Introduction: In this episode of Unlocking the Energy Trilemma, Ravi Krishnan and Jose A. Martinez talk with Conrad Oakey, CEO of NovaTech, about accelerating electricity demand, workforce gaps, grid automation, DERs, virtualization, and storage. The discussion highlights balancing centralized control with distributed intelligence to strengthen resilience, reliability, and modernization.
Questions
What fact or figure related to the energy trilemma did you bring for us today?
According to you, what are some of the biggest forces that will shape how utilities think about automation, grid control, and operations over the next decade?
With grids becoming more complex due to increasing renewables and distributed resources, how do you see automation and control systems supporting operators?
How has the shift in the role of DERs from primarily reducing COâ‚‚ footprints to becoming economic and off-grid power necessities impacted the overall market and general market behaviour? How do you envision the balance between more distributed, edge-based intelligence and centralized control-room systems changing? What impact will this change have on the resiliency and overall performance of the grid?
Do you think long-duration energy storage technologies will have a bigger role in the coming years? Or do you believe that battery storage's current round-trip efficiency is sufficient to satisfy the growing needs of AI and data centers?
Do you see a gap between policies, regulations, and national targets and what we can realistically deploy on the grid?
If you had a magic wand, what would you do to unlock the energy trilemma?
In terms of cost, realization, and their ability to support the energy transition, do you believe SMRs have made sufficient progress?