What’s Missing For the Energy Transition?

When I was Member and Chair of the United States Department of Energy’s Electricity Advisory Committee serving four Presidential Administrations, I became known as the What’s Missing guy. I heard enough talk about solar, wind, battery storage, and electric vehicles but not much else. Well, I brought subjects such as hydrogen, nuclear, the next generation Energy Management System, and the inflection point coming with extraordinary electricity demand due to data centers and other systems switching to electricity due to better emissions reduction in the power sector.

I believe engineers can solve any problem for societal needs as transparency will yield solutions. I’m a licensed professional engineer in the United States. I respond as an engineer to the credo for the common good advancing societal benefits. Electricity is foundational and we are in an exciting energy transition period.

I have published a paper in June 2024 on “What’s Missing For the Energy Transition?” derived from my 12-year tenure at the US Department of Energy. It was published in Power Systems Technology (Issue 37). Today, electric demand exceeds expectations, capacity markets are trying to incent supply, infrastructure is challenged at all levels, and distribution needs to be transformed. All roads challenge affordability.

Upon mentioning the issue of affordability at a conference, I was asked if I saw today’s companies and engineers being risk averse and too cost conscious with innovation. I cautioned that if the Wright Brothers worried about risk and cost, airplanes would have been delayed unnecessarily. Companies and engineers need to develop and nurture innovation then address risk and costs. But we must eventually address affordability.

I believe engineers can solve any problem before them. Do you see the affordability problem? I challenge you to add that to your list of issues to solve. This goes well beyond markets. This is fundamental to everything we do and the poorest among us need to be able to afford life-giving electricity.

I see the need for more resources beyond solar and wind. I see battery storage and other forms as highly useful for intermittent resources, but I also see battery chemistries not sustainable, including electric vehicles. Green hydrogen is costly and nuclear is a challenge. Can we solve these problems and make them affordable? We are counting on you to solve these problems and not just figure out how to manage the status quo.

I know long speeches, panel sessions and presentations can numb you. If you only take away one thing from my talk today, it is to address affordability in your innovations. We are counting on you. You are our future and it is imperative that you see the key factor of affordability in all that you do for your profession. Do this for the common good and for the poorest among us. Do not rely on politicians to subsidize innovations. Build it in.

I mentioned these are exciting times and I want to share with you the benefits of CIGRE in these times. CIGRE is your seat at the global table for your professional development and for your company. CIGRE is the practical solution for your career and our One Grid.

CIGRE marketing efforts, including transformation of our communications and membership experience, started in 2017. We have consistent marketing resources, a digital platform advancing eCIGRE for our power systems knowledge sharing, our Technical Brochures, Green Books, ELECTRA, CSE and our newsletters. Our digital platform provides opportunity to translate documents in your native language as well.

CIGRE cash reserves will exceed 12M euros at the end of 2026. Our low point was the pandemic. We cancelled the 2020 Session and held a Virtual Centennial Session in 2021 that was expensive but necessary. Had we not had a successful 2022 Session, we would have had little cash reserves to endure any further risks or seed the CIGRE Fund. Fortunately, the digital platform we developed kept us relevant during the pandemic, and our success allowed the expanded mission with our CIGRE Innovation & Education Endowment Fund. Our cash reserves have also allowed us to stay below inflation on fees lower than peer global organizations.

Our website, CIGRE.org has increased unique user visitors over six times, from about 60,000/year when we started in 2017 to well over 370,000/year. The latest version of CIGRE.org planned for 2027 will leverage this excellent growth with over 500,000/year.

CIGRE membership in 2017 was just over 15,000 to now over 23,000 expected at the end of 2026. We will grow to 40,000 with 75 NCs shortly, and the CIGRE Fund will grow universities and students naturally adding to our growth.

Individuals today are exposed to about 10,000 messages per day, and to gain traction with our mission we need consistency and relevance over the noise you see on your smartphones. The CIGRE brand has value. CIGRE’s value is our technical foundation certainly, but the fast-paced world will ignore Maxwell’s equations. They will not ignore our approach to One Grid nor our efforts with our new CIGRE Fund. Now add affordability to your innovations.

We are at a time like no other. You can say today in your career with CIGRE, "We got this," "The exciting future of electricity is now," and "CIGRE is the answer." We are definitely in the best of times in our space, and we are counting on you. You got this.

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