What can we learn from Australia’s experience transforming the electrical grid?

In this episode, I talk with Dr. Sara Deilami, an electrical engineering researcher at Macquarie University, to explore Australia's rapidly changing energy system and what it can teach us about the future of the grid.

We discuss renewable energy, virtual power plants, and the challenges of integrating new technologies into an evolving power system. We also examine the growing impact of AI on the electrical industry, including the electricity demands of AI data centers.

The conversation goes beyond technology to explore energy access in rural and regional communities, the social considerations behind sustainable energy adoption, and the importance of collaboration among engineers, industry, government, academia, and communities.

Sara also shares her work on wireless power transfer for electric vehicles, along with thoughts on the future of EV charging, emerging technologies, and preparing the engineering workforce for a rapidly changing industry.

We finish with a discussion about women in engineering, career development, work-life balance, and the growing challenges posed by extreme weather and natural hazards.

In This Episode

🇦🇺 Australia's changing electricity system
🤖 AI and electricity demand
⚡ Renewable energy and distributed grids
🏠 Virtual power plants at home
🌏 Rural and regional energy access
👥 Social considerations in the energy transition
🚗 EV integration and wireless power transfer
🤝 Collaboration and innovation
👩‍🔬 Women in engineering and work-life balance
🌪️ Extreme weather and grid resilience
🔮 The future of power engineering

Timestamps

02:12 — Introduction to Dr. Sara Deilami
02:49 — Journey into electrical engineering
04:14 — Industry to academia
05:09 — AI and the electrical industry
06:23 — AI data centers and electricity demand
08:25 — Australia's power system
09:21 — Renewable energy and rural communities
10:43 — Virtual power plants and home batteries
13:41 — Evolving regulations
15:52 — Collaboration among stakeholders
18:26 — Emerging energy technologies
20:54 — Pilot projects and innovation
22:19 — Wireless power transfer for EVs
26:28 — Wireless charging efficiency
28:13 — The future of power grids
32:45 — Preparing the energy workforce
35:57 — Career advice for engineers
40:12 — Women in engineering and work-life balance
44:05 — Optimism for power engineering
46:02 — Extreme weather and natural hazards
50:39 — Collaboration and sharing ideas
51:45 — The future of the energy transition
51:46 — Engineering reliable power systems

Learn more:
Dr. Sara Deilami — Macquarie University
Dr. Sara Deilami on LinkedIn

Music licensed through Soundstripe.

Code: B5BZKIHAEBMV6UQ0

What does it take to keep the lights on as storms, aging infrastructure, rapid load growth, and changing customer expectations put increasing pressure on the electric grid?

In this episode of Grid Lock, we sit down with Nick Shumaker, Manager of System Engineering at Oklahoma Electric Cooperative (OEC) and National Chair of NRECA’s Transmission and Distribution Engineering Committee.

Nick offers a firsthand look at the cooperative model and the challenges facing electric utilities—from meeting rapidly growing demand and restoring power after severe storms to modernizing aging infrastructure and deploying intelligent grid technology.

We explore OEC’s use of advanced technology and its Adaptively Controlled Electric System (ACES) to accelerate restoration, the synergies between broadband services and electric grid operations, distributed energy resources, and the challenges of building new infrastructure.

Nick also shares his experiences as co-founder of GridVantage, using data analytics and AI to improve utility operations, and Legally Brewed, a craft brewery built around community and entrepreneurship. We discuss the potential—and limitations—of AI in distribution system management, the future of solar, and the workforce challenges facing the energy industry.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Grid Lock and Nick Shumaker
02:52 Nick's Journey into Engineering and Cooperatives
05:43 Understanding the Cooperative Structure
09:22 NRECA and Community Collaboration
11:17 Challenges and Changes in the Utility Industry
13:33 Storm Response and Restoration
17:59 Technological Innovations at OEC
19:33 ACES Technology and Its Impact
23:07 Broadband and Community Connectivity
27:06 Distributed Energy Resources and Resilience
32:17 Aging Infrastructure: Challenges and Solutions
41:43 Challenges in Building New Infrastructure
45:29 Underground vs. Overhead Lines
51:30 Entrepreneurship and Brewing Community Connections
54:37 The Art of Beer Making
55:47 GridVantage: Data Analytics and AI
58:46 AI for Electric Cooperatives
01:01:32 The Risks of Over-Dependence on AI
01:04:48 Entrepreneurship and the Startup Landscape
01:09:27 The Future of Solar Energy
01:15:12 Addressing Energy Workforce Challenges
01:19:33 Concluding Remarks

Links

GridVantage:
https://gridvantage.com/

Legally Brewed:
https://legallybrewedco.com/
123 W. Main Street, Norman, OK, USA

Nick Shumaker:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/nick-shumaker-67712930/

ACES – Adaptively Controlled Electric System:
https://oecfiber.com/blog/aces/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozvgAoduAaU

Music licensed through Soundstripe.
Code: B5BZKIHAEBMV6UQ0.

