Kellie De Pooter with G&W Electric Company

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

Industrial Talk, Scott MacKenzie, Kellie De Pooter, G&W Electric, marketing and communications, innovation corner, collaboration space, grid resiliency, digitalization, sensing technology, asset management, condition-based monitoring, AI, data centers, utilities.

00:00

Scott. Welcome to the industrial talk podcast with Scott. MacKenzie Scott is a passionate industry professional dedicated to transferring cutting edge industry focused innovations and trends while highlighting the men and women who keep the world moving. So put on your hard hat, grab your work boots and let's go all right, once again.

00:22

Welcome to industrial talk. Thank you very much for joining this platform that celebrates you, industry professionals all around the world. You're bold, brave, you dare greatly, you innovate, you collaborate. You're solving problems each and every day. You are making the world a better place. That's why we here at industrial talk celebrate you. You are the hero in this story. We are also brought to you by those wonderful people at Siemens. Siemens smart infrastructure and grid software. Go to siemens.com find out more. Great company, great people. You know the routine. There are a lot of solutions over there. We're also broadcasting here on site, distribute tech here in Dallas, Texas, and it is absolutely a wonderful event if you're in the world of utilities, power generation, transmission equipment, technology, and if you're not here, you're missing out, because this is a great event. Put this on your calendar for next year. But if you're here, well, congratulations. She's been on the show before, Kellie deputy, she's wonderful. She is wonderful. And I'm so glad that we were able to connect. Kellie, how you doing?

01:27

I'm doing great.

01:29

Happy to be here for the second day. Are you? Are you happy? I am actually.

01:33

Oh, that's good. I enjoy being here with you.

01:38

I like it, yeah, it do you find the show a little bigger? Is it bigger?

01:44

It's definitely growing. I mean, we try to keep track of the numbers each year, and we do a little bit of comparison to some of our other shows, so the numbers keep going up. And I think it's expanding more globally, bringing in people from outside of just International, yeah, yeah. So it's, it's nice to see the growth, yeah, but it's a hot topic. It is a hot topic. Yeah, it's a lot going on.

02:09

There is and, and, I wish I was younger, I wish I was yeah, it's just, I think we're at the tip of the iceberg. I think it's a renaissance. I think that there's just a lot going on before we get into that lay the foundation. Remind everybody of who Kellie is,

02:26

yeah, so I'm Kellie De Pooter. I'm the Global Director of Marketing and Communications for G&W electric. G&W Electric is 120 year old company that's based out of the Chicago area, and we we manufacture a number of different products that help the utilities, help our commercial and industrial customers, and we're excited about the transformation that's happening right now. It's a great time.

02:52

You have a cool booth? Yeah? You got equipment hanging off of things?

02:56

Yeah, thank you. We're very proud of our booth. We actually won the booth award last year, D tech. So that was exciting. Did you

03:03

really Yeah, I remember it. I remembered, yeah, this one's bigger than the one that you had last year. It's

03:10

a little bit bigger, yeah, and I can talk a little bit about what we've got going on in the booth. We we've added a couple things that we kicked off last year that's been really successful for us, that we're excited to talk about, especially in the collaboration space with the utilities and our customers. So

03:26

well, Why hesitate? Yeah, so could happen. Captain, yeah,

03:31

one of the things that we incorporated into our booth last year, which really helped was part of the cause of, you know, expanding our space is we have a innovation corner in there that is invite only with particular customers that we bring in. And it has the golden ticket. It is the golden ticket. It's free, golden ticket,

03:55

electric. Willy Wonka, yeah.

03:57

But we have a we have products and solutions in there that are not yet brought to market, so we're using it as a platform for us to bring customers in there, go through the ideas, get their feedback, understand what challenges they're facing on the grid today, and if any of these ideas and concepts would be a possibility of something that could help solve those problems for them. And then we, of course, would then invest more and start to collaborate with them and develop those solutions and bring them to market. So it's, it's really exciting. And yesterday, the whole day was booked. Today, the whole day is booked. So it's really taking off. And I think the customers have really appreciated it, because it's allowing them to think, you know, broader, bigger share what's going on, what challenges they're being faced, and have more of a collaborative approach. Let's

04:47

pull on that string a little bit, the challenges, what, you know, the scuttlebutt, the buzz, the yeah, there's going to be, you know, the power demand is just going through the roof. We have an. Infrastructure that is it positioned to be able to handle it? Someone saying, No, we gotta, we gotta do a lot more. Is there inefficiencies? It just goes on. What? What are the challenges that you are hearing from your client base? A

