Officials with public power utilities and the President and CEO of the Nuclear Power Institute on June 9 discussed a wide range of topics including strategies for effectively meeting load growth and the use of artificial intelligence in utility operations.
They made their remarks at the American Public Power Association’s National Conference in New Orleans, La.
Participants on the panel, which was moderated by Scott Corwin, President and CEO of APPA, were:
• Joanie Teofilo, President & CEO, The Energy Authority
• Maria Korsnick, President and CEO, Nuclear Energy Institute
• Thomas Kent, President & Chief Executive Officer, Nebraska Public Power District
• Travas Deal, CEO, Colorado Springs Utilities
Corwin asked panelists to discuss what they are experiencing in the energy transformation when it comes to solutions for addressing resource adequacy.
“We’re seeing load growth four times what we historically have seen,” said Kent. Noting that NPPD is growing approximately 5% a year currently, “we’re planning to add significant additional generation capacity.”
NPPD is part of the Southwest Power Pool. “For those of you familiar with the mid-continent of the United States and the Southwest Power Pool, it’s an area very rich in energy resources – wind and solar, batteries, those kinds of things. So to address resource adequacy, those resources don’t really bring what you need by themselves.”
NPPD is currently focusing on “things that can be built quickly – so it’s reciprocating engines that are dual fuel fired, it’s combustion turbines that are dual fuel fired, and quickly is not” in the two year timeframe. “Quickly is a four or five year process.”
Kent noted that NPPD is investigating being in the “early mover, the fast follower stage of” nuclear development, “so as the first units get deployed, we can learn from that and move quickly.” In August of last year, NPPD said it had reached phase two of a feasibility study assessing preliminary siting options for advanced nuclear reactors in Nebraska.
“We’re all seeing exponential growth,” said Deal. “All of our customers are using electricity so differently than they’ve ever seen before.”
Deal noted that Colorado lawmakers recently voted to allow for nuclear power to be considered clean energy, “so nuclear power can be utilized in our clean energy plans now, which allows us to start taking a look at a resource we really haven’t been able to vet out.”
When it comes to the energy transition, “the either current lack in resource adequacy or with the projected load forecasts in the various regions, the expected constraints in reserves and capacity, varies vastly by region,” noted Teofilo.
The Energy Authority serves and is directed by seven member utilities, all of which are public power utilities. As a national portfolio management company, it evaluates challenges, manages risks and executes solutions to help clients maximize the value of their assets and meet their goals in a cost-effective manner. TEA provides public power utilities with access to advanced resources and technology systems so they can respond competitively in the changing energy markets.
Korsnick said that “nuclear today a bit sells itself because you have that high reliability,” adding that companies that own large data centers are “really interested in commercial nuclear power.
She noted recent news in which Constellation and Meta have signed a 20-year power purchase agreement for the output of the Clinton Clean Energy Center in Illinois to support Meta’s clean energy goals and operations in the region with 1,121 megawatts of nuclear energy.
The Use of AI
Panelists also discussed the ways in which AI could be utilized in terms of utility operations.
Deal said that Colorado Springs Utilities, among other things, is looking at how to utilize AI for predictive maintenance.
Korsnick said that AI is a “rich opportunity no matter what industry that you’re in.”
Right now, “if you think about AI for maybe all of us, you’re thinking of things like ChatGPT or something like that. I think what also is developing is…large language models that are determined just for a specific industry and I see that already forming for nuclear.”
The Electric Power Research Institute, NEI and the Institute of Nuclear Operations are “working together to form, if you will, a large language model that would then provide…a rich opportunity of information for our members to search from,” she said.
“I think as an industry we’re just getting started,” said Kent. He said that “if you’ve got a lot of infrastructure, which we all do, you go out and you do inspections and maybe you use drones…and you’re taking pictures but someone’s still going through the pictures and going – OK, that’s not right, we’ve got to do a maintenance order on that, we’ve gotto do a maintenance order on this. We’re piloting doing the picture review with AI…and so now AI can say, OK, I’ve got five things to fix on that structure, put the maintenance order in, and our crews – rather than taking up their time figuring out what needs to be done can go do the work. So it’s just scratching the surface and I think there’s going to be” a lot more examples that over time.
