Frequency Band, a new podcast keeping the beat at 60 Hertz
The California ISO is launching a new podcast that features lively conversation with energy experts from around the world on how the physics, economics, and governance of energy grids come together to keep the system in sync.
Frequency Band is hosted by Becky Robinson, Director, Market Policy Development, and Paul Dockery, the ISO’s Market Strategy and Governance Manager. Before joining the ISO, Becky was an economics and market policy expert for several energy organizations, including the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
Before he came to the ISO last year, Paul hosted the cult-classic podcast Public Power Underground. Together, they will bring an interesting perspective to their conversations.
“It’s important for a podcast to have a niche,” Dockery said. “Frequency Band will approach industry topics from a system operator’s perspective. Although it will be hosted and produced by the California ISO, we won’t focus on California or the ISO. But we will use its gathering power to band together experts, perspectives, and insights on interesting electricity market and electricity-market-adjacent topics.”
Paul and Becky bring expertise, curiosity and enthusiasm to conversations with industry experts, steering clear of jargon and aiming for approachable conversations using games and analogies to bring clarity to complicated topics.
“We hope to shed light on some of the most pressing and interesting power system issues of the day and do it in a lively, entertaining and thoughtful way,” Robinson said. “With so much change occurring in the industry, we will have no shortage of topics to discuss with some of the best thinkers in the field.”
The podcast kicks off April 21 with a conversation about transmission and how to get the most from it in the short and long term, a timely discussion as the ISO prepares to roll out a draft of its annual Transmission Plan in April.
Our Frequency Band hosts will be joined on the inaugural podcast episode by two energy celebrities: Professor Kyri Baker, an award-winning teacher of power system and grid optimization at the University of Colorado Boulder; and Rob Gramlich, a renowned public servant who has earned an “Exemplar of Public Service” award from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and an Achievement Award from ESIG, the Energy Systems Integration Group, for his contributions to market design and transmission planning.
This initial episode will introduce listeners to thought leadership at the nexus of transmission operation and deployment. Our guests come to the transmission issue from different perspectives: Kyri Baker is a power system engineer with deep expertise in optimization of power flows on transmission networks. Rob Gramlich is an advocate for transmission deployment, including how to plan, pay for, and permit new transmission infrastructure.
“There is so much thought leadership going into market design, system planning, resource development, and technology advancement” Dockery said. “The goal is to have fun and meaningful conversations with experts who approach industry topics from different perspectives. Our first two guests really exemplify what we’re striving for. They are two of the leading experts in the country on transmission who are also great at making complicated aspects of it approachable.”
Frequency Band is planning monthly episodes. If you have topic ideas or guest requests, please send them our way at frequencyband@caiso.com.