05:13

lot of it focuses around the resiliency and reliability of the grid, first and foremost, right? You know, and it expands to, kind of the point you were making, that the demand of what is coming, and we know with with AI and with other, you know, loads that are going to be put onto the, yeah, on the grid, it's going to require a lot of investment and some change and modernization of what we have that exists out there today. It also one of the big things that we're focused on right now is focusing on the digitalization side of it, yeah, and helping our customers be able to monitor better, be able to be more predictive about what's happening on their grid, and then make smarter decisions and be quicker in regards to how they're going to make changes, or, you know, bring new solutions in and make changes to allow for better reliability and better resiliency. And we're doing that by looking at better technology around sensing technology. We are investing in another company that has some technology that we're trying to test with them, which is condition based monitoring, asset management, taking the data and then being able to help the utilities make better decisions. And we want to integrate that with our apparatuses, so with our equipment and so right now, we're working with this company and making investments in them to do a lot of testing. We're encouraging customers to want to be a pilot for us, so that we can actually put the technology that we're integrating on the grid, do some tests, gather the data, see how it's working, and hopefully this will you know something that we can bring to market, that we can scale across for all of the utilities. That's

06:56

an interesting approach. I like the asset management. I like that. Reliability focus. Can you deploy these solutions in a sort of legacy system? You have these apparatus that exists in the and you can deploy them in a legacy type of situation?

07:17

Yeah. I mean, right now, with the pilots that we're trying to run with some of the customers. It's, you know, we're using customers that have our apparatus on their system that way, then we're able to, you know, see how our equipment's working with the integration of this asset management and condition based monitoring program. So that's kind of the first step that we're taking. But yeah, absolutely.

07:39

So I'm pulling data off of your apparatus, whatever that data, that operational data, that that condition data, how does that data get to the cloud for and I'm assuming cloud, it is going into the cloud. Yeah, it's gonna say, There's got to be a way of getting it's not, it's not edge where it's I got to go out there to the apparatus and grab the data,

08:03

real time, information that's that's going to the cloud. Right now, the way that it's working is, you know, the company that we're partnering with, it's going into their their cloud, and so that data is pushing there. But in the future, you know, we know that our utilities have their own as you know, their own cloud, their own system, their SCADA systems, and all of that that we would be working with them, and this is all in development. So these are all the things that we want to test out and be able to make this a seamless, seamless solution for our customers. Now,

08:35

because you're doing that, there has to be a an analytic type of machine behind it. I just can't just pull data for the sake of pulling data. I need to pull data and analyze that data. Tell us a little bit about how that works, or what you plan, or how you planning to be able to analyze that data.

08:59

Yeah, so I mean, the program that we're working with, with this partner, they provide a lot of that analytics, and so what's being provided to the utility should be very clear. Should be something that they can easily act upon and be able to identify where the issues are happening, how often they're happening. And that's what this program, the software program and technology that we're trying to test should be providing to our customers. Do you

09:26

see that data from your apparatus being fed to the ISO? So for does it? Is it taking load information, demand information, and then being able to sort of say, hey, normally I'm not able to see it, and I'm just sort of looking at it. Now I can get even more granular in my view of what's happening out in the field.

09:50

Well, that's the hope, right? So today, we offer solutions that are sensing technology so high accuracy, voltage and current sensors, and we put them onto. Our overhead reclosers as an example. We are actually bringing a new sensor to market here very soon that is also going to be integrated into our underground and on our submersible. You do underground. We do underground switch here. Oh, yeah, right.

10:16

You have a, they have a a

10:18

one in the fish.

10:21

Yeah. Don't be me. Yeah, continue. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to. Now

10:26

I'm trying to go back to what your

10:29

question was, the data being given to the ISO so that they have real time, accurate information right out in the field. But that's pretty sophisticated, because I can see here, I'm a utility, and I'm getting information about that reclosure. Yes, I get it. It's starting to show signs of where whatever and the environment is impact whatever it might be. Yeah, yeah. I need to perform me,

10:55

yeah. So what my my point was, with the sensors and our apparatuses that we have really what we're trying to get at is they have data, but what do we do with the data? Right? So we're trying to take it to that next level. Take it to the next step of how do we give data that is actionable and that they can be more predictive about it and be more efficient with decision making and making sure that the reliability across their grid is really happening. See,

11:22

this is interesting. I just thought about this, right? Everything's, like you said, the digitization, or digitalization of of everything, and it's the electrification of everything, and, and, and it's happening, right? And part of the increase in demand are these data centers. Yeah, you're, you're, you are. The reasons why these things are growing exponentially, because now all of a sudden, utilities are generating data like nobody's business. I got to sit at some place and I've got to have that back up. There's no, there's no room for error,

11:58

right? Yeah, I mean, it's absolutely the utilities are, I mean, us, it's us, right, as end users generating all of that need, right? Absolutely, with your laptop, with your cell phone, all the things you're searching. You know that that is a lot of the activity. Obviously, with the look the enhancement around AI, is going to be critical. I mean, the need and the energy that is going to be required to maintain those AI types of data centers is, from our viewpoint, a great thing, right? More switch gear, more need, absolutely, yes, yeah, yes, but it's also a big challenge, right? How do we move fast enough to be able to support that need. Yeah,

12:41

see, there's a competition. You know, you have utilities who have an obligation to serve and be able to deliver that clean, reliable, you know, power to the customer, right?

