About this episode

Alice Yake discusses the challenges and opportunities in building cleaner electrical grids amidst rising electricity demand and regulatory changes.

Grid operators sit at the center of many of the biggest forces reshaping the global energy system. They're navigating rising electricity demand, a lack of transmission infrastructure, shifting regulatory policies, and maintaining the tricky balance between affordability, reliability, and the need for dispatchable power. Both here in the US and around the world, operating a reliable and resilient grid—in the face of increasingly severe weather and complex interconnection demands—is more difficult than ever. And these challenges are felt well outside the power sector. Spiking utility rates in some regions have turned electricity into a major political issue. So, what does the future of grid planning tell us about the ultimate pace of the energy transition? How can system operators manage the surge in demand from AI and data centers without compromising reliability? And how can open-source grid planning tools help both developed and developing markets build a flexible power system for the next 30 to 50 years? Today on the show, Jason Bordoff speaks to Alice Yake about the opportunities but also the challenges in building cleaner electrical grids. Alice is vice president of GRIDS at…

People in this episode

Host: Jason Bordoff

Guest: Alice Yake

Topics covered

• grid planning
• energy transition
• electricity demand
• reliable grid
• open-source tools
• utility rates

Keywords

• grid operators
• energy system
• dispatchable power
• transmission infrastructure
• AI demand
• flexible power system

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Breakthrough Energy, Xcel Energy

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