Podcasts about Candu

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Best podcasts about Candu

Latest podcast episodes about Candu

Candu Puisi
Ngobras Santuy 2025 : Episode Terbaru

Candu Puisi

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 28, 2025 4:20


Hai sobat candu.. hampir 2 Tahun Vacum dari podcast ini karena kesibukan. hari ini kita akan membahas Konteks Rasa syukur yang random. terima kasih masih setia mendengarkan podcast Candu.Puisi ya sob. mari kita ulik ulik lagi.

World Nuclear News
Bruce Power's James Scongack on nuclear's life-saving medical isotopes

World Nuclear News

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 25, 2025 34:04


Bruce Power's Chief Operating Officer James Scongack is Chairman of the Canadian Nuclear Isotope Council and, as he explains, the country aims to play a leadership role in nuclear medicine, not just for Canada's benefit, but also to provide health benefits for the rest of the world.He outlines the life-saving diagnostics and treatments that now exist thanks to isotopes produced in Canada's Candu reactors, research reactors and cyclotrons, and talks about the new trials and treatments which are emerging.The Canadian Nuclear Isotope Council has recently signed an agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency's Rays for Hope campaign and aims to help provide access to nuclear medicine's diagnostics and treatments to those parts of the world where people do not currently have access. This is part of what he sees as driving hugely growing demand in the years ahead.For those who may say that producing isotopes is the equivalent of a 'side hustle' for a nuclear power plant, Scongack says it might be "1% of the cashflow, but it's 50% of our contribution" in terms of tackling some of the greatest challenges that communities and society are facing.Scongack also talks about progress at Bruce Power, where the modernisation programme is adding extra capacity equivalent to that which would be provided by building three small modular reactors. There's also an update on Bruce C.Scongack, who sees a bright future for nuclear energy in general, says that communicating positive stories is key. He presents the Canadian Nuclear Isotopes Council's own podcast - called Isotopes for Hope - helping to spread the news about what he calls a "real hidden gem of what our industry around the world does".Key links to find out more:World Nuclear NewsCanadian Nuclear Isotopes CouncilIsotopes for HopeBruce PowerMilestones for Canada's Bruce Power unitsEmail newsletter:Sign up to the World Nuclear News daily or weekly news round-upsContact info:alex.hunt@world-nuclear.orgEpisode credit:  Presenter Alex Hunt. Co-produced and mixed by Pixelkisser Production

Isotopes for Hope Podcast
Isotopes for Hope Podcast - Episode 16: John Burta, Laurentis Energy Partners, and Dr. Wayne Mullett, Boston Scientific

Isotopes for Hope Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 1, 2024 22:32


The Isotopes for Hope Podcast is a series that highlights Canadian leaders in the country's isotope and cancer care sector who are contributing to Canada's leadership role in fighting cancer. While this podcast aims to frame the industry's future in this area, we also feature unique stories and perspectives about the importance of isotopes from current industry leaders.  Join CNIC Chair James Scongack for this exciting episode with John Burta of Laurentis Energy Partners and Dr. Wayne Mullett of Boston Scientific who discuss a new partnership to use OPG's Darlington Facility to irradiate yttrium-90 microspheres, offering new hope to patients with liver cancer. The work being done in Canada to use commercial CANDU reactors to shore up supply and add reliability to the pipeline puts us in a position to truly lead the global fight against cancer.

Isotopes for Hope Podcast
Isotopes for Hope Podcast - Episode 14: Gary Rose, AtkinsRéalis

Isotopes for Hope Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 1, 2024 22:19


The Isotopes for Hope Podcast is a series that highlights Canadian leaders in the country's isotope and cancer care sector who are contributing to Canada's leadership role in fighting cancer. While this podcast aims to frame the industry's future in this area, we also feature unique stories and perspectives about the importance of isotopes from current industry leaders.  In this episode, Gary Rose of AtkinsRéalis explores how our CANDU reactors are an important asset for Canada's medical isotope future as we continue to leverage our power reactor fleet to provide high volumes of isotopes. Our CANDU reactors have given us the ability to not only produce electricity, but to become a high volume, reliable source for medical isotopes. In the future, AtkinsRéalis is working to make it even easier to produce medical isotopes, using purpose-built access ports to take our production to the next level through the design of a new MONARK CANDU reactor.

Decouple
The CANDU Story

Decouple

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 5, 2024 55:01


Tim Freeman, VP of Field Services and Manufacturing at CANDU Energy Inc joins me to discuss the 3rd most widely deployed reactor technology in the world, Canada's Heavy Pressurized Water Reactor the CANDU. Note this conversation was recorded in March of 2024.

Unstoppable Mindset
Episode 255 – toppable Cerebral Palsy Survivor and Incredible Radio Personality with Daniel Spelman

