Public Power Underground
107 episodes - English - Latest episode: 26 days ago - ★★★★★ - 36 ratingsPublic Power Underground is more than a discussion about public ownership of electric infrastructure, the infotaining episodes cover the energy enthusiast trifecta of electrification, markets, and people. The hosts interview industry experts on a broad range of energy industry and energy-industry-adjacent topics at the nexus of electric utilities and the energy transition. The podcast doesn’t take itself too seriously and frequently plays energy inspired games like “energy enthusiasm distilled,” “draw an analogy,” and “say something nice about electric utilities."
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Episodes
Electric Utility Recruiting pt. 1: John Hairston
June 09, 2022 13:54 - 18 minutes - 42 MBJohn Hairston, CEO and Administrator of the Bonneville Power Administration, joins Humaira Falkenberg, Brian Fawcett, and Paul Dockery on Public Power Underground to participate in our Electric Utility Recruiting video series. Before John’s recruiting pitch, Humaira Falkenberg opens with a message of change, a message of hope, and a message of inclusion in her cold open as the episodes celebrity guest host. Electric Utility Recruiting video series Attracting a new workforce into ...
Electric Market Enthusiasm pt. 2: Elliot Mainzer on Governance, Transmission, and Price Formation
June 02, 2022 16:30 - 1 hour - 65.7 MBElliot Mainzer, the President and Chief Executive Officer of the California Independent System Operator (ISO), joined Crystal Ball, Matt Schroettnig, and Paul Dockery for the second installation of our Electric Market Enthusiasm series. We try to keep it light while discussing governance, transmission, price formation, stakeholder engagement, and CAISO’s new five year strategic plan. To break up the heavy topics we play an intermission game! 05:16 - newly released 5 year Strategic ...
AFTER DARK: Live from the Crown & Thistle
May 24, 2022 20:52 - 1 hour - 68 MBUsing the Zach Lowe podcasting technique, Crystal Ball, Humaira Falkenberg, Matthew Schroettnig, and Paul Dockery review their top-5 most interesting energy news stories from so far in 2022 . . . . at a pub . . . together . . . in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho on the eve of NWPPA’s Annual Meeting. The stories they covered are listed in a google sheet they used to talk from. Rather than translate the google sheet into bullet points, we’re just including a hyperlink to the working doc. If yo...
Electric Market Enthusiasm, pt. 1: Professor Jacob Mays on Electric Market Design
May 19, 2022 13:05 - 1 hour - 67.4 MBJacob Mays, Assistant Professor in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Cornell University, answers Paul’s remedial questions on how electric markets function and what the Pacific Northwest should be considering when approaching market expansion incrementally in a wide ranging and engaging conversation. Since Professor Mays is an academic, it feels fitting to include citations for the materials referenced. Please excuse any errors in citation. Mays et al., Private...
BONUS TRAINING: Professor Jacob Mays on Electric Market Design
May 19, 2022 13:05 - 1 hour - 67.4 MBJacob Mays, Assistant Professor in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Cornell University, answers Paul’s remedial questions on how electric markets function and what the Pacific Northwest should be considering when approaching market expansion incrementally in a wide ranging and engaging conversation. Since Professor Mays is an academic, it feels fitting to include citations for the materials referenced. Please excuse any errors in citation. Mays et al., Private...
More Wealth, Better Living, and Greater Happiness
May 12, 2022 12:37 - 1 hour - 173 MBBen Serrurier, Jason Fordney, Arin Guillory, and Paul Dockery talk about the latest in public power, public-power-adjacent news and exciting acronyms, including BPA in the EIM, CREPC-WIRAB, all-things Tx, NuScale IPO, and another WSJ article! 04:07 - a new merch idea coming from the FDR speech Ben quotes in the cold open 08:19 - Arin Reports 14:21 - BPA joined the EIM on May 3rd BPA press release CAISO press release 20:28 - Committee on Regional Electric Power Cooperation // W...
