There are few industries where sharing best practices and lessons learned from company to company occurs. The electricity industry is unique in that sharing this information is not only common practice, but it’s key to meeting current and future challenges. T&D World recognizes this and understands that it’s important for us to create content that maximizes this enormous benefit that few other industries enjoy. For 75 years, T&D World has built on this tremendous opportunity, providing content created by utilities for utilities, covering the latest technologies, projects, trends and most anything else that impacts electric utilities. We’re proud of our history as a print magazine, but we’re also proud that as communication mediums changed, T&D World changed, too, adding websites, e-newsletters, webinars and webchats, podcasts and videos to our repertoire of offerings. We even organized and produced virtual events during the height of the pandemic. The digital age in which we now live certainly has made it easier than ever for like-minded, utility employees and executives to connect and share their knowledge and experiences.
Nevertheless, even in today’s world nothing beats meeting and conversing face-to-face. This is why last year T&D World introduced its most ambitious addition to date…T&D World Live. This annual event, which premiered in October 2022 in Charlotte, North Carolina, will be held in Sacramento, California, this month on Sept. 12-14. I’m happy to report that our inaugural event was a success and we’ve been hard at work building on that first event to create what we believe is an even better event in 2023.
Host Utility - SMUD
The conference we’re offering at T&D World Live 2023 is the product of some truly talented industry experts and professionals, as well as in-house editorial staff, who make up our advisory board. This amazing advisory board also had input and help from Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD), T&D World Live’s host utility. SMUD, a municipal utility, has been serving the Sacramento area for more than 75 years. It provides electricity to more than 1.5 million customers, making it the nation’s sixth largest community-owned, not-for-profit electric service provider. It services a 900 square mile territory and owns nearly 11,000 miles of power lines.
When you view the program, you’ll see that several individuals representing SMUD are participating in our conference program, including Heidi Sanborn, SMUD’s Board President, and Frankie McDermott, the utility’s Chief Operating Officer. If you saw the article featuring McDermott in the T&D World August issue, you know that SMUD has had some challenges over the past couple of years, but more importantly has implemented some projects and processes during that time that allowed it to meet its challenges head on all while providing stellar customer service. McDermott will provide more detail about these latest initiatives.
Conference Program
The conference brings together some of the top minds in the electric utility sector during an exceptionally important time in the world’s energy future. It begins on Tuesday, Sept. 12, at 1:30 p.m. local time, with multiple one-hour panel sessions from 1:30-2:30 and 2:30-3:30. The panel session will be followed by a plenary session titled "Commercial Vehicle Electrification: Getting it Together." This session will be open to all T&D World Live registrants, as well as attendees registered for the one-day co-located Commercial Electric Vehicle and Infrastructure Conference (CEVIC). The TDW Live conference program continues throughout the day on Wednesday and into Thursday morning, wrapping up at 12:30 p.m. that day.
In addition, we’ve organized several pre-conference offerings, including two Technical Tours and two Learning Labs (workshops). The first Learning Lab will take place on Monday afternoon and the second Learning Lab and the two Technical Tours will be held on Tuesday morning. Details about these opportunities are available at https://events.tdworld.com/2023/conferenceprogram.
The CEVIC, mentioned above, will address the gap between ready-to-roll commercial EVs and the multi-year wait for charging infrastructure. We’re bringing together key players from the commercial fleet market, the utility market, and others in the ecosystem to facilitate discussion, exploration, and collaboration on how to build the infrastructure necessary to support the evolution and transformation of commercial electric vehicles. California has set a target of 2035 for 100 percent zero-emission car sales, and 2045 for full transition of all vehicles, both heavy- and light-duty, to zero-emission technologies. The state also aims to have 5 million zero-emissions fleet vehicles (both public and private) on the road by 2030. So, what better place than Sacramento to discuss the details of how to work together to meet these ambitious goals. The CEVIC is scheduled for Sept. 12, beginning at 7:30 a.m. and continuing through the welcoming reception that will be held on the exhibit floor from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m. local time.
Attendees must register for the CEVIC, Learning Labs, Technical Tours, and Power Up Lunch separately from the T&D World Conference and Exhibition. Pricing and additional session and speaker details are available at https://events.tdworld.com/2023/agenda.
The conference content is extensive and can’t be adequately covered here, but session and speaker details about the general and breakout sessions are available on the event website at https://events.tdworld.com/2023/conferenceprogram.
Exhibition
In addition to all the great content, it’s important to note that T&D World Live also includes an exhibit hall that will showcase some of the latest and greatest new technologies and solutions from more than XX exhibiting and sponsoring companies. The exhibition hall is designed to provide an ideal environment and plenty of time for attendees to network with other attendees, as well as these solution providers.
All event activities will take place at SAFE Credit Union Convention Center in downtown Sacramento. Details about the venue and hotels are available here: https://events.tdworld.com/2023/venue.
For full details and registration for T&D Conference and Exhibition 2022 visit https://events.tdworld.com/2023/registration.Note: All event details are current as of press time and are subject to change.