Unstoppable Mindset

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 6, 2024 66:10


Today we get to visit with Daniel Spelman of Liverpool UK. Daniel grew up experiencing the condition of cerebral palsy which greatly affected his mobility as a youth. It led to a major surgery for him when he was in his second year of what we call high school. Doctors told him it would take at least two years before he would be able to walk again. Daniel and his unstoppable attitude were walking after only eight months.   At the age of 15 he began volunteering at a community radio station. He ended up working at that station for ten years holding several jobs and eventually became the station manager and program director. During his tenure as manager the station received significant accolades including winning the North Radio Station of The Year 2021.   Daniel left the station in 2022 as he felt it was time to move on to something different. He held sales positions which now have led him and his brother to start their own company that launches in late January of 2024.   This conversation shows what is really like for someone to be unstoppable. We all can learn from Daniel Spelman and what he has to say.   About the Guest:   I was  born with the condition  cerebral palsy this led me struggling in school as kid socialising I also missed a lot of high school due needing surgery in this really indepth procedure that saw my ankle smashed and reset with mental plates and screws in bedded within my foot, my hamstring and calf had work done in this 5 plus hour surgery, I was told I it be be very unlikely I wouldn't be able to walk for the next year or half I recovered and was walking within 8 months returning to school for last term of that year.  However having missed a chunk of my time in education my grades were massively effected me. I knew I had to push forward be the hardest worker in any room I walked in learn and shadow from the best people I could. so when I finished school I few weeks later took my first steps into my career.   At just 15 years old I started volunteering at community radio station 99.8FM KCC Live learning not just presenting & programming but advertising and marketing at a high level & fast paced marketing techniques and dealing with sponsorship and advertising as years past, I was a part  of multiple award winning teams at KCC Live fast forward few years, I was asked and took the regins of one of the prime time shows (drive time) The Big Live Drive, I built such strong branding it became regular that past, current and future UK Chart Stars, and with myself becoming  well known nerd I positioned a partnership with my then drive show with multiple nationwide comic con conventions working on social media content for both the station and comic con as well as interviewing TV and movie stars from likes  DC, Marvel, Doctor Who universe and many Tv and movie producers.      Whilst growing the show I was asked and took on the role of Station Manager following a brief spell as Station Coordinator following previous management structure breaking down, the station at the time struggling in multiple areas however my strategies took the station from struggling to tripling content output both on and off air within a few weeks. I was then tasked with guiding the station through and out the pandemic, training new staff in leading marketing strategies and after just over a year and half being  Station Manager I had guided KCC Live to wining Prolific North Radio Station Of The Year 2021. Those awards highlight those in marketing and media sectors putting the north on the map. I stepped down as Station Manager in 2022 after false promise and my contract not being honoured by the station director,, I represented myself in the tribunal and proved the unlawful decution of wages that was ruled in 2023.    This situation took its toll on my mental health I spent the last year rebuilding myself I lost passion for radio and mentoring others I needed to how I was going to regain my confidence.   I did so moving into Sales Executive role working with and representing companies/partners such as BT/EE for few months I know embark on new journey setting up my own company alongside my brother at Luma Socials set to launch in January 2024.   Ways to connect with Daniel:   Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/producerdan95?igsh=ODA1NTc5OTg5Nw==   About the Host: Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog.   Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children's Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards.   https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/   accessiBe Links https://accessibe.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/   https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/       Thanks for listening!   Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below!   Subscribe to the podcast   If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can also subscribe in your favorite podcast app.   Leave us an Apple Podcasts review   Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts.     Transcription Notes: Michael Hingson ** 00:00 Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I'm Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that's a c c e s s i capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we're happy to meet you and to have you here with us.   Michael Hingson ** 01:21 Well, hi there. Welcome to another episode of unstoppable mindset wherever you happen to be. I am your host, Mike Hingson. Today, we get to chat with Daniel Spelman. Daniel lives in Liverpool. I haven't heard that, that he tried out with the Beatles yet. But well, we can talk about that if he wants. Before my time for a little bit before your time. Well, there you go. But still, I know Daniel has lots of stories and lots of things to talk about. Gosh, starting out almost from birth, but we'll get to all of that. But Daniel, first of all, welcome to unstoppable mindset. Really glad you're here. And looking forward to the next hour.   Daniel Spelman ** 02:03 Michael, thank you for having me. I just just had to before we would start recording, it's uh, you know, hearing your story. And what you've been through and the challenges you face to be asked to be a guest on your podcast is an absolute honor, mate. Well,   Michael Hingson ** 02:16 I'm glad really to, to, to have you here. And I know you have a lot of a story to tell. So why don't we start by Why don't you tell us a little bit about kind of the early Daniel, growing up and all that that you want to talk about? Yeah.   Daniel Spelman ** 02:33 So growing up, we spoke briefly before when we were sort of arranging the podcast, and something I've never really touched on in my sort of career in radio broadcasting, his people sort of forget, they hear my voice, but they may not know what I made look like or what I go through. But I was born with the medical condition cerebral palsy. I never say disability or just it's not in my mindset. To say that I feel like it's a negative. I don't know why I just always have felt that way. But yeah, growing up was tough. You know, having a condition not many people sort of understood. And I feel like to this day, cerebral palsy is one of them. conditions that people don't fully understand what because people can have it in different spectrums. You know, one of my closest friends in radio has it a little bit more severe than me. But it's still one of the best broadcasters I've ever watched, grow and develop and one of the best human beings I know as well. And you know, I had a big surgery, just going into my teens. But before getting into that, like, I think just the social aspect. You know, cerebral palsy can be anything from just moderate thing. So like I had difficulties and shoelaces at a young age, tie in buttons and fiddly just wasn't for me. Socially, I wasn't that great. I was quite anxious. I was quite shy. Which is mad to think now. But yeah, I did really struggle and sort of childhood had to wear splints, something I've never really spoke on before, which wasn't a nice thing. You know, I was sort of bullied in in primary, what we call primary school in the UK, and it sort of thickened me up. I've always had a thick skin. And it's funny now that I'm saying people who picked on me back then now sliding into mediums because of the career I've somehow managed to sort of carve out for myself and the things I've achieved. But going into 2008 I had a major surgery. I still remember the doctor's name. And Dr. Sampath was in one of the probably the best hospitals in the UK for children called all the hay here in Liverpool as well. And, and I had to go on into that I had to do this thing called data analysis or basically I don't know if you've ever you're a big sci fi fan, Michael. Oh, yes. Yeah, so joke's on you, like, you might sort of watch something and you've got like probes on them to record or you know, do to make the movie sort of thing. And you'll see them in like weird suits, or you'll, you know, hear it and it's just one of them things. So I basically had to do that it looked like I was going for like an episode of Star Trek or something. So I had all these probes stuck on me, I had to walk up and down out of all these different movements just to see what was going on. And then that led to led to the surgery in 2008, where my hamstring was re lengthened, my calf muscle was redone. My ankle was shattered and put back together with metal plates and rods and all that stuff. It was really in depth surgery. And I was in surgery, I think for six to eight hours, a family member told me, I got told that I won't be able, I'd have to learn to walk again, obviously, but I won't be able to walk for you're looking at like two years. And so you know, I was in like year eight at this point, which is like, middle school, I guess in high school teams in America. I'm not too sure. But yeah, so it was like second year of high school, basically. So I missed the entirety of that, and sort of just had to somehow just sitting in one room for six, eight months, just the idea to do and that drove me insane. I managed to rehab in eight months. So from two years being told not to walk I was walking again in eight months, which was I still stay say to this day is probably my biggest achievement. I don't know how I did it. I was 1314. And then land to have the mindset of knowing how to walk again. And I don't even know how I would do it if I had to have that surgery over again. But yeah, that was sort of early childhood going into teens.   Michael Hingson ** 06:56 Now. Was the surgery, essentially the result of the cerebral palsy? Is that really kind of the underlying thing that caused the need to do it and why your ankle needed to do to be LinkedIn and so on.   Daniel Spelman ** 07:11 Yeah, so went that it had to be it was becoming uncomfortable. So basically what cerebral palsy is, for those who don't know is it's basically the spasticity around your joints constantly tighten. So this Adrianna post, there be a long term fix for me. And I'm not saying it is, but I've went on from that Airdrie in 2008. I always say that is the turning point in my life really, there was 210 points, one we'll get onto in a little bit. In 2011, the other one was 2008 gone through that. And the was the it was a result of the CP but it was to not check like it was just to give me a better quality of life. It went to say it was going to be life altering which it turned out it was both me luxury supposed to be getting done. But the wet market, like I'm more predominant on the left side than just the left leg. So my right side is quite strong. As I said, I had a mild through either bleed on the brain whenever when I was born. That's where my CP came from. And I call TP for sure. Because a   Michael Hingson ** 08:22 lot of people know that.   Daniel Spelman ** 08:25 Yeah. So yeah, so the surgery was a result of that. So like just the it was more the rehab. So you'd see different elements. I went through hydrotherapy. So it was a lot of getting into hot water and movements. And that was the TV side of it. I always remember I hated swimming anyway. And so when I was like, we're gonna do hydrotherapy. And I thought, oh, that sounds lovely. That sounds like I'm gonna be on a beach. No, no, it was a lot of hard work, a lot of hard work and a really hot swimming pool. But, you know, came through it. It was definitely a life changing experience in mentality, as well as physical for me.   Michael Hingson ** 09:02 How did your parents cope with all of this?   Daniel Spelman ** 09:04 So my parents were separated when I was growing up, so I only live with my mom and my mom. And I've never said this to her because I'm quite, you know, I'm not I'm not a soft Thiebaud she was definitely a rock. My soul was my brother and my sister. It must have been hard on them to see me go through that but and obviously they must have got some stick in school. I don't know a dad. I don't know what they experienced. But my mum always has been this sort of super caring person. My dad also visited me it's not like I don't know who he is. But yeah, and like it was it definitely did take its toll and I think more on the mum than anyone else. Because obviously it was bad written in the living room for those eight months. And they get school visits from, you know, my classmates and it was me when we talked me into school because she just saw me being fed up at home. So I ended up going into school in a wheelchair towards the end of that second. Second year in high school, I got back to the start of the third. And then the wants to take the metal rods out. And I was like, you can wait a little bit because I'm not sitting in any more beds or hospital beds. I've only just started walking again. No, we crack jokes. I think with my family, it's a lot of humor. So my brother because he knew I had them at play, and we fought or we said he'll get a big magnet to it and see what happens. And but yeah, it was just a little bit of humor, I think he's just sort of deal with them things. In the moments, I'm sure you've had their moments as well, with your condition where people wouldn't sort of understand fully, you sort of just get these handles and you've sort of got to jump over them, or it's sort of sink or swim, there's probably the best way to put it.   Michael Hingson ** 10:50 Right? Well, then that's the choice that you get to make. Yeah, and you talked about disability and the you don't like to say that what you had was a disability, I appreciate that. I'm actually in the process of writing an article that probably I'll finish this weekend, and the title of it is disability a new definition. And what I'm basically saying is, in the article, disability does not mean a lack of ability. And that the reality is that everyone has some sort of disability. And I could make that case very strongly. And the idea is that basically, disability is a characteristic we all have, and it manifests itself in different ways. Yeah,   Daniel Spelman ** 11:35 I always remember, I don't my work experience, we do this thing in the UK, I don't know if you do it in America, or where where you are. Like basically, you'd go into towards the end of high school, you'd go into a place of work for two weeks, and you would experience what it's like just doing an everyday job. So I don't know what you call it a canteen, like a canteen, lady. But that's what I did, basically, when a company lady was just serving food. But in that process I met it was a mom school, my mom was a TA and she supported kids with autism. People who couldn't physically speak data use sign language or packs, like these little sign sort of box things. And it was very interesting to be for. And this was a lot in a different class to be on. But I just thought it took a liking. We sort of just bonded. And he had a condition, I can't remember where it was called. But basically his life expectancy wasn't that high, like you're looking at mid 30s tops. But he understood and probably lived more like life wise, like you just enjoy life, the little things. So so much. And I just to this point, I was like no matter, you know, some people live more in 30 than some people do an 80 Yeah. And that's something that just sort of stuck with me. And then they're all sort of motto is like a read somewhere in a book, you can, you know, just decide what you want to be and go be it I can't remember where I saw that. But that's sort of a motto that stuck in my head. I didn't know what I wanted to do. Because obviously I had all these surgeries, I had all these obstacles to overcome. I didn't really do well in a classroom. And at all in that sort of environment. It just wasn't for me, I was always fidgeting. And I sort of just was like, I want to be doing something I don't want to be sat here doing, you know, math, which was quite handy to refer. But you know, you think like that when you're young. And then when you leave you go, I should have took advantage of being in that room and laying off these people who've got degrees and stuff. And so yeah, I was sort of in that sort of back end of high school just my mind wasn't in it. I was just like wanting to be elsewhere and actually wants to be a cook. My granddad was a massive influence on me. He still is to this day. And even through the battles he's having currently with his health, I still want the one looking after all of us. And so yeah, I want to sort of be a chef like him, but then realized that just didn't have the patience when it comes to cooking at all. Or they'll eat the food while they're making it. And so I remember, I've always been intrigued by music we brother BJ, I play guitar. My dad was a massive Barbies fan. So you know music. I was a massive Beatles fan growing up not like it's popular now for young people like old music. It wasn't then I was playing Beatles riffs on electric guitar at the age of 1415. Don't get chance to play the guitar as much as I would now like to now. But yeah, absolutely loved Beatles loved different genres of music. My mom was a big rock fan. And she also like a lot of parts of it was always different. Something was being played, there was always some musical elements in the house, or the radio was on. And I just got intrigued by radio, like, how does this work? I've always I always had that sort of inkling. So in 2011 I was volunteering anyway. Because I just felt like because I left school with not much in education wise, like qualifications, anything like that. I was like, How can I make up for that? Right? Okay, I can I can outwork everyone in the room, that's always been just my mentality, it doesn't matter if I've got a condition. I'll outwork any person in any room. They like you can be the fit. I'm the first one in the last to leave. And, and that's the mentality of taken to everything to do. And so I started just volunteering in charity shops, furniture shops, like, you name it, I locally I was involved in in it, if it was putting on events for charities, if it was just collecting money for charities. I did that. And then I remember going into college to enroll on a on a media course. And they came across a community college, radio station, and red community radio station based within the college I was going to, and I was speaking to a lot called Dave North who's now a presenter on BBC Merseyside. Now who's phenomenal still, I would later become a mentor, I would later go on to, you know, work alongside him at the radio station. And, you know, go on to take one of the shows, he sort of made iconic at that station. And so yeah, signed up at 15. And just got this radio book, I was a massive nerd, I would just became a sponge listening to all these amazing people who have gone on to have commercial success in the radio industry in the UK, I could name so many people off the top of my head. You know, Rob Tobin, who's Kiss FM is one of the biggest stations in the UK. He's now producing the breakfast show there, which is like Emmys, and there's so many people. And it's not even the people who made it in the industry. It's all the people who are just really good mentors in how to be a good person. And so yeah, I learned a lot at that station. KCC lives I was there from 2011 That's when I started there.   Michael Hingson ** 17:24 And how long were you there?   Daniel Spelman ** 17:25 All the way up till 2022. So how's 10 years? Yeah, 1010 plus years?   Michael Hingson ** 17:34 Yeah. So right, so radio, you definitely got the radio bug. And yeah, you decided to kind of make that up a career to work at.   Daniel Spelman ** 17:45 I realized I was really good at chat and nonsense very quickly. And, and I was naturally just funny without thinking. I'm funny. And but I went right off the bat. Like, I had amazing teachers how Evans you know, he was a massive mentor in sort of the management stage. And he saw something in me when I started presenting the Dr. Show, but Chrissy, Chrissy, well, it's now she's another like, Hi open in BBC and sort of management and journalism and stuff and she sort of a call me radio mom, she'll hate me here heard me say that to her. But like, she just was she was a really good mentor, you could just have a cup of tea with her and talk about anything that's going on, sort of person, because that's what the community radio station is, I don't know if it's the layout in, in America, but over here, you know, several different types of radio stations. So that was a community station. So you will have some paid staff, you will have some, I must have called a volunteer base within it. And so it was like 5060 volunteers at any given time, rarely, in different roles. I sort of done a lot of shows. I did take a breather in 2015. And sort of, you know, I was going into mid 20s. Then I just finished me sort of media sort of course. And I was just I took a little bit of a breather from doing radio shows and still sort of popped into the station still kept my head in there. I was always doing management stuff behind the scenes as well. So I'll just present now I was learning programming how to put shows together islands like the production of a show what goes into you know, making entire product and and all these other elements. And so when I sort of left and got that breathe and came back I remember crazy turnarounds me I came back, and I was just covering a mid morning show 10 to one. We call it mid morning over here and for a couple of weeks and then the Dan drive presenter. The show was called the big loud job never changed his name in the time period. A Dutch Shell run from the beginning of the station. So it broadcasted to the whole of noseley, which is one of the biggest borders, a Liverpool and, and it had the challenges financially because of you know, it was a community radio station and a lot of people's connotations with radio were very commercial or the BBC or it's not like that a lot of its funding. It's a lot of its community projects. So we are doing a lot of that events as well. I Lance, and there was just a broad practice mock up effort. ATAR was talking about it. But yeah, when I came back in 2015, after a little bit of a breather, so 2015 back end of 2015 going into 2016. Chris, he asked me to save on the den, sort of Dr. Shawn going into 2012 2017 No, so 20 2017 And it's like we're not there yet. So that was a massive honor, because that's the show Dave North who I was like, when I speak about radio, the one I think about doing radio, his ideas when it comes to radio games, or features you'd hear on the radio, I've never met someone as brilliant as him, he'll just come up with so many amazing games, stuff like that, and nothing in radios original, but you've got to put your own spin on it. And you've got to be okay with it. So once thought of an idea, but how can you make it different? How can you make it your own. And a good example of that is like a carpool karaoke was a big thing in America, it was I don't know thing called dry town karaoke, where I would just phone someone, and they would have to finish a karaoke song.   Michael Hingson ** 21:30 For this, what time of day was the show on.   Daniel Spelman ** 21:34 So it was three till 6pm. That was to Thursday, but when I took over, it was Monday to Friday. So I actually co host that with a friend of mine all the way down. And he was just someone who taught me tacky, say this stuff when I ended up taking over the radio station. A few more years. So I co hosted with him. So I started originally there on a Monday, Tuesday, he then Wednesday, Thursday, and we're just sort of shared the Friday slot. And then when Chris he left to go, BBC, and she made me the main sort of dry presenter, and I would then go on to do that show Monday to Thursday, sometimes Friday for the for the first year. And for five years, six years, which was, well, I didn't think of it at the time. But by the time I left in 2022, you know, someone said, people have started uni and finished uni. And I've gone into the careers while you've done this show. And I was like, I've never really thought about it like that. And so it was a weird show to leave. For me, it was somewhere I think I felt sort of comfortable in that time slot, I grew as a person, and I sort of grew up as well from a sort of a teenager, young adult into, you know, doing adult things, and, you know, actually, you know, adult challenges and stuff and day to day life have done this. You know, it was just like the topics but it was so different. When from when I started that show, they were so silly to like that I won't go I'm not gonna say they were serious. But you know, they were more mature, sort of funny, you know, stuff. So as a presenter, I sort of found my groove in in doing that show. nuts when I was poor, sort of put in the position, the station at the time went through a management change as a secretary as he left, who was then the station manager, and one of my best friends who I was close to at the at the station, Mark took over. And it was just a lot of different elements. And for some reason, it just didn't work out. And I sort of without realizing it took up the mantle and running the station. And I think a lot of people just look to me, because I was a part of that management setup with with so many of the people marshals and other person. And we were crazy that I was always around those people in the early years. And so I started doing things what they would do, but they put my own little twist on it. So you know, my my music tastes and the way I see things, there's going to be different to what, you know, Johnny down the street is gonna think but you know, we could find some common ground. And obviously, you've got to move with the time. So I was very aware of that. And then when I was offered the position and station manager and going into it was like back in the 2019 2020 I was running the station as a coordinator for the 2019 and so I became the station manager 2020 Officially. And from that point it was it was struggling financially. And I was talking to someone who's like involved with the station. You don't show but he wants to sort of come on board and help sort of financially and support it. So I just put them into contact with a board of directors who's sort of been the front of the station while I saw a lens how to You sort of get to grips with managing a radio station. I was only at this point 2324, which is crazy to think even a small radio station, but it's so you know, 1000s of people. And that's a lot of pressure. Like that's, that's not many people do that. I think back now, and not many, not, not many people, it's a very sort of big step. And it was how we were mentioned earlier who saw you saw something in me when I was doing that sort of drive show. And he started becoming the mentor, he was working in commercial radio. And at the time, and I remember, we saw I'd never really spoke with him, he was the founder at the station as well. And with a guy called Chancellor George Sweeney, the station still exists to this day, definitely one supporter, you know, I think it's definitely needed in the area. It's from I'm from that area. So like, it's 1% needed. And but yeah, when he came to me, and we sort of broke with a sort of a friendship and mentorship, because I went off to them one day and went, can you just tell me how I can improve as presented, be as harsh as you want, because I need darted, something's not working. And I can get to another level presenting, but I need to want to be harsh, not harsh on purpose, but like, you know, critique me the best you can, because I'm only going to develop through through through there. And he didn't even hold back, which I totally respect. And I, you know, I saw the benefits of myself when I talk in everything he said. And then later down the line, when it became station manager, he was a massive part of me being mentally sort of coping with that. And so yeah, that was a big challenge. So literally, I was announced as station director, Air Station Manager in December 2019. And obviously, that was going into, you know, I think called the global pandemic, which we all didn't see, come on. So like, the first thing I had to do is, was stare at a radio station through that.   Michael Hingson ** 27:16 Officially, yeah. And so you, you, you took on this responsibility, were you still doing a show? Or were you just manager full time and not doing a show anymore than   Daniel Spelman ** 27:28 now? I'm still doing a show. I was doing a show five days a week.   Michael Hingson ** 27:32 Dr. Show? Yeah,   Daniel Spelman ** 27:34 I felt like, I want to be in the transfusion trenches with the volunteers. And, and I would, I wasn't being paid for that time I was doing the radio show. I am. Like, it was something I had a passion for. It's something I wouldn't tip on. So I was doing in that time period, we're talking about when, when I was becoming station managers during the show, and still continue with the show, obviously, when station manager was was, you know, in a position of technically paid stuff, and, and basically, I would just be making, because I just felt like, well, you know, I'll do the show, but I'll also be doing planning meetings with people, right, going in and out, I'll be recording odd links and then jumping into the Zoom or I'll be on the phone to Samangan right? This what we're gonna do this what we're gonna plan and, and sort of my methodology was just the biggest thing because I came into that station as in a managerial role when it was sort of on its knees financially and creativity creatively.   