Serenity in Service
April 28, 2022 13:28 - 1 hour - 142 MBBill Drummond, Dan Catchpole, Karen Heim, and Paul Dockery talk about the latest in public power and public-power-adjacent news, including Lineworker Appreciation Day, solar developers betting on RTO development, what’s going on with the battery supply chain, and jumpstarting interregional transmission! 08:45 - Arin Reports with Karen Reporting 14:10 - Lineworker Appreciation Day 21:11 - solar developers betting on RTO development 31:08 - a bunch of battery stories CAISO is dev...
BONUS EPISODE: electric utility enthusiast trifecta with Debra Smith
April 21, 2022 15:18 - 1 hour - 69.9 MBDebra Smith, the General Manager and Chief Executive Officer for Seattle City Light, joined the Karen, Matt, and Paul for a special bonus discussion about the electric utility enthusiast trifecta: Electrification, Markets, and People. We also get some jokes, elephant noises, an intermission game, and some new merch ideas. 05:49 - what’s going well, a numbered list 12:14 - Attracting, retaining, and recruiting public power people 36:56 - an Intermission Game called “Fantasy Utilit...
Innovation Space
April 15, 2022 15:27 - 1 hour - 171 MBRobert Trinnear, Abigail Sawyer, Brian Fawcett, and Paul Dockery talk about the latest in public power and public-power-adjacent news, including IPCC’s working group 3 report, the nationalization of National Grid, a $4.7 million fine by FERC, electrifying heavy duty trucks, and public power whitepapers! 08:02 - Arin Reports with Brian Reporting 16:28 - IPCC’s Working Group 3 Report The Guardian article on Working Group 3 conclusions The Guardian article on IPCC reports and what ...
BONUS EPISODE: all the colors of h2
April 07, 2022 09:00 - 47 minutes - 43.7 MBMatt and Paul have a meandering conversation with Chris Kroeker from NW Natural about H2’s role in the energy transition. 04:01 - all the colors of hydrogen 17:32 - difference between hydrogen (H2) and renewable natural gas (CH4) 21:23 - How much H2 can go in CH4 transmission and distribution lines? 26:58 - How much H2 can be used in natural gas power plants? 29:35 - H2’s role in industrial decarbonization (include paper mills) 31:50 - Infrastructure necessary to get H2 to industri...
finding the opportunities
March 31, 2022 11:00 - 1 hour - 57.9 MBTherese Hampton, Jason Fordney, Crystal Ball, and Paul Dockery talk about the latest in public power and public-power-adjacent news, including Blue Wolf Capital, minimum pool elevation for power generation at Glen Canyon Dam, FERC’s take on ROE, innovation at Douglas County PUD, a new President and CEO at WPP, and two new members of WMEG! 06:45 - Arin Reports with Crystal Reporting 13:29 - Blue Wolf Capital is pursuing the restart of the Intalco aluminum smelter Larry Brown opini...
BONUS EPISODE: #EnergyTwitter: Jesse Jenkins Interview
March 24, 2022 13:16 - 1 hour - 58.3 MBIn a wide ranging, engaging, and entertaining conversation, Humaira, Matt and Paul interview Jesse Jenkins. Jesse is an assistant professor at Princeton University with a joint appointment in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and the Andlinger Center for Energy and Environment. He is also an affiliated faculty with the Center for Policy Research in Energy and Environment at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs and an associated faculty at the...
Bringing Hope
March 17, 2022 14:51 - 56 minutes - 130 MBAhlmahz Negash, Dan Catchpole, Karen Heim, and Paul Dockery talk about the latest in public power and public-power-adjacent news, plus a preview of an upcoming interview with Northwest Natural’s Chris Kroeker about the future of hydrogen! 06:48 - Arin Reports with Karen Reporting 12:13 - Ukraine and the European Union to urgently link electric grids (which successfully occurred after recording) 19:13 - Columbia REA let’s employees bring dogs to work 22:44 - Spring 2022 Energy Justi...
EMERGENCY POD: PERMANENT DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME PASSES SENATE
March 16, 2022 01:03 - 10 minutes - 9.33 MBWe assembled an ad-hoc crew to record an emergency podcast. You can find the podcast on Apple Podcast, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks to @DrEricDing for breaking the news into @aPowerManager’s feed. Remember to share this with any friends you have that are electric utility enthusiasts like us! Public Power Underground, for electric utility enthusiasts! Public Power Underground, where you’re valued and appreciated.
