For years, the utility industry has been defined by infrastructure, regulation, and reliability. But what continues to inspire me most isn’t just the technology—it’s the people behind it.
At DTECH Northeast, that truth was on full display. Across every booth, meeting, and side conversation, the same themes kept surfacing: collaboration over competition, data driving better decisions, and communities of operators helping each other navigate a rapidly changing energy landscape.
The challenges our industry faces—electrification, extreme weather, interconnection bottlenecks, wildfire risk, and grid modernization—are global in scale. But the solutions are increasingly local, personal, and built on trust.
Reconnecting with the Operators at the Heart of the Grid
Some of the most meaningful moments at the show came from reconnecting with former teammates now shaping the future from new angles. The conversations weren’t about software features. They were about execution, accountability, and keeping crews and customers aligned when conditions are toughest.
At Eversource, I spent time with recently transitioned leaders who know grid operations at a deep, practical level. The former head of operations has moved into the energy consulting world. His right-hand man has joined Hexagon—another sign of how field intelligence and geospatial technology are converging.
At Belmont Light, I caught up with their engineering leads, and traded recent stories of technology rollouts. It was exciting to hear how they’ll be at the IEEE PES in Chicago next year, continuing the long game of collaboration and shared learning that defines the municipal community.
Wildfire Operations Are Driving the Next Generation of Collaboration
One of the most insightful product deep-dives came from conversations related wildfire analytics. DataCapable has been supporting utilities across the USA with wildfire monitoring for years. Common themes kept popping up in the dialgoues;
- The emerging need for joint operation centers
- Live map markup
- Multi-agency resource coordination
- Dispatched team tracking
- Aerial asset coordination
- Operational note-taking
It was striking shared situational awareness across fragmented systems is becoming the next big thing. There’s real inspiration here for anyone designing next-generation operations platforms.
Regulatory Intelligence Is Becoming Conversational
Another standout was Senpilot—a company aggregating massive regulatory datasets and making them accessible through natural language querying. Think of it as asking plain-English questions of regulatory filings and getting real answers instantly.
With significant investment and growing recognition, this signals where regulatory intelligence is heading: from static PDF analysis to conversational exploration of compliance and performance.
AI Is Moving from Inspection to Revenue Protection
At Noteworthy AI, I met with Joel Bernsten, their new Chief Growth Officer. They’ve secured major deployments with some of the biggest utilities in the USA.
What stood out was their next frontier: automated revenue protection through drive-by pole inspections. This is a powerful example of AI not just improving operations, but directly protecting utility revenue at scale.
The Bigger Takeaway: It’s Still About People
What DTECH Northeast reinforced for me is this:
Yes, AI is advancing. Yes, DERs are scaling. Yes, wildfire analytics, revenue protection, and interconnection planning are becoming more sophisticated. But none of this works without the relationships behind it.
Former teammates become integrators. Utility operators become technology advisors. Data scientists become revenue protectors. Municipal teams become innovation leaders.
It’s people helping people—across utilities, vendors, consultants, and regulators—who are truly transforming the industry. The challenges we face are global. But progress is being built locally, one partnership at a time.
And that’s what gives me the most confidence in where this industry is heading. Now, buy our outage map 😊
About the Author: Zac Canders
Zac Canders is a seasoned expert in the utility industry with 20 years of experience, specializing in business process improvement and IT strategy. With an MBA and Project Management Professional Certification, he excels in leveraging emerging technologies to enhance safety and optimize data sharing in the energy sector. Zac's extensive skill set includes product management, software project management, and management consulting, making him a valuable partner to leading consulting firms and major utilities like Accenture, Deloitte, and PG&E.