Michael Hingson ** 28:37 Why was why was that the case? Why was it having financial problems? It sounds like your show at least was very successful. Why were their financial problems community   Daniel Spelman ** 28:46 radio, so like, as I said before, a lot of people's connotations with radio, especially in the UK are very commercial or BBC so these distinctions don't really make money like you will think like shifted the code or a lot of it through funding projects and the kindness of people to you know go I see the value in this if you think of it like the local sorry about the local boxing gym or something like that. It's the exact same thing what what we were doing with just radio Atlanta like punching each other in the face. But essentially that it's the exact same thing it's the exact same principle it's just copy and paste. So it was just that management. Like between myself and Chrissy mark just sort of broke broke down for I don't know the reasons I still talk to Mark to this day have a huge amount of respect for him as he does me not many people knows what it's like to sit in that seat as a as the manager on a radio station. And I saw just fell into it. I say this to people I went the probably the pair factories. I was just the right plate person at the right time you picked have a couple of meetings you people pointed out or just let look that for leadership and I don't know why. And so that's when I sort of realized at 24, I was a leader and had to, you know, those people 10 years, 15 years older than me who had 1010 years experience on me. But I remember, two volunteers in particular, and I'm really good friends with them. And the ones just been on me shoulder to shoulder the other. And so I don't mind name dropping them right now. But like, his name's Johnny be great DJ, and Matt, your music re volunteer, you should also just be not long become a dad. So congratulations, Marty, if you're watching this. And I remember when I was announced the show manager, my biggest worry was how do I get the people who I've known for years on board behind this decision that the board of directors have made, and both of them called me back to back within an hour of each other. Just saying you've got this support? Yeah. 100%. So like, soon as I knew I had them on board, I brought some old cases, you'll have Oh, geez, we used to call them and back. And they they they got involved and I was Dad sort of touch me emotionally just people that I looked up to when I was 1516. Landing off them came back just to do a show or just be involved in the station or just support like the new people at the station. And so it was a big team effort. And the first year when I was coordinator, we all just donated money to keep the station going. That is a true story. Him all the presenters myself, I was working in another job. But yeah, like that's what we did. We just chipped in chipped in money. And then like, going into 2020, obviously, we had a new director come in. So Howell stepped away after 17 years. And which even though we were still always on the phone to me, or I knew the call, if I needed them, I could call them that was a big like I was then like, Okay, this is this is sort of, I'm rarely staring the ship now. And yeah, we had a new station director. And and that was something that was a big challenge. But first of all had to get through COVID. So being 24, knowing how to no one dealt with a global pandemic. So stay there through that somehow, we actually traveled contents in that time. So we went from struggling, so we are still struggling financially, but we are, you know, with the new director, he sort of had connections with funding streams. So he sort of took care of that side of things, I just my job was just to worry about the programming. So I was doing that got through co COVID. Somehow I was doing like the safety checks for COVID. So I was I was the guy who would still go in even when the disability was still going, well, condition, I said the disability were and, and I went in and I sort of checked in on the station. But I also have an open door policy. So I can continue that through call without having meetings with everyone, every day, I'd have a four 4pm check in or 5pm Check in time where we'll just have a zoom. And we could talk and sort of chatter everyone. And if anyone had any inclination, or they wanted to change something about the station, I was totally open to that. Because you need to be you need, you know, you're only as good as your weakest part of the team. And no one was weak, we all helped each other. We all like my my things always been like, Oh, I'm doing really well. I'm going to pick my friend up and we're going to you know, we're going to climb this mountain together, come on over, there's a bigger hill that's come on, let's go together. You know, if you want to go fast, you go alone, if you want to go long you go together. And it's one of them like if it works. You built a team. Yeah. And we we managed to turn it round, strong, quite strong financially, to the point where we had I had paid staff around me as well. So I had an amazing marketing guy I got to pick him come in and he changed the atmosphere to another level. So I went from being non creative sort of creatively stifled when I took over to everyone laughing taking the mick but in a good way. And we're all like every Could everyone could just give freedom of expression, which was the whole point of the station. It was there for young people to sort of develop and learn about themselves like I did. And it's all it's all about, you know, young people finding the voice as well. So you make that front and center and you say to people like you make a mistake, I'm not going to tell you off, you only learn from your mistakes. I encourage mistakes like people go, Oh, I messed up. I started on that I was like, and that means you don't sound like Siri or Alexa or all these other, you know devices. That just proves to the listener. You're human. It's okay. And so it was just little things like that and people felt comfortable. And then we brought in I'm Meg shore, who's a phenomenal singer, by the way, local artists, where I am in Liverpool, she actually went to a Paul McCartney school, by the way, talking about the Beatles. And so she came in on a Kickstarter scheme. And within months, this is just 18 months old from me taking over we own radio station of the year, which is the award just behind me for those, I've just realized it's on the shelf just right there. So I've got a copy of that one. There's one in the case slave headquarters still, but yeah, they got kindly given one as well. And so that's quite nice to sort of have have one to keep. And so yeah, that was probably a highlight as well. Sadly, my team at the time got COVID. And I didn't, so I was the only one at the awards. bought, like, we were up against major, you know, BBC bite sized programs. And although radio entities, and I just we were just glad to be invited to go to the awards. And so in 2021, to win that I was just sat there, it took me a little second when you said the station and was like, oh, yeah, that's me. And so yeah, that was a really nice moment to you know, pick up an award. In such an incredible venue is Old Trafford cricket ground. So yeah, which is quite historic as well.   Michael Hingson ** 36:23 So as you are working at the radio station, and all the work that, then an activity that you had, was kind of the remnants or all of the issues regarding CPE, much of an effect, or were you able to just not pay attention to that anymore, because the surgery and everything that happened, made you to the point where it wasn't really an issue for you,   Daniel Spelman ** 36:50 I think there's a lot of you sat down quite a lot. So it's sort of what you just said, like, it was very much sort of out my mind, because I was so proactive and so busy. And, and I was also building bridges through this, this program with working with special schools who deal with young people with sort of challenging lives themselves, and who have either, you know, different conditions, maybe it is Cp, maybe it's autism, I sort of built a bridge for them to come in and be a part of some projects and, and hear them get on the radio a little bit through a feature. And that was really cool. Because it then opened their eyes that oh, we can do this done used to come to the school, or Dan has something similar to what I have boy, he's, you know, interviewed a lot of famous people, which I was lucky to do before it became station manager. So I'm happier experience doing that sort of stuff like interviewing char stars and film stars, and working up and down the country, which dimension on, you know, ComiCon conventions, and sort of, you know, I got to get this high list of contacts who still keep in touch with me to this day. So I'm very fortunate with that, you know, I've got to interview my favorite band who are American, against the current, like, became friends with them. Like, to the point where, you know, they would invite me to shows even ever where I'm going to interview them, we'll just hang which was really cool. I would end up interviewing them because I'm all about content, as you already know, Michael, never waste a moment, right. But yeah, like, it was just all systems go. And, and there was also someone else at the station with a similar condition to me, with the same condition but a little bit more severe to what I had and just seeing him he was like a right hand man in the early years, you just develop his name is broad. He's an absolutely phenomenal person, and his radio knowledge. Second to none, and he's very open about me and him, you still have open conversations about CPE. So it was not like, I totally forgot about it. It was something that you know, I think it motivated me more to be like, Yeah, I can do this. Like just because, you know, I walk with a little bit of a limp doesn't don't count me out. I'll outwork anyone in the room and, and approve that, like, I was doing well, five, six meetings. In a day, I was doing a drive show. I was still doing the interview. So I'll still add it and do that. And then I was obviously creating shows with other presenters. I was doing the community events. I was, you know, a radio practitioner. Sorry, that's my cat, Hendrix making an appearance there. I was also the company we merged with at this point. And I run a radio course for them. So while I didn't run it, I was the practitioner of it. So I would teach some young people into sort of level one radio course or while I was running this radio station, and we Should I look back now? And I don't know how I know, you've just asked me how I did it. I don't know. And that's the total honest to God truth. Like, I don't know how I did it. It was a lot of fun. And I wouldn't change anything really apart from well,   Michael Hingson ** 40:16 you, you basically made a decision to move forward with your life and if you will be unstoppable, but you made the decision to, to move forward. You knew how to do it. And and you did. And as you said, it was mostly out of mind, as you pointed out, a lot of it was sitting down. It's not like you were out on a construction job or anything like that working at the radio station. I don't know how many rooms that were in the, in the facility, but certainly not a lot. But there were a few but still, you were mostly not in a situation where an incredible amount of mobility was required. And you here it certainly had the mobility to do what you needed to do.   Daniel Spelman ** 41:00 Yeah. Not only that, though, it's sort of, you know, even celebrities I've interviewed asked me a little bit about like, how, how can you Olympia Okay, think of like fell over or something, I would talk to him about it. And they just, they were just amazed by what I was doing. And when, like, I'll tag friends along with me. So like, if I was doing an event, and it was for the station, I had to best meet you, it had nothing really to do with the station, but would help me gain content. Just as I said before, I'm one of them people live, I'm going to the next mountains up, I'm going to pick you up with me, you know, we're going to go together strongest, that's always been a mentality for me. And so they were amazing. Kevin, my two sort of my two best mates who sort of helped definitely through sort of when things got a little bit more darker in the following months. But yeah, Kev would actually come on board with the station. And they did show we are massive nerds. And I was sort of struggling when I was station manager and just sort of more so after COVID, to be honest, it became a lot of people. It became a little bit more difficult to sort of manage, when you know, not everyone wants to be in the office. But some of those are very split where it was just that was the probably the biggest challenge when people were there a bit hesitant with COVID. And which was understandable and we kept that people want to work remotely can people want us to come in the code, but it was a very, that was probably the biggest sort of challenge. And managing that because obviously people are too in like multiple places. And you've got to be in multiple places. But yeah, that was that was a massive challenge that did then step away from the during the show in 2022. And just had to in my last couple of months at the station just had to I just felt it was the right time. I felt like it was the right time a year prior. But the station director asked me to stay on board then we I sort of said, like I need to sort of step away from from this just often focus on the backside of the sort of the station, I want to sort of delve myself, the more I was in the role, the more I just wanted to be in behind the scenes, I didn't really want to be the guy in front of the mic anymore. I felt my time had passed. And it's the same with sort of managerial things I knew, you know, I'm not going to be there forever. It was it. I'm there for a good time, not a long time. I said that in the first meeting, I'm there for a good time, not a long time. Because any managerial sort of role and comes with a shelf life and you've got all that you need to know when's the right time for you to step away. And then towards the end for me it was probably the difficult because it was a it was a passion project to this day, I loved the station and I loved everyone who's and I still love the people who were there now and what the station stands for it was just for me, I showed on the voted loyalty to the station and towards the end the last year or so that loyalty went shown back to me. And it did end quite sour but you've got to move on. I ended up going into sales, which was definitely a different extreme. And they have a very brief run brief run in as a sales exec what I absolutely loved the business, the business side of it and working with these companies, because I was sort of back at square one to a point of I don't want to do radio I want to take a little bit of a break from it but I like the whole go into meetings representing businesses marketing talk a niche for as well and do an SEO work as well. That's something that intrigued me and I wanted to know that were so I was doing a lot of business, the business and we'd like sort of broad bands and some of the biggest names in the in the UK when it comes to that sort of stuff. So I was it's not like I was working for a small company I was wearing For a major firm who had major clients, and so it was definitely interesting for the brief since I was doing that. And but that's where I think it was the sort of the, that's my cat saying, Hello, everyone. So you   Michael Hingson ** 45:15 said your cat's name is Hendrix. Is that relation to Jimmy? Yet? It is so Okay.   Daniel Spelman ** 45:21 Since as I told you everything is musical with me, so yeah, he's a very talkative cat for sure. And so is mine.   45:29 Yeah,   Michael Hingson ** 45:30 I think I think I did is the only thing I did like, close the door. So she can't come in because otherwise we would be very disrupted.   Daniel Spelman ** 45:37 Yeah. To him. He's probably wondering why I'm still like, awake.   Michael Hingson ** 45:42 Why are you still trying to go to sleep there buster?   Daniel Spelman ** 45:47 Basically getting told off? Yeah. Where was we? So yeah, I was doing sales. And that's where, when we were talking about before, that's where, because I was down constantly on the goal. That's where my disability came in. So I stepped away from that role. It was a you know, I love the title of a sales executive, but I stepped away for for that just because of my condition. That's where it did. I think mentally with everything I've went through towards the back end of my last position into the sales one sort of took its toll. So I then stepped away from sort of that, and went through a few different avenues, done a lot of marketing. And, you know, doing some, some other projects got back into radio. So the radio boy came back, which was nice. It went on for that long. But then setting up my own company currently, where my brother is one of the projects I'm currently working on, which is marketing and social media management, something, I've got a passion for something I've won awards in doing as well and privately, so like, that's something my brother said it was my brother's ID, and I'm not gonna take credit for it. Like he approached me and was like, you've got all these contacts, you've got this wealth of experience, I want something different. And so at the moment, but you know, it's taken a little bit longer to set up the plan that what we're looking at launching later this month. So we've got a few clients, and we've been sorting. So sorting that out of it out, obviously, we both have awesome day jobs, and which I'm sort of going into a new career now, as well as well, still doing radio and doing this. So I've got three things on the go, and which I'm enjoying being busy again, but it's also a manageable schedule. And when I was station manager, I think I look back at that now. And I think I was definitely being so young benefited, because I don't think they I was managing it at a pace that was not like obtainable, basically wouldn't, I couldn't keep going at that pace, all the time, you have to learn to slow down. So I still manage certain things as well, I've been a part of charities in Liverpool, and I've managed projects since and that's something and I'm now a mentor to a few people. So like Warhol was to me, I'm now that a few other people I mentioned they're unable for their, for their limited companies. And they're cits they come to me and I chat with them. And, and I try and advise them and stuff and what I would do or you know, just you know, if they want to throw a text at two in the morning, go, Hey, I've got this mad idea. And I know why straightaway, but I totally get it because I was there. Not that long ago where you do you have those crazy project ideas where you go, I want to do this and it's at 2am. So you've got to write it down, or you've got to tag someone to be like, or you're gonna lose it lose the trail of thought. And but yeah, that was that's pretty much my journey in the last about 18 months.   Michael Hingson ** 48:52 So what do you do in radio today?   Daniel Spelman ** 48:55 So I am presenting a breakfast show on CANDU FM, so I was on out 7am This morning. Okay. So that's fun. I enjoy them. And that I do that one day a week. I been sort of hosting multiple shows up and down the UK. I don't promote all of them. Because I'm COVID on a lot of stations. I've actually I think I can I can animate it to a point. I can't say what that's okay. Just recorded for an audiobook, and which was really cool. That when   Michael Hingson ** 49:27 will it be published?   Daniel Spelman ** 49:28 Not too sure. Yeah. Just it was the rough draft I've just recorded a few days ago. My family don't even know that that close is   Michael Hingson ** 49:36 the is it? Is it a book you wrote? No, no, no, it's okay.   Daniel Spelman ** 49:39 I just got asked to voice it. And it's a well known person. So I was very intrigued by that. So yeah, I've sort of enjoyed doing that. And I've continued sort of working with some of my sort of biggest contacts sort of made up and down the UK. So I'm planning on doing a little bit more with The color cones and, and the football clubs and stuff. I love soccer as using football. So yeah, I plan on doing that. And yeah, the other radio show though, is houseparty radio, which is for enough one of the lads from KCC. Life, his station, he's opened his own station. So I give some time to that. And I'm also currently talking about redoing a Dr. Show with one or two stations, it's just knowing where I'm gonna land and what's the benefit. But yeah, they went to Dr. Show is Back in sort of niggling at me, I want to do do a daily show again. So I am talking to a couple of stations as well about doing that sort of full time with them and being exclusive, but not fully exclusive to them. Because obviously, I'm not going to leave the other stations just yet. But I'm sort of, you know, getting to sort of, after being 10 years at one station, I feel like I'm in that zone right now I'm enjoying or dipping in and out of all the stations here. And all the stations operate completely different. And it's, it's very interesting. And obviously, I still have big ties with people in Liverpool and talking and being someone that, you know, I do talks as well, I've been into schools. So I went into my old school about a year ago, and want to talk to the kids there, which was, which was interesting. And, and then obviously, you know, I've got interviews and stuff that I've just recorded with some well known cosplayers and, and I've asked, being asked to do a few more podcasts like this, not like this, but like culture, live media, sort of,   Michael Hingson ** 51:45 you know, having done radio, and not to the level that you did, but I was in radio, in college, and so on, and a little bit of professional radio, now doing a podcast and I've been doing this since August of 2021. The the advantage of a podcast, I suppose if you, you could say it's a lazy attitude, but you don't have some of the limitation that you have in radio. So the podcast is whatever length you choose it to be. You can choose whether you want to have sponsors and commercials and all that. But podcasting is very much from the general operation of it a lot like radio, other than some of the things that are not as restrictive, like you have to end at exactly a particular time. So something else you might think about, and podcasting can be a very interesting and very visible medium to, to be able to, to be out there for the world to see and hear.   Daniel Spelman ** 52:44 Yeah, it's something I've been approached about as well. And I've been lucky that I've got these commercial contacts have made over the last 10 years have reached out to me but it's also it's a mentally I'm ready to jump back into that sort of cycle of cars that that industry people don't learn and preparation. Yeah, it's media music that that whole industry is it's such fast paced, so you can get away with it, even though it's for a few years do some different things, you know, I think I'm still only you know, 20 Yeah, I've got 10 years at one company of sockets, from, you know, being broke, to award winning, and, you know, went from not being able to walk to, you know, walk in and, and, you know, be an ambassador for you know, sticking stuff with to try to be I'm not, you know, doing as much as I would like with that charity, which is a charity that raises awareness for CPE. And so I want to give them a mention here, I'm actually be an ambassador for them. And, and they do phenomenal work. And I'm going to try and planning a visit and go and see see some of the little ones who they sort of support and they deal with kids with CP with who's got severe or mild but like a cold progressively at worst, it just depends on the spasticity, every, it's like everyone, like, everyone's different and it's it goes case by case. So not every case of CP is the same, it just varies on the person. Like if you told my doctor who gave me surgery in 2008, and I'm still out and about doing stuff, okay, I have good days, bad days. But I'm open most days quite early to do physio, or just getting the joint sort of moving and do that. And I was doing that when I was running a radio station, I would get up do excises physio, which just gave me when I was recovering and in rehab for me surgery just to sort of give myself an edge. And I try and walk as much as I can to places and I won't push me limits. I think you have to learn very quickly what your limits are. And I had this conversation with a friend of mine who's got Fibro myalgia I don't really understand that but I can sort of get the similarities of what Hi Fi thrive, where you can feel very fatigued or nowhere. So it's just sort of learning your limit It's with anything in life. And but yeah, that's sort of me in a nutshell really I just keep keep plodding along and   Michael Hingson ** 55:11 there you go. Who Who have you interviewed that I might have heard up?   Daniel Spelman ** 55:18 Oh, so musically or film or just shut her name off a few lists   Michael Hingson ** 55:23 whoever you think I might have heard of over here. No limitations.   Daniel Spelman ** 55:27 So I've music wise a style who's on track with Kanye West. I have you and I have interviewed all my mind's gone a little bit Blanca. Era McNeil, Susan, after you was in a film with Jim Carrey, Paul McGann who was in Doctor Who he actually play Doctor Who in the US, and I'd be very lucky enough to interview Matt Ryan, a great actor. And he was also in DC series have also interviewed David Tennant, who played Doctor Who and Matt Smith as well, which was really cool. And the lists and lists chart char stars, you know, Becky Hill knows but Shinnecock elven football is Steven Gerrard. I don't know if you know who he is. But he's massive. Specially in Liverpool, Luis Garcia, Sammy Huperzia. Josie Enrique, does the list goes on with football?   Michael Hingson ** 56:33 What's your favorite interview that you've done?   Daniel Spelman ** 56:36 Oh, that is a tough question. Oh. Oh, it is a it is a very tough one. And I'm going to pull it down to two. So I'm going to do one open coming artist. And because I've always been wanting to promote open colon talents, and especially in the UK, and one overall for me. And so the Open command talent would be brawny, who's a dear friend of mine, someone I've interviewed and we've just become friends. And really good friends. I touch even though the show at the radio station around for a little bit when I took over it, which I couldn't believe she did that. And so we are brawny for short because the amount of time she's gave me we've interviewed, you know, I've interviewed them multiple times. And my personal favorite would possibly be it has to be against the Quran just because my favorite band Dev, and I've watched him go from YouTube covers to, you know, doing stadium shows in you know, and who is that again? against the current so that, okay, so I think then New York or New Jersey based around that area, or from New Jersey, New Jersey, but based in New York or the labelers. And so they have done a solo tour in America in the UK. They've just been over to the UK. And so yeah, I think just because I've watched them, and I've saw them grow from YouTube, to where they are now, which is phenomenal. And it's great. Yeah, so when I got the call to interview them in 2019 for the first time, in Manchester, I literally about three, four hours before the show went on record, because I literally interview the style and then in the same day ensued against the Korean so that was a very weird day for me. And then, funnily enough in 2020 Going back to the Dr. Show, Chrissy who's the lead singer in the band, I just threw an email because we sort of exchanged emails when we interviewed them and he was like keep in touch because he could tell I was a genuine fan or so of what how they've developed and stuff like that. You gave me an email I reached out during COVID because of a lot of people that are just going to be able to be out on the board there'll be a perfect opportunity to sort of get some names on the show. And Chris he literally out of nowhere, so I was like yeah, let's do this. And you'll get an 11k views on YouTube within I think like three weeks a month, which was crazy for a small community radio station. And so yet it's bringing those commercial interviews and these ad lists or you know, you know open comment towns with huge followings like crazy it's got like over a million followers on Instagram alone. So I bring them to a station not in a bad way but as small as a community radio station was definitely unique and definitely attend a lot of heads up the time. And it's it's really fun when people don't expect something like that to happen and you don't say anything in it just does happen and you can surprise people and go on doing this. And that's the bull's eye thing. I like a lot of people and you must have it interview and people to do this podcast is you get solo Botsford hear people's stories and it's always about the stories. Oh, another interview I've done this year for CANDU. Well, last year now, Chris vandal etoos a four time Emmy award winning presents, presents on CBS over in America. So he's made with Dwayne Johnson, which is crazy, you know, to be friends with the rock, and his story as well. And he has sort of a similar philosophy to sort of me when it's when it's interviewing, and I'm sure you understand this, as well, as you get to hear these people's stories, and you get to take a little bit, or maybe take a little bit of something and put it into your own life on he always ends his interviews, so I twist it on him. He always asked this question, say, um, the three things you're grateful for. So I thought, you know, I've got to ask him, and at the time, he was just about to become a dad. And so yeah, they it was a very special time to to interview him, and he was Super Down to Earth. So he's definitely tough free for me. So yeah, brawny, Chris family against the current. For me. I'm probably missing people out if I am. And you're listening to this. Sorry. I do appreciate it. But yeah, for me, personally, there'll be them three.   Michael Hingson ** 1:01:14 Well, that's great. Well, I'm going to thank you very much for being here. Can you believe it? We've been at this now just about a minute over an hour. So we've been having a lot of fun doing it. If people want to reach out to you maybe learn as you're starting companies and doing things, how can they do that?   Daniel Spelman ** 1:01:30 So just search we'll find on Instagram producer done, I'm sure you've put links in the YouTube and on socials and stuff, feel free to click on request on the follow up, follow. Just search my name Dan Spelman. And on LinkedIn, I'm a big LinkedIn user these days. And that's how we sort of connected to Shelby. So Sheldon Sheldon, I'm gonna tell ya, big shout out to Sheldon. And so yeah, feel free to reach out on there. Or just search Luma socials on Google. There'll be contacts in there, you can have a little look at the business, the website is going to be up in the coming days, we've just took it back down to sort of change a few things because I'm a perfectionist. And the growth of those other members is out and about it. But there Yeah, launching sort of end of Jan, going into Feb. Maybe. So yeah, we've got a few sort of we're just ironed out a few things with the first few clients. So I think so. Yeah.   Michael Hingson ** 1:02:23 Well, cool. Well, I want to thank you for being here. And I want to thank all of you for listening out there, wherever you happen to be. Love to get your thoughts and, and we certainly would appreciate it. If you'd give us a five star rating for our episode. Today. Daniel has been a very fascinating guest and clearly is as unstoppable as it gets. And I am so grateful that he took the time to be here and that you took the time to listen. So thank you for doing that all around. If you'd like to reach out to me, you're welcome to do so you can email me at MichaelHi@accessibe.com. That's m i c h a el h i at accessibe A C C E S S I B E.com. Or go to our podcast page