BONUS INTERVIEW: Mary Wiencke talks Markets
March 03, 2022 13:00 - 1 hour - 57 MBIn this bonus episode Matt and Paul have a conversation with the Executive Director of PGP and former Vice President of Transmission Regulation and Market Policy for PacifiCorp: Mary Wiencke! Reference Materials: PGP’s Market Retrospective Western States’ Market Study prepared by Energy Strategies Handbook on Electricity Markets FERC Landmark Orders Remember to share this with any friends you have that are electric utility enthusiasts like us! Public Power Underground, for elect...
Market Enthusiasts, like us!
February 24, 2022 15:42 - 1 hour - 189 MBRuss Mantifel, Jason Fordney, Paul Dockery, and Ludgie Gelin talk about the latest in public power and public-power-adjacent news, plus a preview of an upcoming interview with PGP’s Mary Wiencke! 08:08 - Arin Reports with Paul Reporting 14:20 - Roundtable on rural broadband at Mason PUD #3 plus other broadband news 21:38 - CAISO adopts Phase 1 of Resource Sufficiency test rule changes 30:24 - The Wall Street Journal’s long-form article on the grid’s reliability 44:30 - the cost of ...
doing business as!
February 10, 2022 14:27 - 1 hour - 141 MBRebecca Sexton, Crystal Ball, Dan Catchpole, and Paul Dockery run through the latest in public power and public-power-adjacent news. There are a few instances where we go off the rails - - - as it often does when discussing public-power-adjacent news. 1:12 - Rebecca breaks news in her opening, Celebrity Guest, monologue 11:46 - Arin Reports with Rebecca Reporting 15:20 - follow up on Arin Reports with discussion on Northeast natural gas prices 21:10 - CAISO issued a 20-year draft t...
BONUS EPISODE: The Full Hairston Conversation
February 03, 2022 14:00 - 1 hour - 59.9 MBIn this bonus episode Matt and Paul have a conversation with the Administrator and Chief Executive Officer of Bonneville Power Administration: John Hairston! 4:50 - One-Year Anniversary Celebration and presentation of an honorary fry-weight Anadromous Championship 15:25 - Boardman to Hemingway (B2H) news 20:34 - New content begins here! 21:43 - A new, public power underground game: seen // heard // nothing 25:45 - Fish risk (on hydro operations) 37:03 - Organizational re-alignment ...
Administrator's Discretion.
January 27, 2022 13:50 - 1 hour - 137 MB4:39 - Arin Reports 8:16 - B2H news 13:58 - Advanced nuclear fission projects in the news and fun twitter follows 23:10 - Dispatches from #energytwitter on ev charger siting 32:35 - California Public Utilities Commission takes up NEM 3.0 and Jason has some thoughts 41:20 - Seattle City Light’s newly released electrification study 48:57 - Matt and Paul interview BPA CEO and Administrator, John Hairston and celebrate his one year anniversary as Administrator 1:07:30 - TL;DR the rest o...
New Year! New Season!
January 13, 2022 15:43 - 49 minutes - 112 MBKaren Heim, Dan Catchpole, Ian Bledsoe, and Paul Dockery get up to speed on public power and public-power-adjacent news! 04:05 - Arin Reports with Ian Reporting! 08:20 - Northwest winter storm 14:36 - BPA's land acquisition program 20:23 - Another electric truck 25:21 - EDAM stakeholder process update 30:13 - PG&E Building ‘Remote Grids’ in Fire-prone Areas, and containerized microgrid systems 38:20 - Where Does Santa Go When the Arctic's Summer Ice Is Gone? You can find the podca...
Holiday Special!
December 22, 2021 14:51 - 1 hour - 214 MBIt’s the finale for Season 3 and our Holiday Special! We welcomed special celebrity guests Crystal Ball, Emeka Anyanwu, Russ Mantifel, and NewsData’s Mark Ohrenschall to do a 2021 Energy News Countdown and 2022 prognostication. The episode is interspersed with Energy Carols! 08:06 Careful ‘cause it’s time change 46:04 Silver Generators 1:08:54 Simply forming a wonderful western market 1:18:52 O Power Plan 1:24:52 Ridiculous Things [a Daryl Wayne Dasher original and fitting tribute t...