12:54

Without raising, without

12:56

raising the rate, having a conversation with the rate the regulators, yes, anyway, so the whole AI conversation and the processing of that is fascinating to me, because I still think that, once again, we're at the beginning, and so we haven't even begun to really see how that will evolve. And I know that there's some creative companies out there that are trying to create solutions that are lower in the demand, be more efficient in that, but it's just going to continue to just explode.

13:37

It's going to explode. I mean, it's interesting, because AI's been around for, oh, yeah, a long time, right? But there's a lot of competition out there right now, and so that's just going to drive it even faster. But the reality

13:47

is, I think today, we have the technology to be able to truly do AI. You know, in a past life, I put together a neural net, and I was analyzing transformer to solve gasses, right? The problem that I had at that time, the model was fine. It's like, yeah, that makes sense, yeah, okay, you get to notify, and everything's fine. And you create the the analytics and the whatever. I couldn't I, I didn't know what to do with the data, yeah?

14:20

So you go right back to the point that's, that's where we're that is where we need to shift to right data is there? Yeah, we need to figure out what's the best way to leverage that data. How do we use that data, and then how, and how do we do it efficiently and effectively?

14:35

So you're getting good feedback from the people who have the golden tickets, and they're, you're pinging them and and,

14:42

yeah, we're excited about it. We've got a lot of interest from the customers that have come through, not just in general to the the pilot that I've talked about, but even the other solutions that we've we're sharing in there. It's a great way for us to learn right? Our whole goal is to listen to the customer and understand. And what challenges you're being faced with, and they don't have all the answers. So to be able to do that collaboratively and work together is significant. If you remember when, when we talked, the last time I can, I mentioned old man, I mentioned the big guy in the booth, right the our 69 KV, yeah,

15:20

I took a picture of a knight next to it, if I remember correctly. I was dazzled. I was like, what is that dazzling thing? Yeah,

15:28

yeah. And that's a great success story when we talk about the collaboration, because that was a customer that came to us with a need, and then we worked on that development of that solution with them. And so that's really where Gene W Electric is really focused on understanding the customers and how we can work together to really help solve the problems as a whole.

15:48

Yeah, you can't be in a in a vacuum. You can't operate, especially today. I mean, there's such a rapid speed, right? I mean, it's you just can't. You can't. Well, we're

16:00

all in the same situation. Everybody's like, your conversation

16:03

is pretty typical, yeah, but, but, but what you did bring up is that that condition based monitoring, that that asset management, the device, the digitalization of it, and pulling that information, I like that, and because that, if we're going to venture into this brave new world, this wonderful, whatever we want to call it, there has to be a level of efficiency, a little a level of tactics that ensure these, you Know, the safe and reliable delivery of power, and that is a data, you know solution, right? And the Yeah, anyway, all right, you're awesome again. Never disappoint. G&W, like that cool booth, everything? Tell us. How do we get a hold of you? What's the best way you're out on LinkedIn? Yes,

17:03

on LinkedIn, and Gene W electric.com is our website. So me, personally, I'm on LinkedIn. Kellie De Pooter, find me. There

17:13

you are. Yay. That was a great conversation. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. All right, listeners, we're going to have everything for Kellie out of industrial talk. She's already out there, but we're going to have a head. We're going to have it again, just because you need to connect with her and have this conversation, expand on this conversation, because it's important. All right. Distribute tech. We are broadcasting on site, Dallas, Texas is the location. And if you're in the business of utilities, transmission, power devices. Yeah, you needed to be here. If you're not here, you needed to be here. Put this on your calendar for next year. You will not be disappointed. Once again, we are brought to you by Siemens, smart infrastructure and grid software. Go to siemens.com find out more. All right, we're going to wrap it up on the other side. Stay tuned. We will be right back. You're

18:03

listening to the industrial talk Podcast Network.

18:13

Her name as a reminder, Kellie De Pooter. She has incredible skills. She's been on the show a number of times. Can I say a number she's been on the show and she's been absolutely stellar. Go look up her other conversation again, and I gotta be disappointed. G&W electrics. They have great people, great solutions, great technology. And if you're in the world of power generation, if you're in the world of distributed distribution utilities, transmission substations, you got to look up this company. They're just fantastic. They are at the cutting edge. All right, we're building a platform. As I always say, you need marketing. You need those solutions. You need increased sales. Just go to industrial talk.com we're here to help. Be bold, be brave. Derek, greatly. Hang out with Kellie. Change the world. We're gonna have another great conversation coming from distribute shortly. So stay tuned. You.