The 21st Century Grid is Here: Do you have 21st Century Construction Management? [an Energy Central PowerSession™]

Electric Utility leaders are confronting a nexus of challenges that range from aging infrastructure to wildfire mitigation to renewable energy integration and more to maintain and improve today’s electric grid infrastructure. 

To meet these challenges, US utilities will spend over $100 billion on T&D infrastructure construction over the next 12 months. As the utility industry takes on this new wave of challenges, a new set of solutions and tools are needed to manage these grid modernization efforts and infrastructure construction effectively and efficiently. 

In this PowerSession, we will hear from a panel of subject matter experts that are leaning into digital construction management to reduce costs, increase productivity and efficiency, improve reliability and resilience, and improve safety. 

We hope that you can join us for this compelling interactive discussion as we look at how digital construction management is helping to keep the 21st century utility industry moving forward through unprecedented change.

PANEL:

Christopher Nichols, Manager of GIS, Data & Data Integrity at Black Hills Energy, has over 20 years of experience in GIS across various industries including Utilities, Water and Natural Resources, and Government. He has 11 years in utilities working at a combined Electric and Gas utility. He has diverse expertise encompassing ESRI, Smallworld, and QGIS platforms as well as Data Integrity, Field Data Collection, As-Builting and Design Processes. His skillset has enabled him to lead several major upgrade teams, successfully modernizing GIS tools and processes within his organizations. Notably, he spearheaded the implementation of mobile mapping tools, streamlining field operations and enhancing data accuracy. He holds a B.S. degree from St. Lawrence University and M.S. degree from the South Dakota School of Mines.

Lance Elroy is the Director of Field Operations Technology and Process Improvement at MDU.  His areas of responsibility include, work and asset management, GIS, mobility, operations systems, and research and development (R&D) for the Utilities Group.  Lance has over 30 years of experience in the energy industry and resides in Boise, ID.

Danny Petrecca is the Vice President of Business Development at Locusview and leads the efforts on digital construction management for the utility market. He has over 20 years of experience in the utility IT space having worked with Miner & Miner, Telvent and Schneider Electric and has vast knowledge of the Planning>Construction>Close-Out workflows at utilities throughout the world.

Moderator: Mike Smith

Mike is a 31-year veteran of the utility ‘smart grid’/IT/automation, information services and media business, and is currently Principal Consultant at KLN Group, a consultancy that he leads. Immediately prior to launching KLN Group. he was an Industry Principal at SAS, where he was involved in client engagement, thought leadership, and business development activities to drive growth of the SAS utilities business. Prior to joining SAS, Mike was Vice President, Sales & Marketing at E Source.