BONUS EPISODE: Michelle Manary Interview
December 09, 2021 08:00 - 58 minutes - 54.8 MBMichelle Manary, Bonneville Power Administration’s Chief Financial Officer who is on assignment to the Department of Energy as the Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of Electric Delivery, joins Matthew Scroettnig (EWEB’s Power Planning Supervisor & Staff Counsel) and Paul Dockery (Clatskanie PUD’s Director of Energy Resources) to go deep into the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, electrification’s impact on long-term planning, how to prepare for grant funding, SEASONAL TIME CHAN...
Infrastructure Week!
December 02, 2021 22:23 - 1 hour - 164 MBIt’s season 3, episode 10 - Infrastructure Week! for Public Power Underground. Michelle Manary joins us to chat about the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act! Also joining is Juergen Pilot from the National Offshore Wind Research & Development Consortium and returning champion Kurt Miller. 07:28 - Arin Reports with (the newest Honorary Member of the Power Department) Crystal Ball Reporting! 13:39 - FERC, States Kick Off New Task Force Focused on Transmission Buildout 16:15 - Jue...
BONUS EPISODE: The COE Interview
November 23, 2021 18:05 - 46 minutes - 43.2 MBScott Coe, a public power leader who started under the Greatest Generation, rose to leadership amongst boomers, and has led organizations with Boomers, Millenials, and, maybe even, zoomers, joins Matthew Scroettnig (EWEB’s Power Planning & Staff Counsel) and Paul Dockery (Clatskanie PUD’s Power Manager) to talk about all things public power and public-power-leadership. Public Power Underground, for electric utility enthusiasts. Public Power Underground, it’s work to watch!
Leading Innovation Week!
November 18, 2021 16:17 - 45 minutes - 104 MBIt’s season 3, episode 9 - Leading Innovation Week! for Public Power Underground. Underground regulars (Karen Heim, Brian Fawcett, Ludgie Gelin, and Ian Bledsoe) are joined by our returning Podcast Ambassador from Clearing Up, Dan Catchpole. The episode includes conversations about blockchain technologies with NRU’s Resource Analyst, Ellyn Groves, and a preview of a longer interview by Special Correspondent Matt Schroettnig of Emerald PUD’s General Manager, Scott Coe. The full interv...
Distributed Demand Resource Response!
November 11, 2021 16:32 - 1 hour - 157 MBIt’s season 3, episode 8 - Distributed Demand Resource Response Week! for Public Power Underground. Underground regulars (Karen Heim, Arin Guillory, Ludgie Gelin, and Paul Dockery) are joined by our Podcast Ambassador from California Energy Markets, Jason Fordney this week. The episode includes conversations with Tacoma Power’s Ahlmahz Negash grant funding for microgrids and distributed resources, and PNUCC’s Shauna McReynolds and Tomás Morrisey about Demand Response and Distributed ...
Markets Week!
October 29, 2021 20:20 - 57 minutes - 52.4 MBIt’s season 3, episode 7 - Markets Week! for Public Power Underground. Underground regulars (Brian Fawcett, Arin Guillory, Ian Bledsoe, and Paul Dockery) are joined by our Podcast Ambassador from Clearing Up, Dan Catchpole, to get our listeners up to speed on public-power and public-power-adjacent news. The episode includes special, feature conversations with The Energy Authority’s (TEA) Chris Lewis and John Raiford to talk about the state of Natural Gas Markets, and Public Generatio...
BONUS EPISODE: NewsData Collaboration
October 22, 2021 16:27 - 33 minutes - 77.5 MBYour friends at the Power Department are excited to announce that we’re teaming up with NewsData to make Public Power Underground better, bigger, and more sustainable. In a special, bonus episode the friends you’ve come to know as the voices of the Underground (Karen Heim, Brian Fawcett, Arin Guillory, Ian Bledsoe, Ludgie Gelin, and Paul Dockery) reminisce a little about what we’ve enjoyed so far, we talk with NewsData’s Editor-in-Chief, Mark Ohrenschall, about the collaboration, a...
LIVE from the Benson!!
