributor to EPRI Journal, a publication of the Electric Power Research Institute. Before focusing on utilities and clean energy, Chris was an editor at Los Angeles magazine and a contributor to publications ranging from National Geographic Traveler to Institutional Investor, Forbes, and the Los Angeles Times.