ThinkEnergy
Current affairs with Francis Bradley, Electricity Canada's President and CEO

ThinkEnergy

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 24, 2024 58:59


Electricity Canada's President and CEO, Francis Bradley, joins thinkenergy in episode 140. Hear about the shift to sustainable electricity, including the difficulties navigating provincial and federal policies, climate change directives, and funding gaps. Plus how Electricity Canada evolved from a technical exchange club into a national advocate for sustainable energy. From challenges to leading the charge, learn how governments and private sectors are working towards a clean, efficient electricity system. Related links:   Francis Bradley on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/francis-bradley-3617802a/ Electricity Canada: https://www.electricity.ca/ The state of the Canadian electricity industry 2024 Getting to Yes report: https://www.electricity.ca/advocacy/getting-to-yes-the-state-of-the-canadian-electricity-industry-2024/ Trevor Freeman on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/trevor-freeman-p-eng-cem-leed-ap-8b612114/ Hydro Ottawa: https://hydroottawa.com/en    To subscribe using Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/thinkenergy/id1465129405   To subscribe using Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7wFz7rdR8Gq3f2WOafjxpl To subscribe on Libsyn: http://thinkenergy.libsyn.com/ --- Subscribe so you don't miss a video: https://www.youtube.com/user/hydroottawalimited Follow along on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hydroottawa   Stay in the know on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HydroOttawa   Keep up with the posts on X: https://twitter.com/thinkenergypod Transcript: Trevor Freeman  00:07 Welcome to think energy, a podcast that dives into the fast changing world of energy through conversations with industry leaders, innovators, and people on the frontlines of the energy transition. Join me Trevor Freeman, as I explore the traditional, unconventional and up and coming facets of the energy industry. If you have any thoughts, feedback or ideas for topics we should cover, please reach out to us at think energy at hydro ottawa.com. Hi, everyone, welcome back. On the show before we have talked about how energy is primarily a provincial jurisdiction in Canada, so that means that provinces and provincial governments set energy policy provincial grids are structured both in a regulatory sense as well as a physical infrastructure sense. at the provincial level, we've gone into some detail about Ontario's grid and talked about how it's kind of a distributed grid meeting most electricity customers in Ontario get their electricity from a local distribution company. Not every province is the same in any of those senses. Some are a little bit more vertically integrated, meaning there are you know, maybe a single entity that gets you all the way from generation to distribution. There's different regulatory frameworks. The point is there's a lot of diversity across the country. Now, as much as that is a provincial jurisdiction, there is a role for the federal government to play here at that national level. There are some national policy directions that are important and that impacts energy policy. Climate change is a great example. So the federal government has jurisdiction to set targets and come up with strategies to address climate change for the country. Things that the federal government is doing currently is enacting a clean electricity standard with the goals of decarbonizing electricity generation in the country, so making sure that we stop using fossil fuels to generate electricity on a large scale. The federal government also supports decarbonisation efforts for buildings and for transportation, and they put money into those things. And those efforts impact electricity grids and impact markets. The federal government also has a role to play when it comes to major projects and providing approvals for those projects to move forward. And that includes energy projects. So new generation or new transmission, you know, things that are using land or moving across land, there's a role for the federal government to play there. So enter electricity Canada, the national voice for electricity utilities in Canada. Now, we've talked before about the sort of provincial equivalent that advocates on behalf of energy utilities. This is the national voice here for electricity, utilities, electricity, Canada has been around for over 130 years now. And their focus, at least in the last while has been on federal advocacy. I'm not going to tell you too much about electricity, Canada, because my guest today is going to talk a little bit about that. But just as a primer. So they have recently published their 2024 state of the industry report, which looks at the need to accelerate some of these major initiatives in the electricity sector to keep up with the energy transition that, as we've talked about many times is already underway. It's already happening. And we are just trying to keep up really. So my guest today is actually making his second appearance on the podcast as Francis Bradley, who is the president and CEO of electricity Canada, and has held a number of different roles within electricity Canada as well prior to becoming the president CEO. He also has a number of key positions on national committees and working groups, which are focused on infrastructure, energy and electricity and other related topics. And most interestingly, he also hosts his own podcast, the flux capacitor, which I highly recommend you check out. Francis, welcome back to the show.   Francis Bradley  04:01 Delighted to be here. Thanks for the invitation, Trevor.   Trevor Freeman  04:03 So I know you've kind of given us the background before but electricity Canada has been around for over 130 years now, which is older than our kind of modern, interconnected grid, at least here in Canada. Can you just remind us of the role and the mandate that your organization plays in the electricity sector?   Francis Bradley  04:20 Sure. Absolutely. In fact, somewhere we have a photograph of like the first meeting of what at the time was the Canadian electrical Association at Niagara Falls in 1891.   Trevor Freeman  04:32 Wow.   Francis Bradley  04:32 But yeah, you know, where, where we're at today. So basically, you know, if you turn a light switch on pretty much anywhere in Canada, any province, any territory, everything it took to generate, transmit and distribute the electricity to turn that light on was probably done by by one of one of our 42 members. They're in every single province, every single territory to use the official the official definition you know, Our mandate is to be the national voice for sustainable electricity for our members and the customers they serve. We do this through advocacy through sharing best practices, and, and education of stakeholders and the government. But yeah, our our members are basically the, you know, the 40 odd, biggest companies that generate transmit distributed coast to coast to coast.   Trevor Freeman  05:22 And has that mandate changed over the course of the 130 years, or is it pretty consistent?   Francis Bradley  05:27 No, it's It's actually that's that's an interesting question. It has changed a lot. And it's changed over the time since I've been at the association even and then aimless changed, that this is the third name. I'm on since since I joined the organization. Yeah, when it was first established. As you say, there was a letter A long time ago, 133 years, it was basically a little club for these people that were in this nascent industry who, who would, you know, swap stories about, about what they're doing and how it's working. And even at the time, there was still, you know, debates about should we be doing AC or DC and, you know, the whole, the whole, you know, battle between, between Westinghouse and, and, and, and the other folks, but so, you know, it was initially a technical information exchange organization, when I joined the organization, it was still very much technically focused, would do a big annual conference, we actually had a technical research division, and we do a couple of million dollars of research a year, back then. We then evolved, we, we evolved from the Canadian electrical association to the Canadian electricity Association. And our mandate began to shift away from Duke First off, where we stopped doing technical research and moved away from technical detailed technical information exchange, and increasingly our mandate began to focus on advocacy and and what the what the industry needs and what they what the members require, from an advocacy standpoint. And then in the 1990s, mid 1990s, we moved up into Ottawa because prior to that we'd been in Montreal, we've been in Montreal since the 1930s. Before that, we were in Toronto. So in the 90s, given that the focus had shifted pretty significantly to advocacy, and the principal government that we were seeking to advocate with was the federal government, the office moved up to Ottawa. And then three years ago, the name of the organization was changed from the Canadian electricity Association, to simply electricity, Canada.   Trevor Freeman  07:42 So that's that switch from technical to the more advocacy and policy work. It's really interesting and actually kind of ties into this. This next question, I want to ask you, we've talked on the show before about, you know, how the Ontario electricity sector is structured. And it's complex, to say the least, but that's one of many in Canada, different provinces have different regulatory structures. Energy Policy is primarily provincial jurisdiction. But as you mentioned, the federal government has a say in that as well, especially when it comes to climate change recently. So I'm curious, how do you navigate all those differences and kind of speak with a common voice when you're dealing with so many different regulatory bodies? So many different governmental bodies? What's How do you find that common voice?   Francis Bradley  08:31 Yeah, well, and you know, that that is that is that the fundamental challenge of, frankly, any organization in Canada that's attempting to, to operate at a national level, in a in a sort of domain that's principally principally provincial, but it's kind of even more so with electricity because of the differences in different jurisdictions. And, you know, you've noted that Ontario is complex in terms of the industry structure, it was more complex. When I when I first started in the sector, there were 300 and more than 350 local distribution companies, you know, so there's been a little bit of consolidation,   Trevor Freeman  09:11 we have a paltry 60 something now.   Francis Bradley  09:13 Yeah, well, that's right. Yeah, we're down into only double digits. But at the same time, you know, we also saw, you know, municipal municipal amalgamations that's taken place that have driven some of that, but, you know, so we've seen an evolution here in Ontario. But, you know, there are no two jurisdictions in this country that are the same. So you know, there isn't a like an electricity system in Canada, each province and territory is different, different types of ownership. You know, in some, it's like a private, privately run companies and in other jurisdictions, it's a Crown Corporation. In some like Ontario, it's a hybrid of a mix of different types of ownership. But, you know, there's there are there are crowns, there are municipally owned there are privately owned companies as part of the value chain. And so you know, It results in a pretty disparate system, both in terms of how the sector is structured, and also how its regulated. Because the regulations are different in each and every one of those jurisdictions. And so, you know, this presents us with a huge problem, frankly, and we see it now, in particular, with respect to all of the politics around climate change, because electricity is a provincial responsibility, but we have one level of government, the federal government, providing direction in this space. And then we have another level of government, that the provincial level, you know, reacting to what those national objectives are, we've got multiple regulators across the country offering their own interpretations on what can and cannot be done in this space. And it proves to be a problem, you know, with respect to the challenge to build the infrastructure that's going to be needed to meet our, our, our aspirations, our future aspirations, this complexity makes it very difficult to get things moving and get things done. And, you know, in addition to that, honestly, in the past year, you know, if you look at the relationship between federal government, the federal government and provincial governments, in some parts of this country, it's starting to smell and feel like just raw geopolitics, right. You know, all sides, frankly, on some of these files have have demonstrated the sort of dogmatic posturing that you'd expect between countries, not necessarily between provinces, and a central government and in a confederation. But, you know, the thing is, and I keep going back to this, if you sort of strip out the posturing that we see, the fact is, we actually agree on much more than than the areas where we disagree. And here's an example. You know, if you look at the, the,the provincial opposition in a number of provinces to the Government of Canada's clean electricity regulations, you would think that, you know, we're on completely different pages here. But, you know, if you ignore some of the, you know, saber rattling, and the point scoring, you actually can see that there is general agreement provincially. And federally, that electrification is going to be, you know, the long term solution to our climate crisis. In fact, the only thing that's in dispute is sort of the deadline and the methods that we're getting there. So, you know, there, there are expressions in some provincial capitals, about the clean electricity regulations as the method and you know, and dispute as to whether or not it should be 2035, or a different time frame, but everybody is on the same page of, you know, an aspiration to have a non omitting sort of a clean system throughout the economy by 2050. And so, you know, that's the starting point that we work from, is that, oh, yes, there are certainly disparate views on some of the methods and some of the policies, but objectively, we are all attempting to head essentially in the same direction. We're all heading towards, like this net zero future. It's just a question of, how are we going to get there and, and with the time you're going to be,   Trevor Freeman  13:18 it's interesting to hear you say that, because that's, you know, a couple episodes back, I talked to David Caletto, from abacus, and he was talking about just the general populations opinion on things, and it mirrors that exactly. So it's not just our sort of various jurisdictions and levels of government that kind of agree, where we need to get to, they just don't know how we're gonna get there. They don't agree and how we're gonna get there.   Francis Bradley  13:40 Yep.   Trevor Freeman  13:41 Your average Canadian also agrees with that. Canadians feel that a an electrified energy sector energy system is better than a fossil fuel one.   Francis Bradley  13:50 Yep.   Trevor Freeman  13:51 We just don't agree on how we're going to get there. So yeah, that's great. Great to hear. And that leaves you guys to sort of thread that needle and find the common points and amplify that I imagine.   Francis Bradley  14:00 Absolutely. And, you know, and, and attempt to come up with solutions. You know, given that our principal role is, is is in advocacy, you know, that that means that we're in the public policy, loop solutions business, and trying to attempt to find ways to to, as you say, thread that thread that needle, but also, you know, figure out ways that that we can make sure that we have policies that are supportive of that future that, you know, as you said, even even the polling work that the David Caletto discussed with you. They agree that that's the destination as well. So, like, what's one of the public policy specific initiatives apart from the overall objective that we should be seeking to, you know, seeking to pursue?   Trevor Freeman  14:51 So if I could pick on one of those specific issues, you know, keeping on this theme of regional differences and regional challenges, we have different relationships with the fossil fuel industry in Canada. And that includes both our electricity generation, some of our provinces have predominantly carbon free generation and some don't. And in terms of our economy, so I mean, West fossil fuel is weaved into the economy and a pretty integrated way. How can we navigate this move to cleaner electricity, collectively as a country, knowing that different areas of the country have to do different things to get there, and it's going to impact them in different ways?   Francis Bradley  15:31 Yeah, and it isn't surprising that different parts of the country have a different approach to this, and they're coming from a different starting point. You know, it's kind of the luck of the draw, when, you know, when, when the geography prior to, you know, it prior to prior to anything like this, it was all determined by geography, if you happen to be in a jurisdiction today, that has a lot of water and a lot of different elevations so that the water is falling, you know, you're starting it certainly in a in a in a better place. That, you know, that the challenge overall is to is to really try and figure out how we we make this work across the country? You know, you're you're absolutely right, there are some parts of this country that have historically been very reliant on fossil fuels for the production of electricity. Why? Well, because they didn't have any falling water, or they're relatively flat. And so you know, that that was the certainly the case. And it continues to be the case and the challenge for some jurisdictions, so, you know, take the example of the draft clean electricity regulations that, you know, we've been, we've been talking about, and we're spending a lot of time focused on they, they hit different jurisdictions very differently, this objective to try and reach a netzero grid by 2035 is not a huge stretch, if you happen to be, you know, in in, in Quebec, or in British Columbia, or in Manitoba, it's a lift, but it's not a huge lift. You know, however, if you're, if you're elsewhere, it, it can be quite challenging. So the problem that we have there is, but you know, when the government of Canada began putting together their work on the clean electricity regulations, they use modeling that looked at the national average, and, you know, nationally, they were 84%, non emitting as a country. That's great.   Trevor Freeman  17:31 Right.   Francis Bradley  17:32 But, you know, they really should have taken a hard look at what the differences were between different jurisdictions in the country. And they should have done their modeling that was much more local. You know, Canada is a big, diverse country. And, you know, you hinted at that. So, you know, exactly nowhere in Canada is average. Right, and so we shouldn't be modeling nowhere. Because then that simply doesn't work. You know, and, and the, the simple illustration, I will often say is, if you've got two lobsters, and one of them is in the freezer, and the other one is in the pod on your stove, on average, the temperature is pretty good for the lobsters. But it isn't for either of them, right? Yeah. So, you know, listen, why does this matter? Well, if we get the modeling wrong, and if we don't understand the differences between the different regions of the country, we're going to be making decisions on how to allocate because, you know, we talk about 2050, and what is Net Zero 2050 Looks like, looks like it's going to be, you know, trillions of dollars worth of investments are going to be required. And if they're leaning on models that are not right, that becomes problematic. It's a huge bet that we're making, you know, if the models we base our decision making on and where we're going to be putting our investments aren't accurate. If the regulations are wrong, you know, these clean electricity regulations, because they didn't take into consideration the regional differences. Compliance is going to be expensive. It could in some jurisdictions, you know, make blackouts or brownouts more common with bigger impacts, and it might have disproportionately more significant impact on on the rates in most jurisdictions. So, you know, the reality is, it's four provinces in, in in Canada, that have a starting point with respect to decarbonisation, that's substantially lower than then the rest of the country. They've got much more significant lift if you happen to be in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. That's just the reality. So you know, we need to move forward with the with decarbonisation, but we need to be realistic that moving us from what we have today and 84% carbon free system to 100% is going to be far far more complicated than it's assumed. Again, looking at it on a national average, it seems like only a small numbers, you know, we're at 84%. It's not a stretch to 100. Except if you're in a jurisdiction where it's, you know, 10%. Yeah, then it's a problem.   Trevor Freeman  20:09 Okay, so 11 years, we got our work cut out for us. And we'll kind of see how we move forward. A big part of what we're going to talk about today is electricity, Canada's recent report that you've called Getting to Yes. The 2024 state of the Canadian electricity industry. So in the very first lines of the report, you talk about how there's this culture of No. Which is creating these major obstacles to progress. The report highlights that there have been all these funding pledges from the federal government. But projects are not getting off the ground. They're hitting barriers. Can you elaborate on what some of those barriers are?   Francis Bradley  20:48 Sure, absolutely. Happy to. This is, this is something that we've been very focused on since we released a report earlier this year, is is an initiative we do each year, we try and kind of sum up what we see as the most significant challenge for the sector. And, yeah, the challenge for this sector is we need to, we need to figure out how to how to get to yes. This year, earlier this year, we saw the release of RBC, the RBC climate action Institute report that charted this massive growth for electricity, particularly with the rise of electric vehicles, and home heating. But the reports word of the year for the electricity sector is moratorium that because that was, you know, such a significant event, in the past year 2023 was a difficult year, frankly, you know, we've seen some projects that were halted temporarily like that six month moratorium, the pause on renewables in Alberta, we saw some projects, you know, like the Atlantic loop in the Maritimes, that were halted in indefinitely. And, you know, what's moving forward now is, is a piece of what would have been the Atlantic loop, but the Atlantic loop just just hasn't moved forward. So, you know, there, there is a very significant challenge, right now, with respect to being able to ensure that we have the policy frameworks in place. So that we can can get beyond these challenges with respect to moving through the regulatory frameworks. And at the same time, we need to make sure that we get the financing and the financials in place. I mentioned that RBC report, the title of the report, this year was double or treble, they estimate that we should be investing to be able to meet our aspirations, we should be investing at a rate of about $60 billion a year, in clean energy on an annual basis, were investing at a rate of barely 20 billion a year. So we need to more than double, almost triple the investment that we're putting in place to be able to meet those those targets. It's interesting, it's very consistent with the recent plan that Hydro Quebec came up with, to meet its 2035 objectives,  it's estimating that it's going to close, you know, close to triple its capital investment to be able to to meet those. So we're well below what needs to be invested. And part of the problem is, is this, you know, we had a culture of, of no, you know, we we kind of have the technology to be able to do this. And we have, you know, the the financing, there are people who were are willing to invest in this space, because this is a good space to invest in. We have, you know, commitments and agreements in terms of what the overall target is that just that we seem to have set ourselves up with, you know, overall regulatory frameworks, that that slow things down. And by the same token, you know, we're waiting on final details for, you know, some of the financial incentives the Government of Canada has promised, like the investment tax credits, we're still waiting for the final details on that. And, and this is stuff that was promised almost two years ago.   Trevor Freeman  24:12 Yeah. And I mean, these projects are not quick projects, they're not short projects, they take a long time to get off the ground. So every absolutely moment that's lost as an impact. There's a lot to pick apart and what you just said, and I there's a few things I want to pull on that maybe to start with, is anybody getting it right, right now in Canada? That's like a Canada just specifically, is this going well, anywhere in terms of getting projects up and running and off the ground?   Francis Bradley  24:36 Well, our our focus as it associations is at the national level. And so at the national level, no, we're not getting it. Right. You know, there's a number of things that we need to do to be able to improve this and some things that we've been, we've been asking for so you know, like in terms of some some concrete steps at a national level. We need to coordinate federal impact assessments and project permitting through a central federal office. Again, this is something that that has been proposed, but isn't there. Second, we need to build capacity of regulators to deliver on our netzero goals and their decisions. They need to do prompt to so promptly they need to do it effectively. And third, you know, there was a one project, one assessment framework that the federal government promised in budget 2023. And then it promised that again, in budget 2024, that would be great to see that coming forward, like in this year's Federal Budget, it was teased, that, you know, many of the things that we would like to see are going to be addressed. But, you know, how long is it going to take? And, you know, are we actually going to be able to, to see some of those things implemented and implemented in a timely manner are open questions. And I've been I've been in front of parliamentary committees trying to get some of the move forward, some of the budget implementation details like the investment tax credits, move forward, but they we don't have all of the investment tax credit details yet in front of us much less moving them forward. And, and the clock is ticking, you know, that we keep getting closer and closer to to our targets, and we haven't made it any easier to get projects built.   Trevor Freeman  26:32 You mentioned regulatory hurdles as one of those obstacles. What are you talking about when it comes to regulatory hurdles? I mean, like you said, you kind of focus at the national level, there's the provincial level. Talk us through what some of those hurdles are.   Francis Bradley  26:44 Sure. Okay. Well, let me let me let me start with the the Impact Assessment Act, it's it's one of the biggest examples, frankly, of what up until now has been a culture of No, and this isn't a knock on the the individuals involved. It's just how the legislation is structured and how it works. Electricity, infrastructure projects are logistically complex, they require long lead times, they can take years to design to build construct. And that's even outside of the government approval process. At the current rate of regulatory approvals, new projects may take as much as 10 or more years to complete the, you know, the Federal provincial and territorial impact assessment processes, and obtain those relevant regulatory permits from various governments and regulators, you know, in Florida to have like, fully decarbonize, and, you know, double it grid capacity in a little over 25 years. This is going to be a challenge if it's going to take us a decade to get through these these processes. So when we were researching our state of the industry this year, we did a search of the open applications on the impact assessment act's website, what we found is that six projects, including electricity projects have been suspended indefinitely, because the information gathering effort to proceed with the federal Impact Assessment were enough to force a pause on the process. So it's possible that some proponents might reengage with the process, but what we found was that the paper exercise associated just the paper exercise with the impact assessment was enough of a deterrent to cancel or you know, otherwise viable projects, including, you know, in one case building a natural gas and hydrogen fueled electricity generating facilities and hydroelectric facilities. If just the time to go through the Paperchase is so long. This is problematic and something that needs to be addressed now, we're we have a revisions and amendments that have been introduced to the Impact Assessment Act as a result of the Supreme Court decision. I have appeared before parliamentary committee a couple of weeks ago, to speak specifically about that, and in hopes that we're actually going to see this move forward in a more of a timely fashion. But it was made clear by one of the other representatives that was giving evidence to the committee that that their expectation, this is from another province, their expectation is that they will once again be challenging this version of the Impact Assessment Act. So So even that creates further uncertainty. And just the uncertainty, the last thing that the business wants to be able to make generational investments is, you know, a stable, uncertain environment within which to operate.   Trevor Freeman  29:41 So, on that topic of investment, you talk about the need for major investment in both transmission and distribution infrastructure. And just as a reminder for our listeners, that's the poles and the wires and the transformers. That's the real hardware of the electricity system. Those are already really big buckets. So help us understand I got a couple questions around this, you know, what kind of investment are we talking about? Is it building more of those poles and wires? Is there something else in there? What size of investment? I mean, you mentioned $60 billion and clean energy. And who should be making this investment? Who are we looking to hear to be making this investment?   Francis Bradley  30:20 Yeah, I mean, that these are these, these are great questions in terms of what the investments are going to look like. And so, you know, we're looking at, as I said, earlier, doubling, doubling the grid, we're going to need at least two times more kilowatt hours when we get to the future. So you know, that's the level of investment that we need to be thinking about. There have been different organizations that have tried to kind of get a scope and scale of what that actually looks like, again, I mentioned the the RBC climate Institute. Last year, it had a study that came out, and I believe they, they paid this, I think it was $2 trillion, was the was the amount that they expected this to cost. Where's the money coming from? Well, you know, that's a really good question. And it's one that we've been engaging in for a number of years now. And, you know, not to be a little too much. I'll try. I'll try not to be like totally pedantic on this. But, you know, if you, if you consider, from a public policy standpoint, if if we believe that expanding the electricity system is necessary to decarbonize the Canadian economy, then essentially, what you're saying is that expanding the electricity system is a public good. from a, from an economic theory standpoint, if it's a public good, well, then it is something that should be borne by that taxpayer, not the ratepayer. Right. And so, you know, part of this discussion is, who needs to bear the costs for building out a clean non emitting electricity system, so that the rest of the economy can decarbonize? Should it be the electricity customer? Or are there parts of this, this core infrastructure that, that are regarded as a public good, and it's something that is paid for by the taxpayer, you know, and we see this in, in, in other sectors, other sectors as well, where, you know, certain things are perceived to be public good, and they're taxpayer supported. And we saw a bit of a recognition and a realization that this made sense to a degree in the federal government's budget in 2023, where, you know, they essentially pledged, one in every $8, in new spending was going to go to clean electricity projects through a variety of needs, you know, the investment tax credits, the candidate infrastructure bank, a number of funding mechanisms. So I mean, that those kinds of dollars from the federal government was a commitment to building infrastructure that that really is unheard of, at a national level since the Second World War. So you know, it really kind of moved clean energy and electrification into the category of well, I guess it's a public good, because, you know, there's a recognition that if the federal government wants to achieve these policy objectives, it needs to put some federal dollars in there. So, you know, that determination is, and whether it's a public good or not, as has been made in favor of the taxpayer versus the rate payer. Now, again, you know, you could easily say, Well, hang on a second, the rate payer, the taxpayer, the same person, except that it doesn't quite work the same way. We, you know, do do we want to attach to the customers bills, every single customer, that the cost of, you know, this, this expansion of our infrastructure or not, and, you know, electricity bills, are not something that, that, that fall, as taxes do disproportionately on those that are more wealthy. Right. And so, it's a little more fair. Now, you know, in terms of the specific investments, you know, I think, I think exactly how this is going to happen, and how it's going to roll out, those details are still being worked out by by some of our members, but I do want to highlight that, you know, the, the approach here, that we're seeing from the government, which we appreciate, is, you know, a one that is so far technology agnostic, which we think is the right way to go. So, you know, there isn't like a right way or a wrong way to generate electricity. So, you know, the future that we see is going to be an all of the above future, that will encompass wind and solar and nuclear and traditional hydro and, and, and hydrogen and carbon capture and storage. And more, not only does that give us, you know, the greatest flexibility and gives us the ability to to balance different types of generation of dispatchable versus non dispatchable. But it also gives us you know, overall, a far more flexible system. So, you know, That's the what the future is going to look like. So to, you know, to, to give you the short answer, it'll be all of the above, and it'll be probably $2 trillion.   Trevor Freeman  35:08 What's the role of private equity and all of this?   Francis Bradley  35:10 Oh, I mean, it's going to have, it's going to have to play a significant role, that there's no doubt about it. And in fact, that's one of the things that are BC has pointed their finger at when they when they identify the lack of investment right now, in this space, they note that the vast majority of it is public money. And the vast majority of that public money right now is federal public money. And so what they have said is they expect that there's going to have to be significantly more dollars coming from different levels of government, but also from private private investment and private investors as well. And this kind of a, you know, this is good news and bad news on that. I mean, the good news is, you know, their sense is that if we get the economics and the policy environment, right, that it won't be a problem, attracting capital. On the one hand, on the other hand, man, we're competing, you know, we're not an island here, and like, even now, where it's been taking us such a very long time to get the investment tax credit regime in place, and it's not in place yet. Whereas south of the border, the inflation Reduction Act, was developed and rolled out in short order. And what I'm concerned about is that, you know, people that want to invest in clean energy projects, I mean, I don't want to hear the sucking sound of those investment dollars flowing from Canada into the United States. But, you know, there has been more private investment in this space in the US than in Canada, because they've already established the regime that this is going to discuss, you know, production tax credits and, and, and other mechanisms. And we're still working out the details on ours. But yeah, you know, everything that we've heard is, there's a great deal of appetite, so long as we get things sorted out, as long as we get it, right. And that's why, by the way, one of the other things that's interesting for us as an association, is because our members are of, you know, a wide variety of types, a number of my members are investor owned companies. And so, you know, some Canadian companies that have become international players and international leaders, so, you know, Nova Scotia Power, it's now under a holding company called Amera, that is a major player, there's all of the Fortis companies, for US companies are our major players internationally. Afco is one of our members, and they're a big international player, you know, Transalta, again, you know, there's these are very significant players, capital power. So these are all all members of our organization. But it also gives us an ability to kind of get some insight into, into what the business looks like, for private investors as well. And, yeah, you know, what, what we're seeing and what we're hearing us, we need to get the policy, environment and the regulatory environment, right, because that right now is proving to be a barrier. And it's not just not just not not just us saying, you know, they'll see that reflected in other reports, including the RBC report where they talk about these the same sorts of things. And, you know, there's a recent reliability report by the North American Electric Reliability corporation that they've mentioned, as well, you know, one of the risks it sees over the longer term is, is a risk with respect to policy, and lack of policy and bow policy alignment.   Trevor Freeman  38:40 I think I mean, you bring up the inflation Reduction Act, that highlights the value of policy in the setting of the stage to allow for the types of investment and the types of projects that we need going forward and the critical role that governments and policymakers can play there. And actually, my previous guests, and I talked quite a bit about policy. So that's timely. When we talk about these major investments, and you start talking about these major dollar values. You know, you're no stranger to this, I'm sure, electricity prices, the cost of electricity is a sensitive subject and has been for some time now across the country in many different jurisdictions. We often look at as a distribution company, Hydro Ottawa, we look at what we call our social licence. And that's not a term that's unique to the electricity sector, to essentially the the permission our customers give us to operate our business. As we look at these investments, as we look at the amount of dollars that have to be invested in our in our sector and our industry. We know that there's an affordability crisis in Canada right now, lots of people are struggling with cost of living. And those two things can seem at odds. So I want to get your thoughts on how do we continue to hold on to that social licence that we have and in fact grow it and build it because electricity as we know it and your utility as you know it are going to be Change. And how do we get people on board with that, while still making the level of investment that we're talking about here?   Francis Bradley  40:06 Okay. All right. So, you know, I kind of touched on this a couple of times. But know, first and foremost, the energy transition, if you will, as I noted earlier, can't be paid exclusively by the ratepayers right? At be, you know, this is this is an overall objective that we have. And so, you know, the the infrastructure built is so large, that it needs to be certainly parts of it need to be paid through the tax system, and that that is progressive in a way that, that that rates are not progressive to begin with them, you know, but boy addressing vulnerable customers absolutely critical. You know, there's a variety of things that that could be tried, you know, in the United States that there's a Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, that it helps keep families safe and healthy through initiatives that assist families with energy costs this, I think they call it the LIHEAP provides federally funded assistance, to reduce the costs associated with home energy bills, energy crises, weatherization, and minor energy related home repairs. So you know, a similar initiative in Canada, could be there to assist the the most vulnerable, you know, as as, as you're aware that, you know, your your, your most vulnerable customers are the ones that have the least capacity to do things like weatherization. And so, you know, there's an example of a national program that we could look at as a model. You know, one of the other is let's, let's try not do dumb things at the same time from a public policy standpoint. And one of the areas that we've been lobbying and has been something called the excessive interest and financing expenses limitation, we call it Eifel. And now it is not going to impact your customers, but in some jurisdictions of this country, it is actually going to bite the customer. So this is a this is a change in financial rules that will limit the amount of interest paid interest expenses that can be deducted from taxable income for existing and new borrowings. Now, it sounds complex, but basically every dollar that is denied interest, it winds up getting passed on to the customers, and it increases the cost of capital. Now, it only affects a smaller number of jurisdictions in this country. But you know, in the US and the UK and other countries, they have exemptions for this role. So they don't apply to utilities, but it will apply to to utilities here in Canada. And so like, right now, the only exemption offered to this is for investments in rental housing, which, you know, we see, but you know, that that's a, that is a program that some of your listeners though, not the hydro Ottawa customers will will likely be aware of, but you know, there's also an important role for energy efficiency and conservation programs in this space, right? You know, energy equity programs, thermostat installations, insulation rebates, and direct install for low income customers, they all help people to reduce their energy costs consumption and, and help them reduce their energy bills. But you know, you're absolutely right, we need to make sure that we keep our eye on the most vulnerable as we go through this transition. And there are ways that we can do that. And there, there are examples like that program I talked about in the US, even at a national at a federal level, where there are programs that we could put in place.   Trevor Freeman  43:39 Yeah, we do have I mean, there's, like you say, there's national programs that could be rolled out, we do have more local programs and Ontario, there are some assistance for low income customers that that we can support on the electricity bills. Federally, we've seen that investment in kind of on let's call it the supply side, helping helping homeowners access capital for low carbonization upgrades. So whether that's weatherization or putting heat pumps in, you know, the current program is oversubscribed and pause as a result, but seeing more of that and more directed to electricity specifically, I think would be would be great. When it comes to emerging technologies, so things like energy storage, smart grids, shaping the future of our sector, and let's break that apart a little bit. Let's talk about that at the macro level first. So kind of the grid level, and then we'll talk about it maybe on a behind the meter on the customer side of things. What do you see the role is for these new emerging technologies?   Francis Bradley  44:40 Right. Well, you know, I mean, you know, as I said, as I said earlier, I think the the future is going to be an all of the above approach. And emerging technologies absolutely are going to be a critical part of this. But you know, we need to be realistic too. So you know, there's technologies that that may be able to replace fuel base generation but they're not yet commercially available, and they're dependent upon supply chains that are not yet at scale. So, you know, there's a lot of reasons to be optimistic, for example, about the role that small modular reactors are going to play or the battery storage will play in our electricity nicks out to 2050. But is it realistic to assume that they'll be deployed on a large scale between now and 2035? You know, we need to look at both the the medium term and the long term solutions. And so I think a lot of these technologies hold a great deal of promise, when talking about a 2050 timeframe, the 2035 timeframe is a little bit more more challenging, you know, one of the emerging technologies I mentioned in a minute ago, small modular reactors. And so, you know, we we see, Ontario Power Generation moving very aggressively hoping to complete their build by 2028. Get to grid by 2029. But, you know, if you happen to be Saskatchewan, and you're hoping that small modular reactors will be your solution over the longer term, you may not be in the 2035 timeframe. So, you know, that's, that's the challenge there. So I have a great deal of confidence in our ability to develop those technologies. And I think there's going to be some huge advantages as well, right? I look back, because I've been around the sector long enough to, you know, the early days of, you know, candu and the build out of the CANDU reactors, principally in Ontario, but although, you know, we have a plant operating in New Brunswick, and we did have one in Quebec for a time, but we built an ecosystem to support that as well. And, you know, I'm very bullish on our ability to develop these new technologies, hopefully develop them here in Canada, and develop the ecosystems and the supply chains here in Canada, not only to the benefit of sort of Canadians and Canadian customers, but I think, you know, much like can do this could be technology that we'd be able to, to market around the world. So small modular reactors, carbon capture, you know, this is there's so much work that's being done in this space, that, that, that I'm confident that they will be important technologies, and they will be important for our supply in the future. We just need to be realistic about when we can rely on them. Because you know, that the one thing that that we can never sacrifice, of course, is the reliability of the system that's customer will never accept that.   Trevor Freeman  47:35 Yeah, of course, we're so intertwined. I mean, everybody that's listening knows this. This isn't any kind of insight, but we're so intertwined that yeah, we can't sacrifice that reliability. And it does, it touches on this idea that we have the technology that we need today, in the in the sort of near and medium term to get going on this stuff. And we're already going on this stuff. And then there are these nascent technologies that some of them may succeed, some of them may not, but we, we do need to invest in those. And we need to figure out which one of those is going to help us in that sort of medium to long term to get over that last 5, 10, 15%. Who knows what, but help us get there? What about on the sort of smaller scale behind the meter side of things when we talk about these emerging technologies? So distributed energy resources, you know, solar storage at the home level? Do you see that playing a big role in how we move forward here?   Francis Bradley  48:32 Yeah. Like not tomorrow or next week? But you know, when you when you're looking over the longer term? Absolutely, I mean, I think, you know, we're already seeing changes in terms of how the customer interacts with the, with the supplier, in some jurisdictions, where, you know, you'll look at, you'll look at Hawaii, you'll look at Australia, where we see massive penetration of rooftop solar, for example. But what what that's given us is, it's given us the ability to get insights in terms of how that change in the relationship between the supplier and the customer that's going to evolve. Absolutely, and it is clearly something that, you know, as we've seen, in in, in those jurisdictions, that there is a, there's a significant amount of interest in, in in pursuing this. And there's a great deal of interest when the opportunity arises on the part of customers to be able to access technologies that allow them to feel like they they have more agency, sort of in the relationship and how they relate to electricity. So yeah, absolutely. When you when you go out to, you know, the longer term, distributed generation rooftop solar mine, I'm a, you know, an EV driver now, but like 10 years from now, you know, hopefully we will have figured out how to use vehicle to grid. You know, again, you know, when I talk about it you're going to need two to three times more kilowatt hours. I'm not saying we necessarily need two to three times more generation, because a lot of these technologies are going to give us the ability to have a more flexible, and more efficient electricity system. And a number of those are at the customer level. So you know, if you think of an electric vehicle, that is probably charging 2% of the time, or 4%, of the time, and the rest of the time when it's not being driven, it's plugged in. And that's a I've got an 82 kilowatt hour battery, that, you know, at some time in the future, me and all of my neighbors will have 82 kilowatt hour batteries. And so like how many megawatts on my block that that we could tap into, that can not only give the customer the ability to, as I say, have more agency in the relationship, but man the kind of flexibility we'd get for the distribution system operators, to be able to tap into that the greater resilience that we would have. So you know, that's just one example of a technology that that I think holds a huge amount of promise and that one aint pie in the sky, because I'm driving around with with a 82 kilowatt hour battery today.   Trevor Freeman  51:11 Yeah. And I mean, the other side of that is also happening, the utilities are getting ready for that, and putting in the foundation and the building blocks that we need now, to do what you just described, to be able to look out there in our service territory and say, what are all the assets that I can use not just the incoming power from the grid, not just our switches and transformers? But what are all the assets that I can call on? And how do I incentivize this customer to do this behavior? You know, a couple episodes ago, we talked about what's our grid modernization roadmap, and it is designed very much around that, that capability. So I mean, that was a bit of a loaded question. I'm, that's kind of the answer I was expecting. For sure. But yeah, that's something that we're super keen on and super interested in. So Francis, as we kind of wrap up today, you know, maybe sum up some of the major steps that you want to see us take nationally in terms of policy to get out of this culture of No, as you call it. And into the you know, getting to yes, that towards the name of your report.   Francis Bradley  52:15 Sure. Okay. So to get to that place, we would have that one project, one assessment framework that's been promised in two consecutive federal budgets, we'd have it and we'd have it up and running, we have significant changes to the Impact Assessment Act, we would have a clean electricity strategy. That's been one of the things that, that we've been asking of the federal government for the past several years, you know, we have similar strategies, we've got a national strategy for hydrogen, we've got a national strategy for minerals, we've got, you know, national strategies in a whole bunch of areas. We had a commitment last year by the federal government to have a national strategy for for clean electricity. So we're hoping to see that this year, we would engage indigenous communities at the start of a process and we'd work to split equally in favorable ways like Hydro One, and for desync have done in Ontario. And we would have collaboration at all levels of government, federal, provincial, indigenous, as well as regulators. That would be that would be my wish list.   Trevor Freeman  53:11 That's, that's no small list. Well, Francis, it was really great talking to you today. We do always end our interviews with a series of questions. So if you're ready, I'll dive right into that   Francis Bradley  53:22 A series of questions. Uh oh. Okay   Trevor Freeman  53:24 We'll see how you do here. What is a book that you've read that you think everybody should read?   Francis Bradley  53:30 Okay, well, it is a book that I have not read yet. I've just begun reading it because somebody pointed me in this direction. So I just got it. It's called the parrot and the igloo. And that the subtitle is climate and the science of denial. It is a it is a sofar, a very, very interesting book by the author David Lipski. So, I've just started reading this, but so far, it's proving to be a really great read.   Trevor Freeman  54:03 If our listeners can hear me typing here, every once in a while, actually, you know, maybe half the time I hear about a book that I haven't come across yet. So I'm taking notes here. That's a good one.   Francis Bradley  54:12 There you go. Yeah, the parent and the igloo.   Trevor Freeman  54:15 So same question, but what's a movie or a show that you would recommend?   Francis Bradley  54:19 Oh, okay. Well has nothing to do with energy or electricity or climate change. But But Mad Man. the I think the greatest the greatest series that they did ever been produced and television. Love it. Yeah. I wish I would have been there. They just seem to be such weird and creative meetings that they that they wind up in terms of figuring out the advertising back in the 1960s.   Trevor Freeman  54:42 Yeah, totally. There's, there's no shows out there that you can go back to several times, if not indefinitely, and that's, that's certainly one of them   Francis Bradley  54:49 that's one of the ones for me.   Trevor Freeman  54:50 Yeah. If somebody offered you a free round trip flight anywhere in the world, where would you go, if you could offset the carbon   Francis Bradley  54:59 I would I would, I would go to Ireland, I had been planning a trip to Ireland in April 2020. With with two of my kids. It never happened that we've never been so, you know, one one side of our family the roots go back there. But I have never been so it would absolutely be to Ireland.   Trevor Freeman  55:22 Very cool. It is amazing how many times I hear that sort of there's those 2020 2021 trips that were planned that never happened. Yeah. are on the list for everybody. That's great. Who is someone that you admire?   Francis Bradley  55:36 Niko Tesla. Yeah, Tesla, who is I think one of the real unsung heroes of the of the past, you know, people know all about, you know, Edison and Westinghouse. But very few people know about Tesla. And and I think I think he had significantly more patents than either either of those two guys. Everybody knows the car, but very few people know the man.   Trevor Freeman  56:03 Okay, so last question, what is something that you are excited about when it comes to the energy sector and its future?   Francis Bradley  56:10 Everything   Trevor Freeman  56:11 Great  The future is bright. I mean, I wouldn't want to be anywhere else right now. Specifically, you asked about the energy sector, but specifically electricity, I'm, I'm really looking forward to the future. You know, I talk a lot about, you know, we're going to have to build in the next 25, 26 years, a system that is twice as large as the system we had, you know, 120, 130 years ago. But if you look at how much a society has changed, because of electrification in the past century, society is well is going to change even more significantly, in the next 25 years. As we move forward. And we double, I'm really, you know, it's just like everything about what's going to happen in the sector. And, and, and our utilization and the new technologies that will, we'll have access to is, I find it endlessly fascinating to see what that future is going to look like I'd listened 15 years ago, nobody had iPhones and iPads, and all of these new technologies. And we used to have to watch TV shows when they were scheduled. And, and, you know, when I started working back in the day, if you if you wanted money, it would be cash, and you'd have to go to the bank. And if you didn't get there by Friday afternoon, you were stuck for the weekend. So yeah, you know, now I pay everything with my with my watch, right? Yeah, it's not even a tap. I just, I just use the watch. And so like, what's going to change in the next 25 years? It's going to be endlessly fascinating.  It does feel like it, you know, and I've been in this industry a little while now. And it seems like the rate of change, specifically on climate on the energy transition on decarbonizing feels like it's picking up speed and getting momentum, and people are kind of getting behind it, not to say we've solved all the problems, but Right. That's the optimistic piece for me that I look at and say, Yes, stuff is happening. And this is a really cool spot to be I agree.   Francis Bradley  58:16 Absolutely.   Trevor Freeman  58:16 Well, Francis, this is a fantastic conversation. I really appreciate you taking the time and sharing your insights with us. And this was number two on the podcast, so I'm sure there'll be a third at some point.   Francis Bradley  58:25 Excellent. Thanks a lot, Trevor. It was great to chat with you take care.   Trevor Freeman  58:28 Yeah. Thanks.   Francis Bradley  58:29 Cheers.   Trevor Freeman  58:31 Thanks for tuning in to another episode of The think energy podcast. Don't forget to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts, and it would be great if you could leave us a review. It really helps us spread the word. As always, we would love to hear from you. Whether it's feedback, comments, or an idea for a show or guests. You can always reach us at think energy at hydro ottawa.com  