October 12, 2021 16:38 - 1 hour - 66 MBIt’s season 3, episode 5 - Live from the Benson! week for Public Power Underground. In an upbeat, LIVE, recording we get communication celebrities from across the region to come read some news for us on this week’s episode. The episode also includes a couple of wonderful interviews with industry experts. We talk with BPA’s Industry Economist, Daniel Fisher, about product development philosophies, and with Electric Vehicle enthusiast, Loren McDonald, about Level 1 charging infrast...
Fish Risk!
September 30, 2021 19:22 - 1 hour - 57.2 MBIt’s season 3, episode 4 - Fish Risk! week for Public Power Underground. We cover everything from permafrost to Dolly Parton on this week’s episode hosted a combination of new stars (Ludgie Gelin and Betsy Bridge), returning star (Arin Guillory), and regular co-host (Paul Dockery). The highlight is a wonderful interview with the Director of BPA’s Fish & Wildlife Program, Crystal Ball, where we try to better understand fish risk for preference customer considering a post-2028 contrac...
Into the Twitterverse!
September 23, 2021 19:01 - 59 minutes - 54.3 MBIt’s season 3, episode 3 - Into the Metaverse! week for Public Power Underground. We covered a BROAD range of news this week, and caught up with some celebrities including THE Vice President of Origination for Avangrid, Holly Carias, a BLUE CHECK mark, Dan Catchpole, and the curator of #energytwitter, Simon Mahan. 04:20 - Arin Reports 09:13 - Summary of wildfire impacts on BPA transmission lines 11:29 - PPC’s Mike Linn joins to chat about CAISO’s recently announced Extended Day...
Into the Metaverse!
September 16, 2021 23:30 - 48 minutes - 43.9 MBIt’s season 3, episode 2 - Into the Metaverse! - week for Public Power Underground. We caught up with a couple special guests, and got back into the regular format covering public-power and public-power-adjacent news. 02:17 - Arin Reports 07:16 - Temporary Gas Plants in California 10:02 - Tu Phan talks Power Markets and Metaverse 20:04 - PNNL’s Research on Heat Pump Water Heaters 22:16 - Roger Gray talks about BPA post-2028 product design concepts 37:37 - Broadband expans...
Energy Experts React! to NWPPA's Annual Conference
September 10, 2021 18:17 - 1 hour - 57.2 MBPublic Power Underground successfully pulled off its first-ever-livestream as our Season 3 Premiere! We broadcasted LIVE from across the region, simultaneously. Karen Heim and Humaira Falkenberg joined from remote locations to provide color commentary, insights, and questions. Joining the Underground on-location at the NWPPA Annual Conference were a series of very special guests who became the newest Friends of the Underground and summarize 3 days of conference content in one hour!...
Roll On Enthusiasts - Season 3 Trailer
August 30, 2021 18:49 - 3 minutes - 2.99 MBSeason 3 is the season to ROLL ON ENTHUSTIASTS, ROLL ON! Public Power Underground took the summer off, but with kids headed back to school it's time for the fall season to kick off. We've got some plans. The plans are bound to change. The Underground's own Arin Guillory, CPA and Ian Bledsoe combined their talents to make this special Season 3 theme song inspired by Woody Guthrie's Roll On Columbia, but re-imagined for electric utility enthusiasts. We hope you enjoy, and are read...
SEASON FINALE: Susan Ackerman Mailbag
May 28, 2021 00:18 - 59 minutes - 54.3 MBIt’s the SEASON FINALE, and to celebrate the conclusion of another wonderful season of Public Power Underground we invited a special guest of honor, Susan Ackerman, to join us for an after dark, mailbag episode. Susan recently announced her retirement from her role as Eugene Water and Electric Board’s (EWEB) Chief Energy Officer. To celebrate her career and ask her deeply personal and occasionally inappropriate questions the Underground invited a cast of extraordinary characters fr...
Harquahala Hypothesis!
May 21, 2021 03:45 - 54 minutes - 49.8 MBIt’s Harquahala Hypothesis! week on Public Power Underground! Northwest power markets are a topic of interest for the Underground, and we dive into a forward market theory on to start the news. After the market hypothesis, we talk to EWEB’s Jon Hart about his philosophy of market fundaments, check-in on transportation electrification with Clark Public Utilities’ Matt Babbitts, learn about public power recruiting from Energy Northwest’s Sarah Giomi, and revisit one of our recurring t...