For more than two decades, we've been promised a future where our homes actively participate in a smarter, cleaner, and more resilient electricity grid. Smart meters have been installed in millions of homes around the world, utilities have invested billions in grid modernization, and the term smart grid has become a staple of energy discussions.

But has the average household actually experienced this transformation?

In this episode, we explore whether today's "smart grid" is truly smart from the customer's perspective. We discuss why many consumers still interact with electricity much the same way they did decades ago, despite the technology already existing to do much more.

Key Questions:

• We have the technology for smart grids but is it really implemented and used by customers?
• Have we changed our energy usage patterns with the roll out of smart meters?
• What more is needed to realize true smart grid functionality?
• Have smart meters fundamentally changed the way we use electricity?
• Why hasn't household energy management become mainstream?
• What technologies are already available but remain underutilized?
• What incentives would encourage homeowners to participate?
• Are we still building a smart grid—or simply collecting more data?

Topics Covered

• What the original vision for the smart grid looked like
• How smart meters have changed utility operations—and what they haven't changed
• Why most households still consume electricity in largely the same way as before
• The missing link between smart meters and truly smart homes

Takeaway

The technology for a truly interactive smart grid largely exists today. The challenge is no longer one of engineering—it is one of economics, regulation, interoperability, and customer engagement. Unlocking the next generation of grid intelligence will require homes to evolve from passive electricity consumers into active participants that can respond to changing grid conditions in real time.

www.mosesconsulting.net

Music licensed through Soundstripe.

Code: GKPWCT4VH7TVOUQX

This episode is a short overview to some of the topics we hope to touch in later in depth details.

How Infrastructure Disparities Affect Power Reliability

Why do some neighbourhoods get their power back in hours while others wait days after the same storm? In this episode of Grid Lock: Engineering for the Real World, we explore how the design of the electric grid influences reliability, resilience, and the customer experience.

We discuss the differences between overhead and underground power distribution, why restoration times vary depending on where you are connected to the grid, and the unique challenges faced by rural communities. The conversation also examines a difficult question: should customers who experience very different levels of reliability all pay the same rates?

This episode looks beyond the headlines to examine the engineering trade-offs, infrastructure investment decisions, and equity challenges that utilities and policymakers face as the power system evolves.

In this episode:

• Electrical usage patterns
• Disparity in infrastructure
• Grid Modernization
• Economic Realities
• How grid topology affects outage restoration times.
• The reliability challenges facing rural electricity networks.
• The balance between cost, resilience, and fairness in electricity infrastructure.
• What future grid investments could mean for customers.

Grid Lock: Engineering for the Real World explores the engineering decisions behind the infrastructure we depend on every day, bringing practical discussions with experts from across the energy industry.

Connect with Dr. Paul Moses:

www.mosesconsulting.net

Music licensed through Soundstripe.

Code: JA5BI0DBAHXMMZIM

Grid Lock: Engineering for the Real World

Every system we depend on — the lights that turn on, the grid that holds steady, the infrastructure that scales with demand — is the result of hard tradeoffs engineers and policymakers make every day. Grid Lock: Engineering for the Real World goes inside those tradeoffs.

Each episode brings in experts across engineering and energy disciplines to explore the pressures defining our power future: affordability, flexibility, reliability, grid resilience, versatility, capacity, and what it takes to electrify societies for the future.

The conversation starts local — right here in Oklahoma — scales up to national policy and infrastructure trends, and connects to the global engineering challenges shaping how the world powers itself.

www.mosesconsulting.net

In this episode I discuss the overview of the state of the grid.

• In recent years, we are seeing a rapid escalation in the amount of electrical energy we use
• Affordability, even here in Oklahoma which is touted to be one of the lowest cost of living states, is still not immune to electricity price growth
• Utilities are also in a bind; grid modernization
• Legacy equipment
• The impact of new energy consumers; data centers
• Power system planning has always been a top-level down endeavor – key decisions made at the federal, or boardrooms of power corporations – and seldom or very little input from the communities.  Indeed a bottom-up approach is more sort after in stakeholder engagement, the general public in entering the discussion.

These are important decisions, and will have lasting repercussions in everyone, costs of living, our children and grandchildren’s prospects and thinking 22nd century. – Remember, it takes many years, sometimes decades to planout and start building major infrastructure.

I look forward to continuing these important conversations over the series of episodes in the podcast Grid Lock.

Thank you for listening!