With Great Power

Brian Kurtz doesn’t shy away from a tough climb. He’s always loved the mountains, and in college he spent an entire semester “abroad” in the Western Rockies, learning about ecology while also trudging up and down mountains. 

That experience taught him a framework called expedition behavior — a methodical approach to planning and executing a mission. Years later, Brian and his team at PSEG Long Island took on a different kind of mission, but one that still required a thoughtful, patient approach. 

This week on With Great Power, Brian tells the story of how PSEG Long Island rose from the bottom of the 2014 J.D. Power customer satisfaction survey among large electric utility business customers in the East to the top in 2025. They talk about the key steps along the way — including a rate modernization program and improved customer communications.

Credits: Hosted by Brad Langley. Produced by Mary Catherine O’Connor. Edited by Anne Bailey. Original music and engineering by Sean Marquand. Stephen Lacey is executive editor. The GridX production team includes Jenni Barber, Samantha McCabe, and Brad Langley.

Ellen Zuckerman followed her nose, literally, into her first career as an energy auditor in New York City. She had an uncanny ability to sniff out dangerous gas leaks in apartment buildings. 

That led to energy efficiency work in states across the country – everything from helping utilities, regulators, and businesses advance efficiency projects to helping ratepayers lower their bills through weatherization programs

In 2022, Google took notice and offered her a position with its community energy program – a program designed to fund energy efficiency programs in communities where the company is building data centers.

This week on With Great Power, Ellen describes how this program works. She also outlines how Google has worked with regulators and utilities in Nevada, Minnesota, and other states to develop large load tariffs in support of bringing hundreds of megawatts of clean energy and storage to the grid.

Credits: Hosted by Brad Langley. Produced by Mary Catherine O’Connor. Edited by Anne Bailey. Original music and engineering by Sean Marquand. Stephen Lacey is executive editor. The GridX production team includes Jenni Barber, Samantha McCabe, and Brad Langley.

After emigrating from Cuba to the U.S. at age ten, Georges Gonzalez struggled to find his voice and his passion. It took joining the Civil Air Patrol and, later, the Air Force to boost his confidence and instill a work ethic he’d carry with him for years.

He began his post-military career as a delivery driver for Coca-Cola, where he quickly moved up the ranks. But after working for the company for more than a decade, Georges took a buy-out in 2015. Before long, he was on to his next adventure, working in the water utility sector, starting in Pinellas County in west-central Florida. Today, he’s the director of enterprise solutions for water resources in nearby Hillsborough County, Florida.

This week on With Great Power, Georges talks about how his team is evaluating AI tools for improving its customer service representative training, among other functions. Georges explains the county government’s careful approach to using artificial intelligence, how department staff have reacted to it, and how the water resources team is testing the technology.

Credits: Hosted by Brad Langley. Produced by Mary Catherine O’Connor. Edited by Anne Bailey. Original music and engineering by Sean Marquand. Stephen Lacey is executive editor. The GridX production team includes Jenni Barber, Samantha McCabe, and Brad Langley.

Fifteen years ago, Scott Engstrom thought utilities were boring, bureaucratic organizations where people went for job security. But after co-founding GridX in 2010 during the smart meter era, he discovered an industry full of dedicated people tackling complex challenges.

GridX went the next five years without a paying customer. Then, in 2015, California mandated time-of-use rates, and the start-up found its footing. Today, Scott helps utilities nationwide design and implement sophisticated rates for a variety of programs, from electric vehicle charging to demand response programs and virtual power plants. Because as load growth from AI data centers and industrial customers strains the grid, sophisticated rate design has become more critical than ever.

This week on With Great Power, Scott outlines how rate design helps utilities manage unprecedented load growth from data centers and why "growth pays for growth" protects existing customers from new infrastructure costs.

Credits: Hosted by Brad Langley. Produced by Erin Hardick and Mary Catherine O’Connor. Edited by Anne Bailey. Original music and engineering by Sean Marquand. Stephen Lacey is executive editor. The GridX production team includes Jenni Barber, Samantha McCabe, and Brad Langley.

Audrey Zibelman’s first job as a trial lawyer in a male-dominated firm in Minneapolis wasn’t a good fit. So she moved to the state’s attorney general office, a place known for being more supportive of working mothers like her. But she never would have guessed that the shift would lead her into the power sector. But it did.

After a dynamic career as a utility executive, regulator, and founder, Audrey now serves  on corporate boards and in advisory roles where she advocates for designing responsive power systems and focusing on consumers’ needs. 

This week on With Great Power, Audrey Zibelman talks about lessons learned and walks Brad Langley through the distributed energy resource (DER) policy and research tools she recently helped develop as part of the Distributed Energy Resources Initiative Advisory Council for the Pew Charitable Trusts. Those tools include a state-by-state policy explorer that tracks how states are advancing DERs, as well as a DER policy playbook.

Credits: Hosted by Brad Langley. Produced by Mary Catherine O’Connor. Edited by Anne Bailey. Original music and engineering by Sean Marquand. Stephen Lacey is executive editor. The GridX production team includes Jenni Barber, Samantha McCabe, and Brad Langley.