Catching Up on all-the-news!
May 13, 2021 23:22 - 53 minutes - 49.1 MBWe’re Catching up on all-the-news! this week on Public Power Underground! After a restful week hiatus we’re back catching up on all we missed. Joining to get us up to speed were Clearing Up’s Steve Ernst, Forth’s Erin Galiger, and NRU’s Megan Stratman! 01:22 - Arin Reports 06:49 - Colonial Pipeline begins restart of operations after a cyberattack 09:15 - Clearing Up's Steve Ernst joins to catch me up litigation and arbitration surrounding Colstrip 15:12 - Fitch Ratings issues ...
Return Counts are Up!
April 30, 2021 00:17 - 47 minutes - 43.3 MBIt’s Return Counts are Up! week on Public Power Underground! Some great guest news and insight from returning Friends of the Underground this week. There’s a lot going on in the region and we’re just trying to keep up. We also talk a lot about EVs, because we really find electric vehicle public charging interesting. 01:52 - Arin Reports 05:45 - Guest News: PNUCC’s Tomás Morrisey talks about the NRF 14:31 - Guest News: PNGC’s Greg Mendonca records a promo for an open position 19:...
Resource Adequacy double-feature!
April 21, 2021 22:41 - 52 minutes - 47.7 MBIt’s Resource Adequacy double-feature! week on Public Power Underground! We talk about the Northwest Power Pool’s Resource Adequacy program in back-to-back interviews. First with NWPP’s Chief Operating Officer, Gregg Carrington, and the second interview with Chair of WSPP’s Operating Committee, Matthew Schroettnig. And to get caught up on the BP-22/TC-22 rate cases we talk to PPC’s Mike Deen about what’s going on! 01:31 - Arin Reports 05:11 - Celebration of ClearingUp’s 2000th edi...
Cluster of Symbiotic Markets!
April 15, 2021 20:01 - 56 minutes - 51.8 MBIt’s Cluster of Symbiotic Markets! week on Public Power Underground! Naming for this week’s episode came from a wonderful interview of The Energy Authority’s (TEA) Director of Power Trading - West, Tu Phan. We also got a double-feature interview with Kurt and Austin from Northwest River Partners, and continued our series of interviews by Public Power Underground’s Special Salmon War Correspondent, Matthew Schroettnig, this time touching base with Northern Wasco County PUD’s Roger Kl...
Bring Your Ideas!
April 08, 2021 23:06 - 1 hour - 55.7 MBIt’s Bring Your Ideas! week on Public Power Underground! A lot of guests and guest news this week. Arin Reports (01:16), Tacoma Power’s Ahlmahz Negash, PhD, talks about demand response (04:21), Puget Sound Energy’s Integrated Resource Plan identifies biodiesel peakers (19:30), Guest News from Oregon Department of Energy’s Blake Shelide (20:46), Brian Johnson introduces Holly Dohrman’s interview on the post-2028 Provider of Choice process (26:24), Financial Times article on the next ...
Be Curious! not judgmental
April 02, 2021 02:44 - 56 minutes - 51.7 MBIt’s Be Curious! not judgmental week! on Public Power Underground! We had a great conversation with Energy Northwest’s Greg Cullen about all their non-CGS, got a special guest interview by EWEB’s Matt Schroettnig of BPA’s Crystal Ball, and covered a bunch of other fun public-power and public-power adjacent topics. Arin Reports (01:55), Energy Northwest news with their Vice President for Energy Services and Development, Greg Cullen (05:15), Checking on the California Duck Curve (23:...
Bonus Episode: Public Power Crossover Pod
March 31, 2021 15:02 - 21 minutes - 19.7 MBIn a special, crossover podcast the host of APPA's Public Power Now, Paul Ciampoli, and Public Power Underground's Paul Dockery interview APPA's Vice President of Strategic Member Engagement & Education, Ursula Schryver, about APPA's upcoming National Conference. https://www.publicpower.org/public-power-now https://www.publicpower.org/event/national-conference Public Power Underground, it's work to watch. Public Power Underground, for electric utility enthusiasts. https://publ...