The CGAI Podcast Network
Energy Security Cubed: Growing Canada's Global Influence with the Candu Reactor, ft. Gary Rose

The CGAI Podcast Network

Play Episode Listen Later May 30, 2024 58:07


On this episode of the Energy Security Cubed Podcast, Kelly Ogle and Joe Calnan interview Gary Rose about the global nuclear renaissance and how the CANDU reactor can grow Canada's stature around the world. // For the intro session, Kelly and Joe discuss the energy implications of the upcoming Mexican Presidential election and the issues for Western wind turbine manufacturers. // Guest Bio: - Gary Rose is Executive Vice President, Canada Nuclear at AtkinsRéalis and President and CEO of Candu Energy Inc. // Host Bio: - Kelly Ogle is Managing Director of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute - Joe Calnan is a Fellow and Energy Security Forum Manager at the Canadian Global Affairs Institute // Reading recommendations: - "Talent Wins: The New Playbook for Putting People First", by Ram Charan, Dominic Barton, and Dennis Carey: https://www.amazon.ca/Talent-Wins-Playbook-Putting-People/dp/1633691187 - "21 Things You May Not Know About the Indian Act", by Bob Joseph: https://www.ictinc.ca/books/21-things-you-may-not-know-about-the-indian-act // Interview recording Date: May 15, 2024 // Energy Security Cubed is part of the CGAI Podcast Network. Follow the Canadian Global Affairs Institute on Facebook, Twitter (@CAGlobalAffairs), or on LinkedIn. Head over to our website at www.cgai.ca for more commentary. // Produced by Joe Calnan. Music credits to Drew Phillips.

Blue Skies Podcast with Erin O'Toole, MP
The Nuclear Renaissance: Part III

Blue Skies Podcast with Erin O'Toole, MP

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 17, 2024 52:53


Blue Skies returns and continues its series on the important role of nuclear energy in our economic and environmental future. Dr. Chris Keefer, the President of Canadians for Nuclear Energy, joins Erin to discuss his own nuclear ‘conversion' and how his advocacy is educating Canadians and changing the public policy debate. They discuss Canadian industry advancements from Small Modular Reactors and new build at the Bruce site to the extension of Pickering Generating Station and the role CANDU technology has played developing this important sector.

Navigating Major Programmes
Implementing IPD in Nuclear Mega Projects with Carol Tansley | Saïd Business School, University of Oxford | S1 EP 11

Navigating Major Programmes

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 25, 2023 39:46


In this week's episode, Riccardo and guest co-host, Corail, sit down with fellow alumna, Carol Tansley to discuss her Oxford Saïd Business School dissertation on the institutional barriers to adopting integrated project delivery (IPD) on a nuclear mega project. Carol's impressive career, spanning two decades, is rooted in executing major programs for the UK Government Department for Work, HMRC, and DTI. As a recognized authority in large-scale IT and business transformations, her expertise took her to the Middle East, notably participating in the groundbreaking nuclear project in Abu Dhabi, marking the inauguration of the first nuclear power plant in the Arab world. Ninety-seven percent of nuclear major programmes go over time and over budget, so how did Carol (with no nuclear background) participate in delivering one two days early? This is a conversation you won't want to miss.“IPD may represent a methodology that would work has been proven to work in first of a kind environments. And while we have the field conditions now to embrace that, we need people that are willing to go out and embrace these new ways of working and seek to implement them.” Key Takeaways: The role Eternal Beginner Syndrome plays in complex nuclear programmes.The perceived barriers against adopting new models and how cultural and cognitive biases can masquerade as genuine obstacles.Carol's experience at Nuclear Week in the UK parliament and the future trends of the nuclear industry—energy security goals, securing affordable supplies and tackling climate change.Attracting the younger generation to the nuclear sector to support climate solutions and the expected 40 percent growth rate. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure and give us a five star rating and leave us a review on iTunes, Podcast Addict, Podchaser or Castbox. The conversation doesn't stop here—connect and converse with our community: Carol Tansley on LinkedInCorail Bourrelier Fabiani on LinkedInRiccardo Cosentino on LinkedIn Transcript:Riccardo Cosentino 00:05You're listening to navigate the major programes, the podcast that aims to elevate the conversations happening in the infrastructure industry and inspire you to have a more efficient approach within it. I'm your host, Riccardo Cosentino brings over 20 years of major product management experience. Most recently, I graduated from Oxford University's Day business school, which shook my belief when it comes to navigating major problems. Now it's time to shake yours. Join me in each episode, as I press the industry experts about the complexity of major program management, emerging digital trends and the critical leadership required to approach these multibillion-dollar projects. Let's see where the conversation takes us. Carol Tansley was appointed Vice President X energy UK new build projects in September 2022. In this role, she oversees all x-energy's activities towards establishing the XE 100 as the prominent I temperature gas reactor technology in the United Kingdom. Prior to joining IX energy, Carol served as the operational readiness Control Center Director for the early successful Emirates nuclear energy cooperation startup of the Barakah nuclear plant in the UAE. She was also the new Newa energy company director of strategic programs. Prior to this, she served as a senior director for PwC in the UK and UAE, as well as working at Accenture delivering some of the UK is largest public sector change programs. She recently graduated with distinction from the University of Oxford, with an MSc in major program management. Carol's research focuses on causes of poor performance on nuclear mega project, and potential benefits of adopting relational contracting models. Corail 02:05Hello, Carol Heller, Ricardo, I'm super happy to talk to you today. And thank you so much for the opportunity to interview Carol on your podcast, Ricardo, I think we all met in Oxford during the MMPMcourse. And it was wonderful to learn about Carol's experience about the nuclear industry, which is one of the most complex industries, you can find say, I think the listener will be so happy to hear about Carol's story and what you have to say are all about the future of this industry. First of all, I was wondering if you could tell us a little bit more about your background and how you fell into the nuclear sector. I know that there is a little value at the start of this episode to talk about your career, but it would be great to hear from your words how how you got into that very complex industry. Carol Tansley 03:05Okay, thank you very much corral. And thank you, Riccardo. I really appreciate the opportunity. One to both be back together again, because we haven't seen each other for a little while and to to talk on your podcast. So thank you very much. And just in terms of my background, my professional career has all been in delivering major projects and programs. The first I'll call it almost 20 years was in the UK, delivering major programs for the UK Government Department for Work in pensions HMRC. What was DTI. A lot of the large transformation programs that came with large scale it development programs and the business transformation that sat around that in around 2010. I moved to work on a project in the Middle East. It was for the Ministry of Interior in Abu Dhabi, a large transformation program that we're doing now it was a joint Middle East UK project and it covered the police Abu Dhabi police that covered Civil Defense prisons borders. And I was there for a couple of years. I then went to Saudi Arabia and worked for on a big transformation program for Ministry of Labor. And it was when I'd been there for a couple of years that I was asked to join the nuclear project that they were delivering in Abu Dhabi, you may be aware that they are they've delivered the first nuclear power plant in the Arab world. It was a new to nuclear country, what they've achieved there is quite phenomenal with the vision of the leaders of that country. So they pass their legislation to become a nuclear country and to get my program moving in 2009 They broke ground if you like so poured first concrete and 2012 and they got their first unit online by loading fuel for the first unit right before COVID Hit actually And two days ahead of schedule on the 17th of February 2020. And I was privileged to be part of that program, I was asked to join that program because of my background in major program delivery, not because I had anything to do with nuclear. So it was really, it was an amazing journey, great learning curve, an amazing sector to be part of, particularly now that it is going to play such an important role in the energy transition, the drive to net zero and energy security goals for countries around the world. Corail 05:33Absolutely is really impressive as well that you delivered two days early this project, which is so unusual in I think, in your research somewhere, you said that there is a study that said that over 97% of nuclear major projects are delayed, that cost overruns, etc, all across the globe. So it's quite unusual. Isn't that very unusual in that industry? How on earth did you make this happen? Like how did you manage to deliver early such a complex program? Carol Tansley 06:08Yeah, well, you're absolutely right about what you say its nuclear mega projects, I'll call them particularly nuclear new builds are recognized as being one of the most complex type of program to deliver. In fact, there are people who say Charles Perot, for example, in his textbook says that nuclear mega projects are the hardest to deliver harder and more complex than something like the International Space Station. And you're also right in what you said that one of the datasets I looked at 97% of the nuclear new build projects had gone over time and over budget. So in terms of what happened at Baraccah, it certainly wasn't me alone, it was a huge effort by a huge number of people working together over many years to achieve this. I think a lot of it came from the vision and the determination of the leaders in Abu Dhabi, they were determined to be at the forefront of clean energy. And they saw the drive for nuclear. As a critical part of that. I think we the fact that we chose a design that was in Nth of a kind if you like, so what that means is multiple units have been delivered before. So the South Koreans Catco, who delivered the units, it was proven reactor design had been delivered before, albeitin a different environment. So that created with a very experienced team. So that was a big foundation. There were many, I'll call it first of a kind variables, as we've already said, new to nuclear country, new elements of the supply chain. But the critical thing was having a really important integration function that sat across all of the teams, including the supply chain, that worked very closely with all of the internal and external stakeholders, including the regulator, that was a critically important part of what we did, and making sure that we had a schedule that was fully scoped, that we did our best to make sure it was realistic from the start, we kept assessing our past performance as we were moving forward to make sure that the schedule took account of that. And we tried to eliminate any optimism bias in our forward forecasting. It wasn't always a smooth journey. There were a few bumps in the road along the way, as you'd expect with something that complex over so many years. But I think, as I've said already the the drive and the passion of the leadership there. And you know, quite honestly, the the work ethic of all the teams that were involved, because everybody realized quite what was at stake here that just kept driving to deliver. Corail 08:49Yeah, that's, that's amazing. And so I read your paper recently that you published in nuclear industry, congratulations. Carol Tansley 08:57Okay. Thank you very much. Corail 09:00And in there, you talk a lot about this, first of a kind issue in the in the nuclear industry. Can you explain to us what are the complexities associated with this first of a kind? Program? Carol Tansley 09:17Yeah, I think so. Yes. Thank you for the question. So, on a nuclear new build program, you have so many elements of complexity uncertainty at the beginning. So you have the technology, the reactor itself, which is obviously highly technically complex, you've got all of the support systems that sit around that they delivered in highly complex institutional frameworks, I'll call them within, you know, in any particular country in any particular location, because of all of the safety levels that you have to achieve. And all of the environmental levels that you have to achieve to make sure that you're safe in that environment that you're not disturbing that environment and all So the regulation that sits around it, so lots of stakeholders that have to be engaged in that. So all of that every time you go and deliver one of these in a new environment, you have all of that complexity. And if you are using a new reactor design, in the middle of all of that, you've got all of the technical complexity as well. So first of a kind refers to any of those variables that have never been used on the delivery of a project, whether it's a nuclear project or any project in the past. And typically, because a lot of these reactors, the nuclear power plants that have been delivered over the last sort of two decades, we haven't actually done that many of them that and they take so long that it's very difficult to keep the learning on a project that's that big and takes so long. And then if the next one happens in a totally different environment, in a different country, it's very difficult to replicate what you've had in a different environment with a different supply chain with different stakeholders. So it almost means that you permanently into eternal beginner syndrome. And I think this is why, you know, in places like China, in South Korea, they've done a really good job because they have kept building their power plants. So they have very exercised andexperienced supply chains, they have stable reactor designs, they have a stable regulatory system. And all of that means that you've got a lot fewer first of a kind variables, and the fewer of those variables you have, the easier it is to deliver your project. Riccardo Cosentino 11:35So Carol, as Carell mentioned earlier, you you know, we met at Oxford, during the master image of program management, and a lot of your research was connected to the dissertation that you picked. And so my my I'm curious to know what why did you pick that topic? What what I mean, obviously, you were involved in the project, but why did you specifically wanted to research that topic? I mean, maybe introduced the topic, we don't actually have introduced the topic up to now. Carol Tansley 12:08Okay. All right. Thank you, Riccardo for the question. So my dissertation title was institutional barriers to adopting integrated project delivery on a nuclear mega project. And just to unpack that a little bit. So my experience coming as a non Nuke, shall we say, somebody with no nuclear background into the nuclear sector. One of my observations is that many people have been in that sector for many years, and very familiar with ways of working. And in some respects, not everybody, but in some respects, I find some reluctance in people to adopt new ways of thinking and different approaches to doing things. And that sort of from a theoretical point of view is looked through institutional theory. So looking at things from a regulative. So what are the rules around things, obviously, highly regulated environment in nuclear looks at the laws and the specific safety regulations. So that's one lens, looking at through normative lens. And that really is about your traditional practices, your typical work practices, the way you you do business on a daily basis, and the way people get used to it. And then the cultural cognitive piece, which is about how people perceive change, at what the mindset is generally how people look at things and think about adopting changes. So institutional theory, the institutional lens was regulative, normative and cultural cognitive. So I was interested in looking at if I brought a new idea, a new way that I thought might help to improve performance on nuclear mega projects. What would people think about that? And if they perceived barriers, which lens would they perceive it through? So that was part of it, coming back to the integrated project delivery. So this was a project delivery methodology and commercial approach that was founded, if you like, in the US in the civil construction sector, after decades of poor performance on large infrastructure projects, and what it has proven where it was adopted there, that it did improve performance. And it did this through driving inter party collaboration and using relational contracting approaches. So it wasn't the traditional contracting adversarial contracting approach. And they found that adopting integrated project delivery really did improve performance, particularly where it was a complex one off of a one of a kind project. However, I also found that that approach had never been used on a nuclear mega project. And I thought it would be really interesting to say, well, if it's improved, project performance on those kinds of projects, why I couldn't we use that in the nuclear sector. So I started to look at, you know, what, what are the facets of IPD integrated project delivery? And how do they map onto the problems that the root causes, if you like, of poor performance within nuclear mega projects, and I found there was quite a lot of symmetry there. So so what I mean by that is the root cause of poor performance, and the the items or the challenges, if you like that IPD was proven to improve. So I found a lot of overlap there. So the way I did my research was to take that case, if you like to a whole load of executives from the nuclear sector, explained to them about IPD. And get them to explain to me the challenges they'd had in delivering nuclear mega projects to sort of bring the whole concept to life, and then ask them what they foresawas potential barriers to its adoption. So a bit of a long winded answer, but that was the the underpinning of my dissertation research. Corail 16:03Yeah, thank you, Carol. I thought it was fantastic. The way you showed that exactly. The issues were potentially all resolved by the IPD. And I was wondering, now, you recently came back to the UK? Also now Modular Reactor today? Are you trying to implement IPD? In the way you're going to deliver this reactors? Carol Tansley 16:29Well, it's a great question. And the reason or one of the reasons I was asked to join extended GE, where I work now, and you're right, it's a Advanced Small Modular Reactor company, we design and develop the reactors, as well as the fuel that powers those reactors. It was actually through my dissertation research, because I contacted one of the executives who actually works the text energy. And I was trying to explain a little bit about the basis from a research to see if you'd be interested. And as I was explaining that, so he said to me, you're not talking about IP are you. And, and I was astonished because nobody else I've spoken to, I'd heard of it. And he said, Oh, he said, were trying to implement it here because and the background to it was one of their customers in North America had wanted to have an active role in the project, and asked X energy to go away and research commercial models that would enable them to do that in a collaborative way. And in going and doing that research, they'd come across IPD, and we're then implementing it with that client. And and it actually reached a point where they decided they were going to mandate it on their projects. So it was through the research and that contact that I actually ended up coming to extend ng so again, a bit of a long winded answer, but that that is what we're trying to do. Not on all of our projects, but on some of our projects within X energy. Corail 17:53That's amazing. And I'm sure your research, like looking at what would be the barriers to implementing IPD on these programs is really helpful in your work today. Are there any barriers? Actually? Are there any issues that you foresee? Or do you think it's it's simply a cultural shift to make? Carol Tansley 18:13I think it's a number of things? Um, my, I think most of them are actually fall in the cultural cognitive arm if you like, and I think but I think what happens is people express reasons that give you potential barriers that are not real, if you see what I mean. So I get I got feedback about, you know, I don't think the regulator would like it, or, you know, I don't think we'd be able to find insurance to underpin this model, or I'm not sure the procurement rules, you know, the public sector procurement rules would allow it. But when I sort of unpicked that I found out, you know, that a lot of it stemmed from the way of thinking that people had just got used to, you know, and again, just some some normative ones that came up about, again, people not they're so familiar with the the traditional contractual models that they'd rather use that even if they don't think it's going to work, or they know it doesn't work, then pick something new that they're not familiar with. Yeah. So I think it's, you know, kind of change management issue or cultural cognitive issue if you like. Corail 19:25Absolutely. I think it's also super interesting that you're working on Modular Reactor now because obviously next fall, we talk a lot about how modularity improves the performance of the complex programs. And you're right there with the with the nuclear and it's fascinating because it's, it's, we've always thought of nuclear does be the reactor that takes so many years to build, and you're trying to do it completely in a new way by creating something that can be almost like the solar panels atSome points, you know, you installed. Carol Tansley 20:01Yeah, absolutely. Corail 20:03Can you tell us a little bit more about this? And this this new technology? And how you, you, you came to get interested in that field as well? Carol Tansley 20:12Yeah. Yes. So thank you for the question. And you're absolutely right. And what I will say is the big Giga watt reactors absolutely have their place. And as I said at the beginning, they are successful, where they can be replicated and are delivered as a series. The issue is, particularly in the West, we haven't built many reactors over the past two decades. And if you think about what I was saying earlier about trying to drive out first of a kind variables and get to Nth of a kind. So that means once typically, once you get past four, or sorry, four or fifth of a kind, you've started to drive out those first time variables, and you get, you get the benefits of replication and learning by doing that if, and that's where the series effect becomes important for performance improvement, as you see in China, as you see in South Korea. But the thinking is that these small modular reactors, the kind of modular from two perspectives, they're modular in the fact that they're small. So in our example, our XC 100 reactor is an 80 megawatt reactor. And we can modularize those so that you could have a four pack, which is the ideal size of a power plant, that gives you 380 megawatts, or if it was a remote location, you might just have one, or if you wanted 12 of them together. So the idea is that you can increase capacity based on local needs. So the modular from that perspective, they're also modularized, from the perspective of the intention is that we build them so that they're built in units, that you will effect you making a factory and then you click them together, you assemble them on the site. So they're not the traditional, huge, what they call stick build, that you build a piece at a time from the ground up actually, on a on a site. So they are two benefits of it. But also, the critical benefit is because they're smaller, and simpler to construct, you get from the first of a kind to the ends of a kind a lot faster. And therefore you gain the efficiencies of the replication, the learning by doing, which means you build them faster, they're cheaper, and you can get them on the grid a lot faster. For both the power and it, like in ours, the high temperature heat and steam to decarbonize heavy industry. Corail 22:31Yes, that's amazing. And I think during with the issue with we've been through recently, with power supply, etc, we could see that the nuclear industry, I think, you know, sort of regaining funding, and people were more and more thinking that this was so important for the environment and what we're trying to achieve and reduce our carbon emission, etc. So you're definitely working on on an amazing program. You just you've just been at the Nuclear week in Parliament. So I imagine you, you, you werethere to talk about the trends in nuclear, did you see that this type of modular reactor are coming up in different ways, or is your industry still quite niche? With what? You know? Carol Tansley 23:28It's a great question. And I don't think it is considered niche anymore. I mean, you mentioned solar panels a little while ago. And obviously, one of the things that we've seen in terms of the benefits of renewables is the fact that they are easy to construct, you know, your solar panels, your wind farms. But that's where we're now getting to with nuclear. And I think there's a lot of recognition now that the scale of the challenge is so big, to help us with energy security goals, securing affordable supplies and tackling climate change, that there's a role for everybody, you know, that we've got, we need the wind, we, you know, renewables we have to have, but we need nuclear as well, to give us that reliable 24 hour a day baseload and that also can keep the grid stable alongside the renewables. And certainly from nuclear week in Parliament. You may be aware that we've now got our first minister for nuclear in the UK. He was appointed back in February, very energetic, Andrew Bowery and is very passionate about the sector very committed. And we've seen a huge increase in I would call it confidence and optimism in the in the sector this year. A lot of excitement at nuclear week this week, a lot of Parliamentarians so members of parliament and members of the House of Lords fully engaged in understanding what's happening, but an awful lot of vendor technologies there such as x energy ourselves alongside other large scale people are developing micro reactors people are developing small modular reactors as well as our advanced Modular Reactors. So I think there's recognition that we can't achieve Net Zero without nuclear. And it's got to be part of the mix. And I think we're, you know, we're starting to get the message out there. And we're starting to get a lot of traction in the UK with delivering more projects. And I think there's gonna be some announcements in the next sort of six to 12 months around that in the UK. Riccardo Cosentino 25:25Yeah, that's interesting. And just to give the North American perspective, like, you know, we are in Canada, Ontario, where I'm from, we also seeing a resurgence of nuclear, in parliament in Canada is now not a swear words, it used to be something you couldn't say out loud when you were in, in Parliament. And it's, you know, in the last 12 to 18 months, we see that the pendulum has swung the other way. Yeah. Now, it's all about nuclear. And it's, how fast can we do it? And, you know, something that was even pause, as you said, there's been decades since we built up a brand new reactor in the West. And now we're talking about new new reactors. Yeah. Beyond small modular, but even just standard nuclear reactors is something that has been contemplated, which is, which is refreshing? Carol Tansley 26:23And, yeah, yeah, I think it's good that you mentioned Canada, that because you've got a another tradition of building the CANDU reactors, I think you've built 22. All together, I mean, it's got one of the cheapest electricity prices in the world because of the amount of nuclear power that you've got in Canada. And I know that one of the things that's supporting this is regulatory harmonization between countries to try to make sure that we can bring nuclear effectively and efficiently to the market. And in terms of new builds, we've we've got four of our reactors, working with Dao, at their Seadrift site in Texas, that we're underway with constructing now. And so people are genuinely interested and, and heavy industry as well coming because they recognize that they've gotten the very hard to abate sector challenges that need nuclear to help them, you know, and these advanced technologies will also helpus with hydrogen production, and with also production of clean fuels for aviation and maritime, if you look at where all of the greenhouse gases are coming from 20% is coming from electricity, but 25% comes from transportation, and 55% comes from heating, and processes, industrial processes. So I think this combination of nuclear, with the renewables is exactly where we need to go. And I think Canada is one of the countries that's at the forefront of this alongside US, UK, France, UAE and the the Asian countries. Riccardo Cosentino 28:02Yeah. And it's, it's interesting that, you know, because obviously, if you fully understand power, you know, nuclear provides the base load. And I think what we're seeing with the renewable is that it's great. However, the renewable puts a lot of strain on the network, and the distribution network. And so, you know, I think I was researching a couple of weeks ago, about how long does it take to get a connection into renewable touring into a renewable cluster of generation. And it takes years. And, in fact, I was actually, I saw last week that there was a the auction for the contract for difference. Were in the UK. There were no bidders for, which is now correct. Yeah. So it's because it's really I'm assuming, and among might be wrong, but I'm assuming is just difficult to get the connect the connector into into the grid? Carol Tansley 29:03Yeah. And I think you Yeah, yes, that is correct. And you raise a great point, because we all need the grids upgrading as well. Because the volume of electricity we're going to need, it's not as though that staying stable was a doubling of that over the next couple of decades. And we have to be able to meet that demand. And certainly, you know, we believe that nuclear is the way to achieving that to get the base load, the stable base load that we're all going to need. And it's not just about Western societies, you know, we have to remember that democratizing energy is really important for quality of life. You know, power and energy are really important for remote communities, for countries that, you know, not maybe as privileged as ours at the moment in having readily accessible electricity and we have to help those countries as well. So that that's something we're also looking at, you know, in places like Africa that we have to allow those communities to come up and enjoy the standard of living that we all enjoy through, you know, cheaper electricity. Riccardo Cosentino 30:03It's interesting. You mentioned that because you know, you think of you don't you don't think of Canada as a place where democratization of energy is a big issue, but it's actually a very big issue in Canada, because we have remote communities in the North. The majority of these remote communities are on diesel generators. Corail 30:22Yes, no, that's absolutely right. And I think, yeah, and going back to what Corail asked a few minutes ago, I think this is another reason why these small modular reactors are so so attractive, because they can be put in those remote locations and help those communities. So they don't have to have these diesel generators anymore. Yeah, absolutely. I think in France, in my home country, we've been being a nuclear force. That unfortunately, we work very hard on developing what you said, dispatch, first of a kind, very large reactor, and then I feel for a while, we didn't really maintain or build a new one. And I feel like the capability has been lost in the in the process, you know, and I'm quite worried about thefuture of nuclear in France, and they feel like the smaller reactor as would be so amazing, because then you can build back also the capability much more quickly. Also, you don't lose it, because every time you're building very fast, and yeah, I'd love to see our government invest a lot more into that type of type of reactor, although I completely understand that all of them are very, you know, can support the future of power in our countries. Carol Tansley 31:42Yeah, so and I know France is well underway with having its own small modular reactors as well. But the point you make is really good one about the supply chain. And I mean, that in terms of the people that provide the the capability to build these nuclear reactors on all levels, and one of the things that's happened across the West, because we haven't built that many, or in some cases any, that supply chain has gradually dwindled. And now we're having to stand it back up quickly. So countries are trying to work together to invest to do that. We've got now the nuclear skills task force in the UK, we've got joint agreements between the UK and France, to leverage experience and to build that supply chain and across different countries, because I think we recognize that it's a multinational challenge, and we've got to work at it collaboratively. Corail 32:30Yeah. On the on the personal note, would you recommend people to join this industry, like, exciting for, you know, we should encourage the younger generation T's to join in? Carol Tansley 32:44Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think, you know, I heard something the other day that said, if the younger generation now was in charge of nuclear, it would be everywhere. They're not the people blocking this, a lot of young people recognize the challenge that we're facing from a climate emergency point of view, and are really behind nuclear. They're some of the most passionate advocates. But I think nuclear is a fantastic sector to get into. And it's not, of course, there are engineers here. But it's not all about engineering and physics. And one of the things that we're launching, I think a bit later this year, early next year, is a campaign to attract more people into the sector. Because yes, attracting young people in to develop the pipeline for the future is really important. But that doesn't solve the situation we're in now. I heard a statistic the other day that said, we've got 91,000 People in the nuclear sector in the UK, and I believe that's across civil and defense, and that needs to grow by 40%. Over the next few years, well, you can't achieve that just with the young people coming in. As important as that are, we need to attract people in from other sectors across all disciplines. So that's what we're really working to try and encourage and I will just put a plug in, it's a fantastic sector to work in. I've had a brilliant time here. And I'm just encourage anybody to join. Riccardo Cosentino 34:02Second, a second day, we you know, even in Canada, it's there was a resurgence. And I think we're a bit more lucky in Canada, especially in Ontario, where, because we've been refurbishing reactors, we can look at the supply chain, and be more engaged. So we're not starting from scratch. But you know, going from a refurbishment to a new build of either traditional nuclear or more modular is going to require an injection of workforce in the in the supply chain. But as we teased the listener with your with your research, and with the dissertation, the paper that you published, and I think you covered most of the conclusion, but maybe just to reiterate, what were you find when we will what were your findings inthe from the research that you conducted in terms of implementing IPD nuclear, any any insight that you can offer? Yeah, so my overall conclusions were that Carol Tansley 35:00You know, the the root causes of poor performance traditionally, or nuclear mega projects are very complex, you know, is technical is technological, its environmental, its organizational, its institutional. But one of the things I found was that first of a kind, projects have got the worst performance. And that might sound like a statement of the blindingly obvious. But what I found, the real conclusion I drew was it wasn't the first of a kind variables per se, it was the fact that we were choosing Commercial, contractual and project delivery models that were not resilient in a first of a kind environment. So they didn't cope well, where there was a lot of emergence and uncertainty. And that was where when I looked at IPD, integrated project delivery, I found that it did perform better in environments where there was uncertainty and emergent change. And hence, as Corail mentioned earlier, that mapping between the challenges and the root causes of poor performance on nucleon mega projects, and the challenges if you like, the benefits that IPD can bring, in terms of what I found about resistance to IPD. In the sector. I found that while people raised barriers, there was one example, the one I gave earlier with the company, I now work for, where they'd gone off and, and found that the client had actually come to them, none of those barriers emerged in practice. There were sort of theoretical barriers, not realistic barriers or barriers in reality, but of course, that was only one data point. So while I think IPD can, you know, may help to improve performance on nuclear mega projects, it still needs to be proven. And I think the final piece about the institutional barriers, one of the things I discovered was that even if the field level conditions, I'll call it change, to enable new ideas to be embraced. And I'll give an example of that in the nuclear sector. Now, the climate change emergency would be considered a change in field level conditions, because everybody's interested in nuclear again. And that might be sufficient of a driver to get people to consider new approaches. And that in itself is not sufficient. What you need is what the academics was called institutional entrepreneurs. So that means people that are willing to go out and find new ways of working to solve traditional problems in new ways and actually implement those changes. So they were the conclusions it was, first of a kind, but because we choose project delivering contractual models that don't work in first of a kind environments, IPD may represent a methodology that would work has been proven to work in first of a kind environments. And while we have the field conditions now to embrace that, we need people that are willing to go out and embrace these new ways of working and seek to implement them. Corail 38:05Thank you so much, Carol, that was so fascinating. So interesting. And thank you for keeping us at the top of the trends in your sector. That's a really amazing, Carol Tansley 38:15no, it's a pleasure talking to you and and getting your perspectives as well. Riccardo Cosentino 38:20Yeah, thank you very much, Carol, this this has been fascinating. I mean, I read, I read both your dissertation, the paper that you published, and I still learn something today from you. So I'm really lightening conversation and, you know, there's going to be other opportunities. I hope to have you on the po Carol Tansley 38:44Fantastic. Well, thank you, as I say for the opportunity. It's a pleasure seeing you both again, and to have the opportunity to talk on your podcast. Riccardo Cosentino 38:52That's it for this episode on navigating major problems. I hope you found today's conversation as informative and thought provoking as I did. If you enjoyed this conversation, please consider subscribing and leaving a review. I would also like to personally invite you to continue the conversation by joining me on my personal LinkedIn at Riccardo Cosentino. Listening to the next episode, we will continue to explore the latest trends and challenges in major program management. Our next in depth conversation promises to continue to dive into topics such as leadership risk management, and the impact of emerging technology in infrastructure. It's a conversation you're not going to want to miss. Thanks for listening to navigate the major programs and I look forward to keeping the conversation going Music: "A New Tomorrow" by Chordial Music. Licensed through PremiumBeat.DISCLAIMER: The opinions, beliefs, and viewpoints expressed by the hosts and guests on this podcast do not necessarily represent or reflect the official policy, opinions, beliefs, and viewpoints of Disenyo.co LLC and its employees.

