Gearing Up for Experience POWER Week
Every year, I look forward to attending several power industry events. Among my favorites is the big event POWER hosts, known as Experience POWER Week. The conference will be held this year at the Renaissance Orlando at SeaWorld resort in Florida, Oct. 9–11. The get-together actually kicks off on Tuesday, Oct. 8, with a couple of co-located meetings, including the Plant Management Institute’s annual roundtable.
The Plant Management Institute is a network of electric power industry leaders, who, in collaboration with POWER, have created a welcoming environment to foster a valuable peer support network. The private conference setting, open only to members, allows a safe space for leaders to share challenges and receive comprehensive feedback from other power plant managers, who may have dealt with similar situations and found successful solutions. The Plant Management Institute prides itself on being an open forum for free-flowing conversations and detailed knowledge exchange. Membership in this exclusive group is only available to power plant managers and some operations, maintenance, engineering, and other facility managers, who are on a career path leading to a plant manager position. The feedback I have gotten from members suggests this meeting has regularly been some of the most valuable time they have spent at the conference. To see if you’re eligible to join and to register for the meeting, call (301) 354-2101 between 9:00 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. Eastern U.S. time or email [email protected].
Conference Tracks and What to Expect
Experience POWER’s main event includes three featured educational tracks—Electric Power Insights, Distributed Energy, and HydrogeNext—that cover a broad range of important subject matter. Electric Power Insights includes sessions addressing traditional power generation topics from generation to delivery, and touching on the full energy value chain across all fuel types—gas, coal, nuclear, and renewables. It provides real-world, actionable content and case studies for plant managers, operations and maintenance teams, engineers, contractors, academics, and more. The Distributed Energy track features sessions covering real-life applications, project planning, and the business and financial aspects of distributed generation. HydrogeNext, meanwhile, features sessions on the full hydrogen energy value chain from production to distribution and end-use. It brings together power generation and chemical process industry professionals to collaborate and learn about the fast-paced advances being made toward a hydrogen economy.
I’ve had a hand in helping set the agenda. Our conference planning committee, which I was a part of, met at the conference venue in Orlando in mid-April to review abstracts and select the best presentation proposals. We had a lot to choose from, which gave us the basis for a great event. Since then, conference chairs have worked diligently to fill gaps in the program, making sure all important challenges facing the industry have been addressed. It’s a time-consuming process but very rewarding for committee members when we see the exciting lineup that’s been created.
Among the sessions I’m personally looking forward to are “Powering the Future: Harnessing Earth, Water, Wind, and Sun,” “Modernizing Infrastructure: Strategies for Upgrades and Expansion,” and “AI, Data, and Digital Technology to the Rescue!” I think all three of these sessions will be very interesting and informative. Meanwhile, the general session on Wednesday, Oct. 9, will feature keynote speakers and an executive roundtable. POWER’s editorial staff—Sonal Patel, Darrell Proctor, and me—will follow that with a presentation highlighting what trends we’re seeing and whispers we’re hearing from experts and insiders across the power industry. You won’t want to miss that! To see the full program, visit: bit.ly/EP-agenda
25 Years of In-Person Connection
Experience POWER evolved from the ELECTRIC POWER Conference and Exhibition. The show began in 1998 and it was regularly held alternating between Chicago and Baltimore for many years. A virtual event was held in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, hence, the 25-year in-person anniversary.
“Experience POWER is a must-attend event where attendees gain insight covering the latest industry trends and much more,” said Matt Grant, vice president of the Energy & Engineering Group for Access Intelligence, POWER’s parent company. “Attendees leave with actionable information they can take back to their day job the very next day.”
Mike Harbison, president of MEH & Associates LLC and the last charter member remaining on the conference planning committee, chatted with me about the event and what has kept him coming back year after year. Harbison, a longtime manufacturer’s representative and consultant, recounted all the connections he made over the years and the leads he came away with from the event. He also noted how hard committee members work to ensure only the highest-quality content is allowed into the program.
“You know, if you have a good committee person that really gets across ‘no sales pitches’ and goes over the presentation and tells speakers, ‘you have got to do this or you have got to do that, otherwise, it’s going to get kicked out.’ If the presenter followed that and made the changes and made it better, so it’s not a sales pitch but it’s a project pitch, that helps everybody,” Harbison said. “And that comes back to having good people on the committee that reinforce that people that attend the event don’t want to listen to sales pitches. They want to listen to project reports so that they can see if it’s going to work for them in their particular situation or not.”
I haven’t been attending the event as long as Harbison, but I have gone every year since 2013 and I’ve always left with valuable takeaways. Orlando is a great location and the Renaissance resort is a wonderful venue. I’m sure the event will be a good time and worthwhile experience. I hope you’ll come and see for yourself.
—Aaron Larson is POWER’s executive editor.