This year, I attended CIGRE Canada for the first time. Typically, when I attend industry conferences, I have a full schedule of prearranged meetings with various exhibitors. For CIGRE, I arrived with no scheduled meetings, which allowed me to meet companies I had not spoken to before, or to connect with the Canadian colleagues of companies I’ve met at events in the U.S., like DISTRIBUTECH or IEEE PES T&D.

Whenever I attend these conferences, I'm reminded of how the electric energy sector depends on countless experts and innovations working seamlessly to meet growing power needs. The electric energy sector is made up of a wide network of partners, including manufacturers, tech companies, consulting firms, skilled trades, utilities, research institutions, regulators and trade associations. They may be based in the same or different locations, and each may focus on a specific piece of the grid puzzle, but none can operate in isolation. Collaboration across this ecosystem is what ensures a positive future for the grid.

Even though the Trump administration has withdrawn some federal funding for renewables and grid modernization, the need for a resilient grid remains unchanged. State or provincial utility-level efforts continue to advance the grid. These efforts are driven by aging infrastructure, reliability concerns and growing energy demand. For anyone in the U.S. working in this field, maintaining momentum, whether in operations, technology, or planning, is crucial to staying relevant and competitive.

Experiencing the electric utility space from a global perspective has been a great reminder that integration and collaboration extend far beyond the United States, and that staying connected globally is key to understanding and contributing to the evolving grid.

Two examples of leaders in grid transformation

In every issue of EET&D Magazine, we explore not just what is changing in the energy sector, but how and why those changes are shaping the energy landscape and who is leading them. This issue opens and closes with two industry leaders whose stories capture the full spectrum of the grid transformation, the architecture of innovation and the culture that sustains it. Together, our profiles of Kim Getgen, with InnovationForce, and Christina Knowles, with G&W Electric, serve as “bookends” of this issue. Each has a distinct, yet deeply connected story on the impact their insight and ingenuity have had on moving the utility space forward.

At the front of the issue is the Grid Transformation Forum, where we share our conversation with Kim Getgen, co-founder and CEO of InnovationForce. Getgen brings a systems-level perspective to one of electric energy’s most persistent challenges, the bottleneck in how new technologies are tested, validated and scaled. Through years of working alongside both startups and utilities, Getgen began to recognize a repeating pattern: promising technology stalling out in the pilot phase, not because the ideas were flawed, but because the process itself was.

Getgen’s response was not to create another consulting model, but instead, she completely reimagined how innovation is managed. With InnovationForce, Getgen built a SaaS platform that uses artificial intelligence to match industry challenges with potential solutions, automate pilot workflows and enable utilities and startups to collaborate at scale. In doing so, she reframed innovation as infrastructure, a shared, transparent system that turns isolated pilot projects into a data-driven engine for modernization.

In our Powherful Forces profile, which you’ll find in the back end of this issue, Christina Knowles, who is the vice president of North American Operations at G&W Electric, reminds us that the grid transformation is also a human endeavor, one grounded in people, culture and purpose.

For nearly 15 years, Knowles has helped guide G&W Electric’s evolution from a 150-person manufacturer to a nearly 1,900-employee global enterprise. Along the way, Knowles has navigated expansions, acquisitions and integrations, while preserving the sense of collaboration and technical excellence that defines G&W’s culture.

An engineer by education and training, Knowles approaches leadership as both a technical and human discipline. She frames her work through a method one of her colleagues in marketing developed, called the 3D Model – decarbonization, decentralization, digitalization — while ensuring that progress remains rooted in diversity and integrity. Under Knowles’ guidance, G&W’s leadership team now reflects a near 50–50 gender balance, a reflection of her belief that diversity is not just a value, but a catalyst for innovation.

Where Getgen builds systems that make innovation scalable, Knowles builds teams that make it sustainable. One develops frameworks that connect ideas and data; the other nurtures the collaboration and trust that help those ideas succeed. Both approaches are essential for driving meaningful and lasting change across the energy sector.

As “bookend” articles, Getgen and Knowles’ stories capture the essence of this issue of EET&D, and, in many ways, their similarities and differences also capture the transformation that is occurring across the electric energy sector. Between their stories lies the balance that defines true progress: structure and empathy, systems and people, technology and trust. Their approach to leadership reminds us that innovation doesn’t happen in isolation; it takes planning, clear communication and follow-through, and grows when vision is paired with consistent effort and clear intent.

Whether building systems, leading teams, or connecting across borders, the progress we see in this sector depends on collaboration, which is something that everyone in this industry contributes to.

As always, if you would like to contribute an article on an interesting project, please email me: Elisabeth@ElectricEnergyOnline.com

Elisabeth