Western Context - News from Alberta, BC, and Canada
Western Context 337 – Relations, Reactors and Retreats

Western Context - News from Alberta, BC, and Canada

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 24, 2023 56:37


Canada and India’s relationship tumbles even further, Alberta explores the idea of a provincial pension plan, and Canada helps Romania build more CANDU reactors. Also, the Trudeau cabinet spends $275k on an inflation summit. Hosts: Shane and Patrick Duration: 56:37 For detailed show notes visit westerncontext.ca.

Decouple
Quebec reconsiders Nuclear. Waters up with that?

Decouple

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 25, 2023 9:47


As electricity demands increase Quebec is looking into refurbishing its lone mothballed CANDU reactor Gentilly-2. Mark Nelson joins us to discuss.

Ha!u Podcast
Lelaki yang Candu Hiking

Ha!u Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 19, 2023 21:32


Episode Ha!u Podcast kali ini kita berbincang sembari menikmati senja di Gunung Bongkok Purwakarta bersama Bung Eko H. dan "H"-nya itu "Hikers"! Ya, itu karena belio beberapa tahun ke belakang ini sudah mendaki kurang lebih empat gunung. So, this is not a noise, but a voice! BTW, episode kali ini juga hadir YouTube, ya! (link: https://youtu.be/_bCtQYsoqg0 )

The Power Hungry Podcast
Chris Keefer: President of Canadians for Nuclear Energy

The Power Hungry Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 13, 2023 56:02


In his fifth appearance on the podcast, Chris Keefer. a Toronto-based medical doctor and president of Canadians for Nuclear Energy, talks about the historic announcements made last week by Ontario Power Generation that will expand the province's nuclear capacity by some 6,000 megawatts. He talks about the reasons behind the move, the advantages of the CANDU reactor, and why Ontario has a “track record of kicking butt.” (Recorded July 7, 2023.) 

Decouple
The Case for Candu

Decouple

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 4, 2023 83:10


Chris Adlam, a senior analyst and cofounder of Canadians for Nuclear Energy joins me for an in depth discussion on the Case for the CANDU reactor. Read the “Case for CANDU” report from Canadians for Nuclear Energy at www.c4ne.ca

Nuclear Barbarians
CANDU Supremacy ft. Dr. Chris Keefer

Nuclear Barbarians

Play Episode Listen Later May 31, 2023 41:25


Dr. Chris Keefer of Decouple came on the pod to talk about Canadians for Nuclear Energy's new report, The Case for CANDU: Why Ontario's Homegrown Nuclear Technology Is Its Best Option In A Time Of Rising Electricity Demand.The Report: https://www.canfornuclearenergy.org/Follow Chris on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Dr_KeeferCheck Out Decouple: https://www.decouplemedia.org/ Get full access to Nuclear Barbarians at nuclearbarbarians.substack.com/subscribe

Value Inspiration Podcast
#266 - Jonathan Anderson, CEO Candu - on rethinking PLG software development

Value Inspiration Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later May 31, 2023 40:13


This podcast interview focuses on product innovation that helps product & growth teams build product-led experiences, experiment, and validate results, fast. And my guest is Jonathan Anderson, Co-founder and CEO of Candu. Jonathan Anderson is a tech entrepreneur on a mission. He loves tech but can't write a line of code. He's passionate about product-led selling and has launched services, strategy, operations, and analytics teams at venture-backed SaaS startups, including InsightSquared and LaunchDarkly.  Prior to startups, Jonathan worked at Bain & Company and he has a B.S. and M.S.Eng from Stanford University.  In September 2018, he co-founded Candu - a no-code tool that allows teams to collaboratively build the UI components needed to encourage the adoption of features, onboard users, and announce product news on a day-to-day basis. It's not just for the pure-play product-led companies, like Atlassian, Notion, and Loom — it's for the 'strivers' who are trying to figure out how to adjust their go-to-market motion for this new world order.  And this inspired me, and hence I invited Jonathan to my podcast. We explore what's holding a lot of software vendors back from shipping products to market and achieving high adoption rates. Jonathan shares his vision of how he aims to change that for good. He elaborates on the challenges he had to overcome to build traction and what that took from a product investment perspective in terms of first principles, focus, and grid. Lastly, he shares a do and a don't for B2B SaaS CEOs based on his most powerful own learnings. Here's one of his quotes We're changing the way that a business thinks about building its product. A single person, a single growth PM, can actually define an experiment in their head, grab a template, customize it, inject it into an application, preview it, and QA it themselves. So it really collapses what is basically a growth team into a single person. That makes it radically less expensive and also much, much, much faster. During this interview, you will learn four things: His approach to convincing a user/ buyer Candu is exactly what they need  How to approach getting users to start using your product and become addicted Their approach to turn their user base into their best sales force What Candu did differently by giving their ideal customers a 'name' that makes them instantly recognize if it's for them or not  For more information about the guest from this week: Jonathan Anderson Website Candu Subscribe to the Daily SaaS Reflection Get my free, 1 min daily reflection on shaping a B2B SaaS business no one can ignore. Subscribe here Yes, it's actually daily. And yes, people actually stay subscribed (Just see what peer B2B SaaS CEOs say) My promise: It's short. To the point. Inspiring. And valuable. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The VentureFizz Podcast
Episode 292: Jonathan Anderson - Co-Founder & CEO, Candu

The VentureFizz Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 17, 2023 49:36


Rember when you needed a full tech team to launch a simple brochureware website? Now you can just jump on Wix or Squarespace and spin up a well designed, responsive website in seconds. The rise of the no-code movement has helped increase the pace and usefulness of technology and it has transcended into lots of other applications and use cases. It's a win - win, as business users can create applications or make changes on the fly, while the engineering team gets to spend their time working on more complex and sophisticated problems. Candu is right in the strikezone of this no-code movement, as the company is building a better way to activate users and release new features. The simple, drag-and-drop UI Editor empowers product and customer teams to create UI themselves, saving developer time and trimming technical debt. Candu is venture backed by Two Sigma, CRV, Angular Ventures, and Haystack. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * Advice for improving the activation rate for SaaS products and whether or not those post activation email campaigns are effective. * Jonathan's background story and how his career accelerated while at InsightSquared, plus the details on wayOUT, a non-profit he co-founded. * How Candu came to fruition and the evolution of the platform to its current state including sample use cases for product growth teams and its value. * The vibe around raising venture capital in the current market and how entrepreneurs need to think about today's market reality. * Advice on how to have a successful launch on Product Hunt. * Business ideas from spending one year writing down a new startup idea every day. * And so much more. If you like the show, please remember to subscribe and review us on iTunes, Soundcloud, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play.

Entorno Blockchain
Cryptalks S1. E10. - Lenstags | ¿Cómo emprender dentro de la Web 3? | Candela Fazzano

Entorno Blockchain

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 10, 2023 49:43


Candu es una argentina con tremenda trayectoria en Web 3, es cofundadora de Lenstags, una red social de Web 3 social del ecosistema de Lens Protocol que se enfoca en el contenido colaborativo y la organización personal. ---------------------------------------------------- Redes Sociales: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/entornobloc... Youtube: @entornoblock. Lens Protocol: https://www.lensfrens.xyz/miguelberpu... Lenstube: https://lenstube.xyz/channel/miguelbe... Compra tu Cold Wallet con Ledger: https://shop.ledger.com/?r=2b693706305c ---------------------------------------------------- Redes Sociales de Candu: Twitter: @Candufaz Host: Miguel Bernal Guest: Candela Fazzano Edición/Motion Graphics: José Alfonso Manuel

Círculo Vicioso
Circulo Vicioso #129 - Edición Nuclear con Julieta Romero

Círculo Vicioso

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 30, 2023 91:29


Conducido por Pablo Wasserman y Juan Ruocco. Círculo Vicioso https://twitter.com/circulovicioso8 Sitio oficial: https://www.circulovicioso.club/ Descuento de 50 USD para abrir una LLC y banco en USA con Firmaway: https://firmaway.us/servicios-sponsor-cv/ (0:00) INTRO (2:25) ¿Quién es Julieta? (5:59) Estudiar Ingeniería Nuclear (14:08) Que es la Ingeniería Nuclear (22:01) Reactores y energía en Argentina (25:06) Reactores experimentales (26:58) Reacondicionamiento de reactores (30:05) CANDU y Atucha (34:41) Energías renovables en Argentina (40:52) Como funciona la energía nuclear (46:31) Uranio (51:36) Isótopos (54:29) Agua pesada (56:54) Enriquecimiento de uranio y Pilcaniyeu (1:04:34) Desarrollo nuclear (1:09:00) Fukushima (1:16:13) Chernobyl (1:18:57) Seguridad nuclear (1:21:55) INVAP y CAREM (1:25:46) Combustible (1:26:56) Automatización y hackeos (1:29:24) Cierre y final

Decouple
Ontario's Nuclear Advantage

Decouple

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 27, 2023 73:12


Gary Rose, VP of New Nuclear Growth at Ontario Power Generation, builds our understand of the CANDU refurbishment program, whose successes have laid the foundation for deployment of the West's 1st grid scale SMR, the GE Hitachi BWRX-300. Gary and I explore the thesis that Ontario is the best equipped jurisdiction in the west to deploy new nuclear, which now extends beyond SMRs to a serious consideration of “Large Modular Reactors.” Stay tuned for a masterclass on project management from a master of project management. Apologies to our non-Canadian listeners for some inside baseball in terms of acronyms and Canadianism.