Best and Brightest Week!
March 25, 2021 23:52 - 58 minutes - 53.1 MBIt’s Best and Brightest Week! on Public Power Underground! We have two guest co-hosts (NRU’s Megan Stratman and Clatskanie PUD’s own Sarah Johnson) and a special celebrity guest star (Libby Calnon) participate in the show where we debut a brand new public-power-adjacent show on Slummin’ w/ the Underground. I force the guest co-hosts to read ad copy I’ve written to recruit to public power. Don’t miss the great ad copy, great content, and great conversation about hiring, jobs, and rec...
Bonus Episode: SPP's Market+ Concept
March 23, 2021 18:17 - 1 hour - 87.9 MBSPP agreed to sit down for an interview to talk about the Market+ concept they unveiled at the March 4th Members Forum. It’s the centerpiece of this, bonus, episode of Public Power Underground – Premium!. Bookending the discussion with SPP’s Steve Johnson are conversations with public power professionals from the region to provide context. PPC’s Mike Linn sets the stage for why markets matter to Northwest public power (01:32), SPP’s Steve Johnson joins Public Power Underground as a ...
One Year!
March 19, 2021 00:33 - 57 minutes - 52.5 MBIt’s One Year! on Public Power Underground! We don’t do any run downs of what happened a year ago, instead we have a Ted Lasso inspired pep talk to start the episode (01:14). There is a visual bit at the end of the pep talk, so you might check out that portion on youtube. Then we got to work! We have an interview with Tacoma’s Clay Norris about CAISO’s EDAM process (16:55), talk electrification with EWEB’s Megan Capper (34:56), and cover lots of other public power and public-power-a...
Friends and Neighbors Week
March 12, 2021 00:50 - 45 minutes - 41.2 MBIt’s Friends and Neighbors Week on Public Power Underground! The crew was VERY LOOSE this week with a lot of spring sunshine vibes going on. I think you’ll really enjoy the banter, and the content. We got a guest lede from Clearing Up’s KC Mehaffey about an article she wrote (23:03), got to talk to PPC’s Executive Director, Scott Simms, about virtual events and remote work (26:17), and PPC’s Lauren Tenney Denison returned to talk about PPC's Special Meeting Series with BPA on Potent...
Bonus Episode: The Scourge of Seasonal Time Change
March 10, 2021 14:12 - 50 minutes - 46.6 MBIn a special, bonus, episode the Underground tackles The Scourge of Seasonal Time Change. Joining the Underground to tackle the issue is the Executive Director of the Pacific Northwest Utilities Conference Committee (PNUCC), Shauna McReynolds, the Power Resource Manager for PUD No 2 of Pacific County, Humaira Falkenberg, and the Executive Director of the Northwest Public Power Association (NWPPA), Scott Corwin. We manage to have great banter while doing a deep-dive into the prac...
BREAKING NEWS
March 04, 2021 23:54 - 56 minutes - 51.7 MBWe’re Breaking News this week on Public Power Underground! Arin Reports (03:04), APPA's profile of women in high-voltage trades (06:06), RMG Financials’ Reid Grossman joins to talk about counterparty credit in the aftermath of the winter freeze event (07:19), Debrief from BPA’s IRP 2 Workshop (23:03), Idaho Power’s Customer Growth (25:52), Guest Lede by PPC’s Aaron Bush on the March 1stPublic Power / BPA Carbon Forum (32:18), Debrief from the NWRFC’s Water Supply Briefing (32:40), S...
Use Your Illusions of Choice
February 25, 2021 23:29 - 54 minutes - 49.5 MBIt’s Use Your Illusions of Choice week on Public Power Underground! We’re excited to be joined by a slew of celebrities of the region this week to spice things up. Karen Heim joined as a guest co-host, (07:02) Matt Schroettnig interviews Bo Downen about the Simpson Concept, (32:52) Greg Mendonca talks about the NW Power Pool’s Resource Adequacy program, and (43:44) Kurt Miller does a special guest readout about NOAA Fisheries Science Center’s recent report. Public Power Underground...