Southwest Power Pool, Amperon, and Paul Lau Honored for Pioneering Contributions to Grid Modernization Grid Forward, a member-based non-profit organization promoting grid modernization, announced the winners of the 2026 Grid Innovator of the Year Awards during its Annual Member Meeting on June 30. This year’s honorees, Southwest Power Pool, Amperon, and SMUD CEO Paul Lau,...Read More

This post was originally shared with Grid Forward members in an earlier email. Want to explore becoming a member? Click here to start. FERC is pushing large-load interconnection reforms by issuing tailored show cause orders to six regional RTOs and ISOs: ISO-NE, NYISO, PJM, MISO, SPP and CAISO. These regional grid operators have 60 days to “justify...Read More

As the energy landscape grows more complex, utilities see new technologies as critical to making electricity more clean, affordable and reliable. Yet how can they nurture innovation in a historically conservative industry? On the Grid Forward podcast GridPulse, Avista CEO Heather Rosentrater shared the ways her team is embedding innovation across the organization, not just within a...Read More

GridPulse, the Grid Forward podcast, kicked off its season 7 with a detailed discussion about the huge role state commissioners play in modernizing the grid while balancing goals for economic growth and energy affordability. Virginia Commissioner Jehmal Hudson, who is a vice president of NARUC, laid out the current responsibilities and challenges that state commissioners must...Read More

Traditional net‑metering models are often difficult to apply in a multi-family setting. Grid Forward member Idaho Falls Power (IFP) sought to test innovative customer‑sited distributed energy resources (DERs) through its first multi‑family Net Metering Pilot Project with Orchard Park Energy LLC. Orchard Park Apartments, located in Idaho Falls, Idaho, is a new multi-family residential development...Read More

Grid Forward kicks off a new season of its podcast with a new name: GridPulse. The podcast hosts senior executives, government officials and tech innovators to reveal candid observations and best practices for modernizing the electric grid. Given its highly focused topics and top-tier guests, the podcast is now recognized as one of the leading voices...Read More

Guest post by Abhinav Gupta, Grid TransformationGrid Forward encourages members to submit post ideas for this blog. If I had to sum up DTECH 2026 in one sentence, it would be this: the industry has moved from asking “what technology should we implement?” to “how do we actually make all of this work together?” That...Read More

By Bryce Yonker, Executive Director and CEO, Grid Forward I joined thousands of other utility and grid folks at DTECH 2026 in San Diego last week. No doubt, there are promising and important things happening in and around the tech ecosystem of the grid. But the industry’s bigger currents and stronger winds were really neither...Read More

At GridFWD 2025 in Monterey, CA, we witnessed firsthand how Grid Innovation Pitch Competition can serve as a powerful catalyst for advances in grid modernization. Pitch Aeronautics, a startup focused on the intersection of AI and grid weather data, emerged as the winner among eight impressive competitors. In a recent interview, co-founder Ian Gibson shared...Read More

Almost 500 executives from the utility, data center and AI industries came together to dive into “AI and the Grid” this October at GridFWD 2025 event in Monterey, CA. Over two days of sessions, discussions, tours and networking, we examined many dimensions of the dynamic growth of AI applications and energy needs as they impact...Read More

Monterey, CA – October 9, 2025 Grid Forward, a member-based non-profit organization promoting grid modernization, announced Pitch Aeronautics, a developer of advanced installation drones, power line sensors, and data analytics platforms, as the winner of the 2025 Innovation Pitch Competition held during GridFWD 2025 in Monterey, California. The two-day annual event featured eight carefully selected...Read More

On Oct. 1, the Department of Energy announced the termination of 321 financial awards totaling $7.56 billion. The awards were issued by the Offices of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED), Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Grid Deployment (GDO), Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains (MESC), Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) and Fossil Energy (FE). Latitude Media has reported on...Read More

A Grid Forward Forum podcast episode with Cloverleaf Infrastructure and Iron Mountain Data Centers There are many approaches being tried to meet the rapidly growing power demand for AI-focused data centers, from small nuclear reactors (SMRs) to behind-the-meter natural gas plants. One concept growing in importance is flexibility. But how can very large data centers...Read More

Insights gained at the symposium Standing Up to Wildfire: Practical Tech and Tactics for Utilities By Linda Barney, Barney and Associates On June 4, 2025, Grid Forward hosted a Symposium ‘Standing up to Wildfire: Practical Tech and Tactics for Utilities’ in Portland, Oregon. Our writer Linda Barnery prepared a lengthy article about what she learned there,...Read More

On May 8 of this year, Grid Forward announced its participation in the Partners in Wildfire Prevention organization. This coalition of organizations from various industries, regions, and sectors works to raise awareness about the growing wildfire crisis and advocated for a coordinated, national response to wildfires. The Coalition’s broad and diverse membership demonstrates how wildfires...Read More

Insights gained at the symposium Standing Up to Wildfire: Practical Tech and Tactics for Utilities By Linda Barney, Barney and Associates On June 4, 2025, Grid Forward hosted a Symposium ‘Standing up to Wildfire: Practical Tech and Tactics for Utilities’ in Portland, Oregon. Our writer Linda Barnery prepared a lengthy article about what she learned there,...Read More

Insights gained at the symposium Standing Up to Wildfire: Practical Tech and Tactics for Utilities By Linda Barney, Barney and Associates On June 4, 2025, Grid Forward hosted a Symposium ‘Standing up to Wildfire: Practical Tech and Tactics for Utilities’ in Portland, Oregon. Bryce Yonker (Executive Director & CEO) introduced the event and Plenary, Panel...Read More

State energy offices have a delicate balancing act in leading policy, tracking market signals, and encouraging economic development. All that is harder now that load growth is accelerating. David Terry, the president of National Association of State Energy Officials (NASEO), came on the Grid Forward Forum podcast to discuss trends within state energy offices to help...Read More