ThinkEnergy
The Ontario Energy Board and the great energy transition

ThinkEnergy

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 27, 2023 42:23


  Canada is at the forefront of the global energy transition, leading with the goal to be net zero by 2050. To get there, the electricity sector must be decarbonized by 2035, from coast-to-coast, province-to-territory. So what does that transition look like close to home? How will customers be impacted in the near future? The Ontario Energy Board's Harneet Panesar, Chief Operating Officer, and Carolyn Calwell, Chief Corporate Services Officer & General Counsel, share their insight on thinkenergy episode 108.   Related links   Carolyn Calwell, LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolyn-calwell-648318b0/ Harneet Panesar, LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harneetp/ Ontario Energy Board: https://www.oeb.ca/ Engage with Us, OEB digital engagement platform: https://engagewithus.oeb.ca/ Energy Exchange: https://www.energy-exchange.net/ Adjudicative Modernization Committee: https://www.oeb.ca/stakeholder-engagement/stakeholder-engagement/adjudicative-modernization-committee   To subscribe using Apple Podcasts To subscribe using Spotify To subscribe on Libsyn --- Subscribe so you don't miss a video: YouTube Check out our cool pics on Instagram More to Learn on Facebook Keep up with the Tweets on Twitter --------- Transcript: Dan Seguin  00:06 This is ThinkEnerfy, the podcast that helps you better understand the fast changing world of energy through conversations with game changers, industry leaders, and influencers. So join me, Dan Seguin, as I explore both traditional and unconventional facets of the energy industry. Hey, everyone, welcome back. The world is going through a major energy transition driven by a multitude of reasons. political policy, economic prosperity, environmental urgency, social change, Greta Thornburg, technological advancements and innovation to name just a few. Canada is at the forefront of the energy transition movement and certainly seen as a leader on the world stage thanks to its aggressive target, to achieve net zero emissions by 2050. Of course, the country's other closer Net Zero target is the decarbonisation of the electricity sector by 2035. emissions free electricity grids in every province, and territories across Canada in just under 12 years. For many provinces and utilities, the race to transition their energy sectors began years ago, in Ontario, where the electricity grid is already more than 90% emissions free. This was in part due to the provincial shutdown of all coal plants between 2005 and 2014. It's no longer business as usual for energy providers, how we've operated for more than 100 years is neither viable nor sustainable. It's becoming clearer and clearer that for the Net Zero future to be reality, we must go further, still eliminating and remaining emissions from our provincial grid to make wait for the electrification of our grid, our vehicles and yes, our houses and buildings. But with all of the unknowns in our evolving energy future, there needs to be a steady hand to help guide the way forward. Enter the provincial regulator, the Ontario Energy Board, energy utilities are more closely regulated than many other industries because of their unique characteristic surrounding energy supply, and delivery. So here is today's big question. Given that the electrical grid needs to be emission free by 2035, what does the energy transition look like here at home in Ontario? What can customers expect in the near future? Today, my special guests are Carolyn Calwell, Chief Corporate Service Officer and General Counsel, and Harneet Panesar, Chief Operating Officer of the Ontario Energy Board. Welcome to the show, Carolyn. And perhaps you can start by telling us a bit about yourselves, your background, and why you chose to join the Ontario Energy Board.   Carolyn Calwell  03:39 Thanks, Dan. I'm a lawyer by training. I started off in private practice at a big firm and then I moved into the public sector, first at the municipal level and later at the provincial level. Shortly after I began working for the Ontario Provincial Government, I got into energy when that ministry merged with the one I was hired to. And that gave me the opportunity to work on the energy file in progressively senior legal positions, while also serving some other ministries. I eventually became an assistant deputy minister at the Ministry of Energy with a broad portfolio that touched on things like distribution, transmission, agency oversight, indigenous energy policy issues, all kinds of things, lots of fun with a lot of challenging files, and always with great people to work with. So then, when the restructuring of the EOEB came along, I got excited about where the OEB  was gonna go. On a personal level, I saw an opportunity to work on things from both policy and legal perspectives as the chief Corporate Services Officer and General Counsel. And I saw the chance to learn some new skills in the corporate services side of things. And I also saw an opportunity to learn the role of the regulator and get a new perspective on files I'd worked on. So most enticing though, was the opportunity to make some changes a lot like her nude, so I was thrilled by the opportunity to come over.   Harneet Panesar  04:54 Alright, thanks, Dan. So in terms of my background, maybe I'll open it up by saying you know, Today as we talk, I'm hoping to bring three different perspectives, and three different hats that I can wear. And the first one is that a utility, you know, I've spent about 14 years working for Hydro oOne, which is Ontario's largest transmission and distribution company. And I did nine different roles across the organization. And most recently, just before I left, I was Director of Strategy and Integrated Planning. My team looked after the investment plan, the overall capital that the utility was looking to spend, I had the strategy Research and Development Innovation team. And I also had a team that focused on reliability, which is a very important outcome for utility. So we focused on metrics benchmarking studies, and I had a really cool team. I'm an engineer by background. So I find this fascinating, I had a team that did post event investigations. So when equipment fields, we bring in massive cranes, pull them out, and dissect them to see what went wrong, and try and see if there's any systematic issues that we could look to solve across the system. I also had a team that looked after the modernization of the joint use portfolio, which is the use of the poles that are looking to attach other things aside from electricity, infrastructure, it could be things like fiber and telecommunication things or other things that, you know, cities and municipalities might want to attach to poles. And lastly, we also looked after secondary land use for hydro and corridors and pathways for things like parking, lots, parks, pathways, things like that. In June of 2021, I got a phone call about the opportunity at the Ontario Energy Board to join as Chief Operating Officer. And really, it was about modernizing the regulators. And the value proposition of that was huge. And it was just something I can see, it was exciting to know that that was taking place with someone who's in industry. And I saw some of the work that Susanna was doing. And so it was a no brainer. It was something that I wanted to do. And so I joined the Ontario Energy Board June of 2021. And so I'll bring the regulator perspective, obviously, in the conversation. And the third perspective is that of academia, I've been teaching energy, energy innovation, energy storage courses to Master's students, at the university level. And I think it's important when we talk about energy, we look across borders, we don't just get confined with current practices or policies or rules and regulations. Sometimes when we're trying to explore innovative ideas, we need to broaden that scope. And so I'll look to sometimes also bring in some of the academic view of what's happening in this space, too. So those are sort of three perspectives and from our background.   Dan Seguin  07:22 So, Carolyn, for those that don't know, what is the Ontario Energy Board, and what does your organization do?   Carolyn Calwell  07:33 the Ontario Energy Board, or the OE B is the independent regulator of Ontario's electricity and natural gas sectors. An important part of our mandate is to inform consumers and protect their interests with respect to prices, reliability, and quality of electricity and natural gas services. We have oversight over roughly 60% of the electricity bill, and we influence a large part of natural gas bills. We work closely with companies that work in the sector, distributors, transmitters, generators, and with associations like the Ontario Energy Association, the Electricity Distributors Association, CHEC. And of course, with the Independent Electricity System Operator and the Ministry of Energy, we're really just one piece of a much bigger puzzle.   Dan Seguin  08:13 Harneet, there's been a lot of discussion lately about the energy transition in our industry. What does that mean? Exactly? And how will the Ontario Energy Board support the transition?   Harneet Panesar  08:31 Sure, and maybe I can begin this one by even just focusing on the word energy transition, you know, it sounds nice and clear, cotton sounds like there's a linear glide path to this transition, that's going to happen. But you know, it's multifaceted. It's very complex, huge capital dollars are going to be required, it's gonna be a need for a lot of collaboration and how we move forward on it. So it's a very complex transition that's underway right now. And let me also talk to you about it. From what are some of the drivers, you know, a lot of times we talk about transition, we talk about the innovation behind it. And we also focus on what are the catalysts behind some of this change? And we often frame our conversation using four D's and I know in the industry, there's a debate whether there's three days or five, I think we've taken middle ground here, so let's go with our four D's. So the first one is Decarbonisation. You know, as you look globally, or you look federally you look even down to the consumer level, there are commitments being made and choices that are deliberately being made with regards to emissions and and a goal and targets that are being said with regards to decarbonisation. One of the sectors that I know that's going to be really impacted by this is transportation. They have the ability to make some significant changes in terms of the release of greenhouse gasses, and we're seeing a massive shift from combustion engines to EVs (electric vehicles). And so what does that mean? That means a huge need for electricity to also feed these. And maybe I'll also just take a pause and say that, you know, when I talk to other jurisdictions in Ontario, we're quite fortunate, a lot of our generation here is non-emitting, about over 90% of our generation is not emitting. And sometimes we take that for granted, you know, I talked to some of our colleagues down south, or even across the country, they can only dream to get to where we're at in the near future. We're pretty lucky to be where we are from that perspective. And so when we look at what we need to fuel these vehicles, we're going to need a grid that has the ability to supply this type of demand. So what is the EOB doing about it? There's a couple of things. The first one is we've got a couple of industry working groups that are really helping to lead the charge on making clear decisions on what is the process, you do some of this stuff. One of them is the DER connection review workgroup. And I'm excited to say that, you know, we've, we've broken up this work into tranches, and we've made some substantive releases already on changes that we've proposed to our distribution system code. These are really there to help reduce burdens, and, and really help bring on adoption of things like EVs. And I should also back up and just say, you know, when I talk about DER connections, DER stands for Distributed Energy Resources and EVs fall within that category, too. We also know that the grid will need to be able to supply this power, we have a working group called the Regional Planning Working Group that is focused on making sure that regions have what they need to be able to supply this type of energy. And that includes providing them guidance with what they need to look at when it comes to planning for that future. And how do we fill that all in? Well, we also updated our filing requirements. And so our filing requirements are really there to articulate to applicants that come forward to the Ontario Energy Board with their applications to say, look, this is what we need from you. And we've been pretty clear that we've updated our requirements to include things like electric vehicle integration, adoption, into their load forecasting and planning, we need to make sure that utilities are putting the building for the load that's required, based on the Evie adoption in the province. The next D is Digitalization. No, back in the day, our distribution system was just poles and wires, and maybe some fuses. But it's become a lot more complicated. We've deployed a lot more grid modernization in the system, a lot more innovation, and a lot more non-wires, alternatives, and different ways of investing in solving problems that the grid was having. And so what role does the Ontario Energy Board have in that? Well, number one, prudency is something that we expect utilities to take into account when they're building out their investment plans. So we're to check for prudency and make sure that the liability service quality and cost is all kept in mind. The other aspect is, you know, as we digitize the system, there are other risks that come with it, and we need to make sure we're managing them. There are new risk factors that get created from a cybersecurity perspective. And obviously, the Ontario Energy Board plays an important role. You know, we established the Cybersecurity Advisory Committee a number of years back that helped build Ontario's cybersecurity framework, which is something we expect utilities to look at, and also report annually on how they are ready and mature to respond to detect and deal with cybersecurity threats. The last two days, and maybe I'll just kind of shorten this by bringing them together. It's around decentralization and democratization. But the role of consumers is changing. And the investments and the choices that they're making are also changing. You know, the fact that you can go to a shopping mall and go pick up an Eevee, and maybe even a battery pack. These are, by definition, consumer products. Now, they're no longer utility grade investments, like Pull Top investments, switch gears, things like that, the role that they're playing is important. And so going back to our DER. Working Group, it's important that we make sure that we look at the integration of these types of consumer choices into our grid. So that's, that's maybe a roundabout way of looking at all of our structures and the innovation that's taking place and the catalysts that are fueling the energy transition there.   Dan Seguin  13:53 Carolyn, I'd like to hear your thoughts on what you believe is driving the energy transition.   Carolyn Calwell  14:00 Thanks, Dan. I see this largely the same way Harneet sees it, but I would say it maybe a little bit differently. I agree that the four Ds are the catalyst for the energy transition decarbonisation and the move to net zero emissions, the need to deal with and respond to climate change. Digitalization in my mind reflects the growing internet of things and the need for new tools and technologies that allow us to use energy differently. We've talked about decentralization and Harneet mentioned the move away from grid scale, utility planning to decentralized resources, whatever technology or weather wherever they may sit on this system. And her need also mentioned democratization about the changing expectations of customers and their relationship with energy. And in my mind, that just leads to increasing customer choice. So, you know, I think there's tremendous opportunity in all of this, and of course, tremendous challenge. But I think what's exciting is that there's broad consensus that this is a time of extreme change, and there's an imperative to actually make that change. So at the end of the day, it's pretty exciting.   Dan Seguin  15:05 Okay, our need, what does the electric future look like from an industry perspective, and from a customer perspective?   Harneet Panesar  15:15 So let me first look at the customer perspective. And maybe even the term customer, I think, is looking to evolve. As we look at energy markets around the world, we know that consumer choices and how consumers interact with their energy is changing. And even the role of consumers is changing. You know, the term prosumer is also one that is often used in which consumers aren't just consuming power, but they're producing them. And so therefore, the Pro and the prosumer. You know, that's an important aspect of how the grid may evolve. And we're certainly seeing changes in perspective, talked about decarbonisation, just a few minutes ago, that will also create a higher dependency of reliable power while managing costs. So you know, going back to our discussion around EVs, you know, nowadays, if there are reliability issues, utilities will get phone calls. And you know, that hear about power, power off situations where the lights aren't working, or ice cream is melting, or the air conditioner just isn't going. But just imagine the dependency that gets created when you know, I've got to go to work the next morning, and I couldn't go because I couldn't charge my vehicle, you know, the dependency on the grid is gonna grow. But I think there are a lot of opportunities in this type of environment. Also, you know, if Carolyn, for example, is working from home and doesn't need her vehicle, well, maybe I can take 20% of her battery, and then perhaps you're on vacation, and maybe you don't need part of your vehicle, I could maybe take 30% of your battery, you know, I've got 50% of the charge. And now I've got an opportunity to actually use my vehicle. The shifting of how sort of load and suppliers is going to be looked at on the distribution side, I think is exciting. We're seeing a lot of these micro grids around the world interact on these sort of transactive markets. But at the end of the day, you know, the value proposition for consumers is shifting look, I've now got a vehicle that has charge and lets me get to where I need to go. And both you and Carolyn have now gotten some dollars in your pockets for helping me out by supplying some of the energy that you didn't need. This is a real shift. I think that's happening from the consumer perspective and multiple different facets. From the industry perspective, I think we're going to need a lot of help and dependencies on industry to help guide us through this energy transition, you know, there's a lot of capital that is going to need to be spent, there's going to be a lot of steel that's going to be required for Transformers or pole tops, and, and even steel towers and conductors, there's a lot that's going to be required from a supply chain perspective. But there's also growth, I mean, this is an opportunity, there's a lot of growth that's going to take place in the economy for jobs. And we also know that there's gonna be industry in terms of labor markets, to be able to help supply and build the infrastructure that we're going to need for the future. And that includes maybe in adapting some of the skill sets. And I've been speaking to colleges and universities over the last year, and they've been asking, you know: what does the energy industry need in terms of the skills or the shortages? Is there an evolution of the skills that are required, and with all the transition and change that are taking place? I think the labor markets are also important to us to make sure that they're up to speed with helping us get to where we need to be. I think the last aspect maybe I'll cover off in terms of the industry is, I think there's a lot of new players that are entering the energy market, which we haven't seen traditionally, in the past. I've talked about automotive manufacturers moving away from combustion engines to electric vehicles. I think they're going even further by opening up subsidiaries focusing on energy. It's a pretty bold move for the automotive industry to be forming these massive subsidiaries. But even on the technology side, you know, we're seeing companies like Microsoft take stronger and larger positions within energy. So I think we're seeing a shift. And even in industry, I think we're seeing a lot of new players that are joining in.   Dan Seguin  18:52 Okay, so what's the greatest risk to the electricity grid, Harneet?   Harneet Panesar  18:57 So when I think about risk, and you know, I often reflect on that word, because I think when you look at risk, it usually is a reason for why adoption of things like innovation just gets repeated. And even in the energy industry, we've got a wide variety of entities that have different risk appetites. And some of them, you know, stakeholders, shareholders, customers may not be looking to them to take the greatest risk. But what we do know is that there are entities that thrive on the risk reward model. And I think it's important that we look at risk blending, we talk about risk. And why do I bring this all up? The need for collaboration is so important when we talk about moving forward in this transition. You know, in Ontario, I'd say we've got the most complex energy market in North America. I've got 800 Almost licensed entities, and I've got 60 local distribution companies fairly complex that's on the electricity. And we've also got gas distributors. It's fairly complex. So in terms of what is the one of the greatest risks I think alignment and how we move forward. The risk in this would be misalignment. You know, there's no room to backpedal, we need to collaborate and work together and make sure that there's no room to backpedal, and that we move forward collaboratively. So misalignment, I think, could be a risk, but we're making sure we're doing whatever we can. And I know there's various entities within the energy sector that are trying to make sure we're working together, you know, we're holding hands and might be taking penguin steps to make sure we don't slip here. But I think when you hold hands, we'll get a bit more firmness. And we can take bigger, bigger steps forward.   Dan Seguin  20:33 Harneet, what kinds of major investments and other considerations need to be made to deliver the energy transition to the province?   Harneet Panesar  20:43 So when I look at some of the studies that have just recently passed, the IESO released their Pathway studies. And we know that when they looked at generation and transmission, it's gonna require hundreds of billions of dollars, some fairly substantial investments on that front, the other side to this whole thing, and going back to the sort of consumer side is, you know, the tail end of the delivery of power is also going to require a huge influx of dollars. So the distribution system is going to require a lot, I will say that, you know, within our province, you know, we've got a lot of aging infrastructure that we also need to deal with. So it's not just about the forward move around the energy transition, but we also need to look at the assets that we have, the age of them, the condition of them, and really make sure that as we're spending the money, we're still holding things up. While we're also moving forward. You know, there's a lot of advancements in the system, in terms of the dollars that we've spent on the distribution system, primarily, I'd say, on deployment of capital open fields. But we're also seeing a lot of shifts on how some of that technology is now being utilized out into distribution systems. I know that, you know, we talked about dependency on the system. The minister has also asked us as part of his letter of direction to us to help provide recommendations going forward on resiliency and responsiveness and cost efficiency. And I think that's an important consideration that we need to look at when we build out capital plans and look at how we're going to build out the future. Extreme weather events are impacting our grid and energy system, the infrastructure, so the energy systems are vulnerable to that. And we need to make sure that we're resilient and we're able to respond to things like that. And lastly, you know, the other aspect around a lot of the investments that we just talked about, again, is around cybersecurity and the importance of making sure that we're ready for any of those types of issues too.   Dan Seguin  22:28 Carolyn, I read that the Ontario Energy Board's new legislated mandate is to facilitate innovation in the energy sector. How will you do that?   Carolyn Calwell  22:41 A mandate to facilitate innovation with regard to electricity was added to our legislative objectives in 2020. And this put innovation squarely in the mix for us. I thought it signaled to the energy sector a need to take new approaches to doing business, and to think about the services they provide to customers. And it signaled to the OEB that we also need to think about new approaches and new ways to do business. And so we've tried to do that through programs like our innovation sandbox, where we've encouraged local distribution companies to come to us with ideas about how they want to make change, and to test those ideas out in a safe regulatory environment where we can talk through the barriers and hurdles that they face or that they perceive to see what what really stands in their way. We've tried to do this through work like ours in our framework for energy innovation, where we asked the sector to come together to talk about distributed energy resources and how we go about dealing with the questions that they pose. What does it mean for utilities to use them? What barriers are there? So we've tried to take new approaches to having conversations about different types of innovation, and to encourage others to come to us to talk about these things. The change to our objective occurred at the same time as a restructuring of the governance of the OEB. And I think that really underscored for us our change mandate. But when we talk about innovation, our Chief Commissioner would remind me, very wisely Anderson, that our objective has always existed in balance. So innovation is never our only driver. It's one of several others, which include informing consumers and protecting their interests, promoting economic efficiency and cost effectiveness across the sector, and promoting electricity conservation and demand management. So there's a lot going on for us and for everyone in the sector in addition to innovation.   Dan Seguin  24:36 Okay, now, let's talk about the Innovation Task Force. With the report now released, where does it all go from here? Can regulation and innovation coexist and even flourish?   Carolyn Calwell  24:53 I think regulation and innovation have to coexist. We've been talking about change a lot this afternoon. I I don't think we have any choice. But to innovate. Our innovation task force was about strategy and governance, and this was an initiative by our board of directors to ask about disruptive change in the sector and its implications. And to make sure that the OEB was positioned to prepare for that change. The work involved jurisdictional scanning, looking at broad disruptive technologies and trends across the globe, and to look at what other regulators were doing about it. And that certainly provided inspiration for us. And at the same time, we curated experts working at global national and provincial levels to help us understand disruption in the sector, what they were seeing and what they were working on. So all of that informed the strategy that our Innovation Task Force adopted. And what we're trying to do with that is now map out what the OEB is doing about the energy transition. We've got a lot of projects and go and a lot of things that touch the energy transition, but don't necessarily do that directly. People need to understand how those fit together, and how they actually get at the big policy question of the day. What are we doing about climate change and about the energy transition? So what we've tried to do through our engagement with our website is map out the different projects, how they come together, and what people can expect about where they're going. If listeners haven't checked it out, I really encourage you to look at the OED "Engage with us" web page and see all that we have going on and what the next steps are across these projects. There's no shortage of work here. And we're asking a lot of people to come together to meet with us and try to make it work.   Dan Seguin  26:33 Harneet, on the topic of electric vehicles (EVs), what about supporting mass EV adoption? What can you tell us about the proposed ultra low overnight price plan for electricity? And how will it help get more EVs on the road?   Harneet Panesar  26:52 Sure. Thanks, Dan. And when we look at things like ultra low overnight price plans, I think it's also important for us to reflect on the fact that I think I'm sure he's made some good choices in terms of deploying the right capital. Over the years, you know, we sometimes take for granted that we have what is known as AMI, which is Advanced Meter Infrastructure. The fact that we have smart meters deployed across the province, is huge, because it enables us to do things like these price plans. You know, I talked about other jurisdictions, not everyone has smart meters like we do, and therefore don't have the ability to actually even implement price plans. But let me tell you why it's important and why having some of these plans is helpful. Utilities often build to meet peak demand, whenever the demand is there, they're trying to make sure that they have the infrastructure required to meet it. And by introducing pricing plans, which create the right incentives and choices that can help leave to sort of behavioral changes from a consumer perspective, that will ultimately also help utilities manage how they build their system. And what that means is they'll be able to not just build the peak but better manage peaks. You know, if we're able to utilize the system when it's not at peak or it's not fully utilized, there's available capacity generation available. There's no bottlenecks in the system. That's when we want people to use power. And so generally, you know, overnight is when the system is a little bit quieter, and we're able to actually, you know, supply a lot more power. And so for folks like myself, who have an electric vehicle, you know, I have no problems charging overnight. In fact, it's fantastic. And having the right incentives to keep people charging overnight means that we take any additional peaks on the system during the day that might occur away. And ultimately, that also means that it helps keep rates lower, because utilities don't need to invest additional capacity, because they're better able to manage when people are consuming their power. So price plans like the ultra low overnight plan is one way of curbing the behavior and incentivizing sort of the right approach on when we want people to be using the grid to feed things like their electric vehicles.   Dan Seguin  29:03 Okay, now, how does natural gas fit into the energy transition to a carbon free future in the province? What strides are being made in the natural gas sector or Harneet?   Harneet Panesar  29:18 So I think it's an important question. And it's something that we think about quite often at the Ontario Energy Board. You know, natural gas has a lot of potential to replace some of the higher emitting fossil fuel energy sources that are still being used for mostly industrial processes here in Ontario. And to maybe give you an example, you know, one of our natural gas distributors is working with steel mills, to try and replace some of their coal usage with natural gas, which would also bring down some of their greenhouse gas emissions. But you know, when you talk about Net Zero and sort of the net zero future, it's obviously going to involve things like large reductions and even eventually eliminating the GHG emissions from the US to greenhouse gasses, and that's gonna require a couple of things. It's gonna require a combination of energy conservation, some electrification, carbon capture and storage, and even a shift to use things like orangey, which is renewable natural gas, and even other new fuels like hydrogen. There's already work that's underway. Enbridge has been investing about $120 million a year. And this is really around some of the conservation programs. And we also just had a recent decision that the will be rendered. And in that we're going to increase the amounts that are going to be spent. And this is also going to include a new home energy efficiency program that's going to be offered by Enbridge gas, and it's going to be in partnership with Enercon, which is Natural Resources Canada, you know, thinking about what are the next steps, the OEB has also convened a group of experts to help identify and evaluate future opportunities for natural gas conservation. And really, finally, I just want to make sure, I know, acknowledge that, you know, millions of residential, commercial industrial consumers, we've got three and a half million gas consumers who depend on natural gas to heat their homes and run their businesses. And the OEB is going to continue to support these consumers by ensuring natural gas is delivered to them safely, reliably and responsibly.   Dan Seguin  31:14 Okay, again, this one's for you Harneet. Ontario is Canada's most populated province, can you tell us a bit about how you ensure Ontarian voices are heard, and included in your decision making?   Harneet Panesar  31:30 Yeah, so we've got 5 million electricity consumers I just mentioned, we've got three and a half natural gas consumers. So we've got a fairly large consumer base. And it's really important that we hear what Ontarians have to say. And so we've done a couple of things. And let me run you through them. The first one Carolyn, alluded to earlier, which was around making sure people could engage with us, we actually opened up a new platform and launched it, and it's called engage with us. And if you ever wanted to join it, just Google, we'd be engaged with us. And it really lays out all the various initiatives and work streams and programs that the Ontario Energy Board is undertaking. It gives timelines, it has documents, it even has a friendly smile of some of our staff that are helping lead the work along with their emails, so you can contact and reach out to us, it's one way of us making sure that we're transparent about all the work we're doing. And we're engaging with tumors, and taking in any input that they may have. So that's one way the other, the other piece that I think is really important is listening to the customers themselves. About a year ago, just shortly after I joined the Ontario Energy Board, I started a program called voice of the customer. And it was an important program for me, because one of the one of the teams that I have within my shop is responsible for the call center, they take in the calls, the emails, and the chats. And it's one thing to see all that data on a dashboard, or you know, in a PowerPoint slide deck, it's another thing to actually get on the horn and actually hear the voices of consumers, understand their sentiment, hear the emotion, hear their voices. And it was really important for me to be able to do that. And so we set up this program, and it's a monthly occurrence in which myself and my peers, the executive team, we get on the call, and we hear the voice of the customers, we hear what they're saying to us. And so that's one other way that we connect with our consumers. The other thing I'll note is that, you know, our adjudication process is a public process. And, you know, we look forward to having Ontarians participate in that we do also have consumer interest groups, part of that. But we also look to utilities to make sure that as they're building out their plans, that they're engaging with consumers, they also have a role to engage with them and make sure that they're delivering what consumers want. I'll also just put in a bit of a plug that, you know, I talked a little bit about our call center that handles the calls and emails and chats, we get almost 10,000 interactions. And these are really important data points for us. And you know, I created a part of the organization about a year ago called Operation Decision Support, to really help us make data driven decisions. And so collecting information from our calls is very vital. But the point I want to make is that we also have a chat function, which also won an award about a year, year and a half ago. And it's not fed by robots. It's actually the same agents that would also pick up your calls and also respond to emails. So the message you get is very aligned and consistent. We're very proud of, you know, our ways of being able to communicate with our consumers.   Harneet Panesar  34:19 Okay, now it's your turn, Carolyn, let's talk about the OEB's two stakeholder committees. What are the energy exchange and adjudication of the modernization committee all about?   Carolyn Calwell  34:34 Our stakeholders are critical to us. And so we've made some deliberate efforts to create structures to engage them. Energy Exchange is a form of CEOs and senior leaders. And it's really a tremendous platform where we receive advice about our priorities and direction. We've tried to use that forum, not just to talk to people but to hear from and to engage them on questions. Is that we're struggling with? What should we focus on? How should we go about our work? What matters to them, because it's important that the regulator, not just tell everybody what to do, but also listen to the sector that we work in. So this advice has been really critical for us. And it's really helped us on work, for instance, around the letter of direction that we received from the minister, as we've tried to figure out how to unpack that letter, to figure out what the priorities are within it, and how to actually deliver against it. The adjudication modernization committee is made up of regulatory experts, and they give us advice and provide feedback on all things that you indicate from rules of practice and procedure and filing requirements, to advice about intervenors. This has a specific focus to consider best practices and approaches to adjudication. And what's particularly helpful I think about this group is that they have a direct line with the Chief Commissioner. So it's a way for her to talk to stakeholders, and hear about what matters to them on what happens in the hearing room, and everything that goes around. So these are just two examples of how we engage with our stakeholders. But we value tremendously the various working groups, forums, meetings that we call that people participate in, because we know we ask a lot of people we know we demand a lot of their time and a lot of their thinking. But this is all part of the communication that we need on the two way street, so to speak. And, and we really do value everything that people give us in these various forms.   Dan Seguin  36:31 SoI'll ask you both. What is Ontario doing right, right now, that gives you hope, either provincially, or from the energy sector itself?   Carolyn Calwell  36:47 I'll jump in on though, you know, we've spent the afternoon talking about some of the challenges that the energy sector faces and that, you know, that really society faces. And these are big, big challenges, daunting tasks ahead of us. But what gives me hope is that there are some tremendously smart people in our sector and a real commitment to work together. So we're all in this together, we all have a role to play. And I truly believe that we'll make progress.   Harneet Panesar  37:19 Well, I totally agree with Carolyn. I mean, you know, this notion of collaboration coming together and working together, I think we're doing a lot of things right. From that perspective, even this podcast, you know, being here and talking to you and connecting with your listeners, hopefully, that brings a bit of a circle back to us and people reaching back out to us, we need to, you know, no one can be operating in a black box, you need to collaborate and work together. The only other thing, maybe I'll say, in terms of what we're doing what we're doing, right, and I'm going to put on my proud Canadian engineering hat on here and say, look, we've been pioneers in the energy space for decades, you know, when it came to hydroelectric generation in southern Ontario, to even the CANDU nuclear reactors, I think Canadians have been doing a lot to pioneer push the energy sector forward. And you know, advancements and technologies even like SMRs, I think is, is a proud moment for Canadians and leading the charge and how energy is now sort of delivered, you know, bringing energy sources closer to where they're being consumed. And these are game changing types of investments and technologies that, you know, Ontario is making. So definitely a lot of things, things of pride. And I think a lot of things that we're doing right, Dan,   Dan Seguin  38:23 Carolyn, and Harneet, we always end our interviews with some rapid fire questions.Are you ready?   Carolyn Calwell  38:33 Ready to go.   Dan Seguin  38:36 Harneet, maybe you could start us off by telling us what you're reading right now?   Harneet Panesar  38:42 Okay, well, I'd be lying if I didn't tell you that every night I read Paw Patrol and Peppa Pig for bedtime. That's not my bedtime at someone else's bedtime. But in terms of myself when I put my feet up. Now I just picked up a book. It's not new on the shelf. It's just new to me. I haven't had a chance to really go through it, but it's a book by Rupi Kaur or R-u-p-i, last names core K-A-u-R. And it's a political novel and the book is called The Sun and Her Flowers.   Dan Seguin  39:09 Okay,what about you, Carolyn?   Carolyn Calwell  39:11 I'm reading some essays from MFK. Fisher in the Art of Eating. It's fantastic. Very funny.   Dan Seguin  39:19 Okay, Carolyn, who is someone that you truly admire?   Carolyn Calwell  39:24 Retired Chief Justice Beverley McLaughlin has to top my list.   Dan Seguin  39:27 And what about you, Harneet? Who do you truly admire?   Harneet Panesar  39:32 I would say it would be my 99 year old grandfather, who was a retired Air Force engineer from the Royal Indian Air Force who lived a very colorful life full of incredible stories and journeys. And as always a source of inspiration for me.   Dan Seguin  39:51 Okay, we've all been watching a lot more Netflix and TV lately. What are some of your favorite movies or shows?   40:01 For me, Madness is coming up. So my TV is dedicated to women's NCAA basketball.   40:08 I'm a bit of a foodie. And I have a bit of a travel bug. So I like traveling and eating. And so there's a series called Somebody Feed Phil, which brings sort of traveling and food together and a little bit of comedy. So it's a nice casual watch. So we've been watching a lot of that.   Dan Seguin  40:23 Lastly, Harneet, what is exciting you about your industry right now?   Harneet Panesar  40:30 For me, it's changed. And, you know, maybe I'm a creature of change. It's sort of where I thrive. But it's exciting to see us move forward and in the directions we are in. So for me, change is really what's exciting. I'm proud to be part of it. I'm looking forward to what the future brings with it.   Dan Seguin  40:50 Okay, what about you, Carolyn, what's exciting you?   Carolyn Calwell  40:54 I couldn't agree with Harneet more, change is exciting. I think there's a tremendous opportunity ahead of us. I think we're gonna see the world shift, and I'm eager to be part of it.   Dan Seguin  41:04 Well, Carolyn, and Harneet. This is it. We've reached the end of another episode of The Think Energy podcast. If our listeners want to learn more about you, or your organization, how can they connect?   Carolyn Calwell  41:20 They can find us on LinkedIn or at OEB.ca. And we're eager to hear from everybody.   Dan Seguin  41:28 Again, thank you both so much for joining me today. I hope you had a lot of fun.   Carolyn Calwell  41:34 Thank you so much for having us.   Dan Seguin  41:38 Thanks for tuning in for another episode of the Think Energy podcast. Don't forget to subscribe and leave us a review wherever you're listening. And to find out more about today's guests or previous episodes, visit thinkenergypodcast.com I hope you will join us again next time as we spark even more conversations about the energy of tomorrow.      

