In this episode of Always on: Reliability in focus, CRA VP and host Andy Dressel speaks with Willie Phillips, former Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), about the implications of unprecedented electricity demand growth driven by data centers and other large loads.

After decades of relatively flat demand, the pace and scale of new load are challenging planning frameworks, regulatory processes, and infrastructure development timelines across the US electric system.

Willie, now a partner at Holland & Knight LLP, and Andy discuss recent federal actions aimed at accelerating interconnection and transmission development.

Though progress is being made, both speakers emphasize the importance of flexibility, regional differences, and coordination between federal and state regulators as jurisdictional lines blur.

By the end of the episode, listeners will understand why greater alignment across regulators, markets, and infrastructure sectors is critical to ensuring the grid can support long-term economic growth while maintaining dependable, resilient service.

In the CRA Sessions podcast series Always on: Reliability in focus, CRA VP and host Andrew Dressel talks with Dr. Michael Wara, a leading authority on wildfire and energy policy. Dr. Wara is the Director of the Climate and Energy Policy Program at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment and the Senior Director of Policy and Sustainability Accelerator at the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability.

Together they discuss one of the most pressing challenges facing the energy sector today: the growing threat of utility-caused wildfires and the sweeping changes required to mitigate them.

The conversation dives into critical topics such as aging infrastructure, wildfire mitigation plans, the trade-offs between reliability and safety, and why solving this issue demands a whole-of-society approach and not just utility action.

Listeners will gain insight into the technologies, policies, and cultural shifts, shaping the future of grid resilience in an era of climate-driven challenges.

In the CRA Sessions podcast series Always on: Reliability in focus, CRA Principal and host Matt Moore interviews Jim Robb, President and CEO of the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), to discuss the emerging risks and challenges facing the reliability of the North American electric grid. Topics include resource adequacy, grid transformation, extreme weather, AI data center characteristics and large loads, and security.

As the head of NERC, Robb emphasizes the importance of grid security exercises, including NERC’s biannual GridEx exercises, and describes load growth due to AI data centers as “the issue of our time.”

The conversation highlights risks to the grid, a recent Department of Energy Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR) on large load interconnections, and improvements to NERC’s Reliability Standards Development Plan. With respect to the NOPR and large load characteristics specific to AI uses, there is a comparison to the standards and reliability oversight processes of inverter-based resources and the balance of establishing standards and practices that foster reliability without forcing significant changes on legacy equipment.