“EEI’s member companies are committed to ensuring that customers have the energy they need when and where they need it, affordably and reliably, as we work to get the energy we provide as clean as we can as fast as we can,” said EEI President Tom Kuhn. “The companies selected as Edison Award finalists have made tremendous achievements in creating new technologies and in establishing programs that are advancing a clean global economy, improving reliability and resilience, and minimizing cost impacts for all customers. Each is exceptionally deserving of this recognition.”

The winners of the 95th Edison Award will be selected by a panel of former electric company chief executives and will be announced during EEI 2023, EEI’s annual thought leadership forum to be held June 11-13 in Austin, Texas. 

To meet customer requests to construct a substation within a compressed schedule, American Electric Power (AEP) teams collaborated on innovative solutions, achieving several “firsts.” Most prominent was a radically different 138-kilovolt (kV) prefabricated structure design. The project saw a 40-50 percent reduction in construction time, as compared to a traditional approach. The structure and layout now are AEP standard designs. The concepts demonstrated by this project increase safety and reduce time to service.

Electric companies rely on millions of data points to facilitate risk-informed asset management decisions. SCE’s data remediation tool leverages data science and machine learning to improve the accuracy and consistency of asset data for a more dynamic energy grid in a timeframe of hours instead of years. These benefits save time, reduce costs, and improve safety and reliability.

 

Florida Power & Light Company (FPL) made history by flying FPLAir One as part of the company’s Hurricane Ian restoration. FPLAir One is the first-ever large-scale fixed-wing drone of its size to be flown for commercial use outside of a Federal Aviation Administration test site. The company used the drone to assess the impact the devastating storm had on the energy grid, providing visuals of FPL infrastructure and speeding restoration efforts. Information gathered by FPLAir One also was used to assist with search and rescue efforts by state and local officials.

 

PPL Electric Utilities (PPL Electric) installed and integrated a dynamic line rating (DLR) system within its transmission management system (TMS), allowing it to operate transmission lines with more accurate, real-time ratings than traditional conservative static ratings. In October 2022, PPL Electric became the first electric company in the United States to integrate a DLR system into market operations in the United States. PPL Electric is sending hourly day-ahead ratings forecasts to PJM Interconnection’s market operations to help coordinate more efficient generation and ensure reliability.

 

Puget Sound Energy (PSE) has created the Clean Buildings Accelerator, a no-cost, virtual program designed to assist building owners, operators, and facility teams in meeting state-mandated energy targets and decreasing greenhouse gas emissions from commercial buildings. To date, PSE is supporting more than 60 customers on their path to compliance and has additional cohorts starting throughout the year. PSE is targeting energy savings of 2-7 percent per building and is developing enduring relationships to save even more energy over time. 

In 2022, AES Andes, an AES Corporation subsidiary, engaged with authorities in Chile and Argentina to reactivate energy exchanges between the two countries to help improve the resilience of both systems while also reducing systemic costs and emissions. The InterAndes interconnection line is a 345-kV transmission line that runs 255 miles between the Andes substation in Chile and the Cobos substation in Argentina. Up to 80 megawatts (MW) of solar power can be exported from Chile to Argentina during the day, with up to 200 MW of energy exports from Argentina to Chile at night. The project is a positive example of regional energy integration and energy cooperation between the private and public sectors towards accelerating the clean energy transition.

 

Endeavour Energy is the first electricity network in Australia to utilize an engineering-grade 3D virtual model of the network to enhance flood resilience and to improve flood incident response and coordination efforts. The effort has led to improved safety and reduced restoration times for impacted customers during weather events.

 

Terna and RTE, the Italian and French electricity transmission system operators, have partnered on a project for a direct current transmission line that will be the world's longest electrical infrastructure completely integrated in a highway, spanning 190 kilometers between the two countries. The line is fully integrated into existing road infrastructures with zero impact on the surrounding environment. It crosses the Alps through the Frejus Tunnel and 28 highway viaducts. The line will increase the transmission capacity between the two countries by 1,200 MW, enabling the integration of more renewable energy, and increasing the interconnectedness of Europe’s electricity system.