Energy Central Catching Up with Doug Houseman at DistribuTECH 2023: Major Themes in the Industry This Year
The Energy Central Community Team was in full force at the DistribuTECH 2023 conference, meeting many of our community members and partners in person, learning about the latest and greatest technologies influencing the industry today, and getting a sense of what the upcoming trends will be for the power sector. But no trip to DistribuTECH would be complete without a visit to Energy Central Expert and Lead for Grid Modernization at Burns & McDonnell Doug Houseman.
On the third and final day of the Exhibition Floor being open, we stopped by to chat with Doug about his major takeaways and, with his permission, wanted to share some of his key personal takeaways:
Winner of the Show:
S&C and their new EdgeRestore product. According to Doug, this product goes to underground digital restoration in a way that allows you to sectionalize the underground loop, allowing for the restoration of underground customers in less than a minute. This solution represents a nice big step forward.
Material Standout
In the Brazil booth, there were several items in the world of materials that Doug found exciting. Even if they are less sexy that may appear mundane to most people, the progress on products like the lag screw built out of a different material can transform the world of hanging transformers. This will become critical when the new DOE standards require amorphous core transformers that are larger and heavier.