Titans Of Nuclear | Interviewing World Experts on Nuclear Energy
Ep 384: John Gorman - President and CEO , Canadian Nuclear Association

Titans Of Nuclear | Interviewing World Experts on Nuclear Energy

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 6, 2023 42:50


1. John's history of working with major renewable energy sources and when he began to combat the issue of climate change 2. The impressive progression of nuclear projects in Canada and a discussion of where they currently stand 3. A deep dive into CANDU reactors and what drove Canada to develop them 4. Important messages regarding learning about nuclear, supporting all renewables, and how we can all have a hand in the progression of nuclear energy

Secret Leaders
How I failed: We were playing the wrong game, with Jonathan Anderson

Secret Leaders

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 27, 2022 12:39


Jonathan Anderson is the co-founder and CEO of Candu, a no-code platform that helps people build their own products. They are used by companies likeAdobe, Thought Industries, and Gorgias and have raised over five million dollars. But his first business wasn't such a success. In 2011, when Jonathan was a student at Stanford University in a CleanTech programme, he came up with the idea for a smart thermostat controlled by your smartphone with a couple of his fellow students. The problem they'd identified was that programmable thermostats at the time were really hard to use meaning customers just didn't do it.  It was early days for the smartphone but also exciting times. They realised they could use the GPS on customer's smartphones to say when they were coming in and out of their homes, making heating much more efficient. After securing twenty thousand pounds with convertible note financing, they worked with a Chinese supplier to build a prototype. They were pumped to be at the forefront of the revolution in household technology But they'd made a fundamental mistake. Listen to find out what.  If you have any feedback, we'd love to hear it. What would make the show better? hello@secretleaders.com  Sponsor links: quickbooks.co.uk/secretleaders

The Power Hungry Podcast
Chris Keefer: President of Canadians for Nuclear Energy

The Power Hungry Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 11, 2022 51:18 Transcription Available


Chris Keefer is a Toronto-based medical doctor and president of Canadians for Nuclear Energy. In his fourth appearance on the podcast, (previous appearances were November 2021, May 2021 ) and April 29, 2022) Keefer talks about Ontario Power Generation's decision to reverse course and extend the life of the Pickering Nuclear Generation Station, a move that could keep the 3.1-gigawatt plant running for another 30 years, the essentiality of the Cobalt 60 isotopes that are produced by CANDU reactors, and why Ontario has “the most pro-nuclear government in the western world.” (Recorded September 30, 2022.)

Liberty's Highlights
Going Deep on the Energy Crisis and Nuclear Power with Mark Nelson (Part 2 of 2)

Liberty's Highlights

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 17, 2022 76:49


This is part 2 of my conversation with Mark Nelson about the energy crisis and nuclear power. If you haven't heard it already, you should start with part 1:

The Rational View podcast with Dr. Al Scott
Angelica Oung says the world needs more CANDU reactors

The Rational View podcast with Dr. Al Scott

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 16, 2022 48:12


In this episode I am interviewing a fellow supporter of nuclear energy who, although not a Canadian, she posted an article on Canada Day singing the praises of the CANDU reactor.  I think CANDU is an underappreciated technological wonder, similar to the Avro Arrow.  It is also at risk of going down that same path unless Canadians rise up and tell their MPs and MPPs that we need more of them. Angelica Oung is a journalist specializing in Asia and energy matters living in Taipei, Taiwan. In her spare time she is a nuclear energy enthusiast and advocate known as the Manic Nuclear Scheme Girl on her substack https://elementalenergy.substack.com/   Go to www.therationalview.ca for transcripts Join the Facebook discuss @TheRationalView Twitter @AlScottRational Instagram @The_Rational_View #TheRationalView #podcast #nuclearenergy #atomicenergy #savePickering #CANDU #cleanenergy #greenenergy

projectsavetheworld's podcast
Episode 476 Women and Radiation

projectsavetheworld's podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 14, 2022 62:29


Mary Olson has been analyzing data from the Hiroshima bombing on the health effects (especially cancer) on survivors who were exposed to ionizing radiation. She has found that for every exposed male who contracts cancer, two exposed woman did so. There are also far greater impacts on infants and small children than on grown-ups. She and physician Dale Dewar believe that this information has been deliberately suppressed. Angela Bischoff, Director of Ontario Clean Air Alliance, points out the the PIckering power plant, as a Candu reactor, emits vast amounts of tritium in water vapor to the atmosphere near Toronto, and Tritium is a carcinogen. For the video, audio podcast, transcript and comments: https://tosavetheworld.ca/episode-476-women-and-radiation.

Titans Of Nuclear | Interviewing World Experts on Nuclear Energy
Ep 361: Ian Grant - Principal, Ian Grant Consulting

Titans Of Nuclear | Interviewing World Experts on Nuclear Energy

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 5, 2022 39:50


1) Ian Grant's early career working for Babcock and Wilcox in the United Kingdom 2) Ian's move to Canada working with Atomic Energy of Canada Limited  3) CANDU reactor's unique design and the technological advantages they offer  4) Ian's vision for the future of SMRs and nuclear energy development

The Tech Blog Writer Podcast
2017: Candu - The Rise (and History) of No Code

The Tech Blog Writer Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 23, 2022 17:42


I recently discovered Candu, a product-led experience builder that helps any team improve their existing SaaS product without code. Ultimatley, anyone can strategically embed UI components to create personalized, in-product content experiences that engage users throughout the customer lifecycle. The company has also raised $5 million in seed funding, and I wanted to learn more about the story behind all this. Jonathan Anderson, co-founder, and CEO of Candu, joins me on Tech Talks Daily to reveal all. We also discuss the pros and cons of using no-code for business software development and the power of personalized user interfaces in your product adoption journey.

Coffey & Code
Let's Talk Low-Code, No-Code Creativity with Jonathan Anderson

Coffey & Code

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 15, 2022 27:20


Episode #39: What is 'low-code, no-code, and how can it open up pathways for creative problem-solving? In today's episode, I will discuss low-code, no-code creativity in technology tools with Jonathan Anderson, Co-founder and CEO of Candu. FULL TRANSCRIPT HERE About Jonathan: He loves tech but can't write a line of code. He has a dog named Ronnie, a cat named Winslow, and a husband named Luke. Jonathan is passionate about product-led selling. He has launched services, strategy, operations, and analytics teams at venture-backed SaaS startups, including InsightSquared and LaunchDarkly. Before startups, Jonathan worked at Bain & Company. He has a B.S. and M.S.Eng from Stanford University. Jonathan's Twitter: @jonaappleseed (Twitter) and Linkedin About Candu Candu is a product-led experience builder that empowers any team to improve their existing SaaS product without code. Anyone can strategically embed UI components to create personalized, in-product content experiences that engage users throughout the customer lifecycle. Candu has raised $5 million in seed funding led by Two Sigma Ventures with participation from CRV alongside existing investors like Angular Ventures, Haystack, and Entrepreneur First. Candu was founded in 2018 by Jonathan Anderson and Michele Riccardo Esposito, who saw the need to empower creative development in SaaS products for all teams. Jonathan wore every hat in SaaS besides "coder" but felt creatively stifled and professionally stuck—working outside the product in emails, decks, and pop-ups. As a product engineer, Michele could see engineering being torn between priorities for the product roadmap and supporting Customer Success teams who had a direct line to their customers' needs. They teamed up to give that feeling and meaning to those of us who can't code. Refining in-product user experiences is a slow process that involves cyclical collaboration with Engineering and Product teams. Within that time, prospective users may move on to a competitor before customer-side teams can facilitate application changes. Candu allows teams to collaboratively build in-product content experiences that encourage the adoption of features, onboard new users, and announce updates daily. Teams can build and publish experiences by combining no-code UI components and embedding them directly in the core application. Through a wide selection of customizable templates and a drag-and-drop editor, Candu enables its users to build, embed, and iterate rapidly. Candu integrates with leading product engagement platforms, including Segment, Intercom, Pendo, Wistia, YouTube, and Vimeo, and has been adopted by companies such as Adobe, Thought Industries, and Gorgias. Want to support this podcast? Subscribe, leave a review/rating, share with a friend & consider becoming a monthly supporter of Coffey & Code. Thanks for listening! --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/coffeyandcode/support

PODCASTMAT
Netflix Itu Candu

PODCASTMAT

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 5, 2022 9:15


E16 S01 | Netflix candu bukan candi

ARC ENERGY IDEAS
Leading in a Big Way: The Future of Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) in Canada

ARC ENERGY IDEAS

Play Episode Play 29 sec Highlight Listen Later May 3, 2022 35:47


This week John Gorman, President and Chief Executive Officer at the Canadian Nuclear Association (CNA) joins the podcast.  John recently wrote an op-ed titled “Examining the role of nuclear in Canada's Emissions Reduction Plan.”  Here are some of the questions Peter and Jackie asked John: What is the scale and size of the new Small Modular Reactors (SMR)?  Is SMR technology safe?  What about the waste issue? When will the first SMRs be in operation? Is the electricity affordable? And, do you think Canada is poised for leadership in this new generation of reactors? To learn more about the Canadian Nuclear Association visit: https://cna.ca/Please review ARC Energy Institute disclaimer at: https://www.arcenergyinstitute.com/disclaimer/

The Power Hungry Podcast
Chris Keefer: President of Canadians for Nuclear Energy

The Power Hungry Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 29, 2022 57:27 Transcription Available


Chris Keefer is a medical doctor and president of Canadians for Nuclear Energy who testified before the Canadian Parliament on April 25, 2022. In his third appearance on the podcast, (previous appearances were November 2021 and May 2021) Keefer (who is also the host of the Decouple podcast) talks about the growing bipartisan interest in nuclear energy in Canada, why the “CANDU reactors are immortal,” the dangers of America's powerful anti-nuclear “NGO-industrial complex,” Canada's uranium wealth, and why investing in renewable energy has been “an enormous waste.”

Nuclear Barbarians
A CANDU Attitude ft. Chris Keefer

Nuclear Barbarians

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 29, 2022 29:44


Dr. Chris Keefer, the host of the Decouple podcast, stopped by to update me on the incredible progress being made in Canada for nuclear energy. https://www.gridbrief.com/subscribe This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit nuclearbarians.substack.com

PUSAKA (podcast urang sunda kamana karep)
Godin Puasa Itu Candu!!

PUSAKA (podcast urang sunda kamana karep)

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 16, 2022 46:54


Ngomongekun soal godin puasa pasti kabeh pernah ngalaman nah ieu sepenggal kisah goding pusaka nu pasti tep tep gerrrrrr

CSM secrets Of Influential Customer Success leaders

Have you felt this pinch as a CSM? You want to customize your website for delivering personalization but you are blocked because you do not have the tools to do that. Well, Candu is a tool to enhance an existing web app to deliver incremental changes to a webpage, like, adding sweeteners to enhance the experience and deliver good customer experience. I sat down to discuss about this quite interesting tool that sits at the intersection of customer success and marketing, with the Co-founder and CEO Jonathan. Some key insights from this episode are:  Candu is designed for digital CSM where repetitive conversations can be easily customized and delivered via web pages rather than emails. Candu provides more power to content creator/marketer to deliver value to the user base Account based marketing customizing for specific customers provides a way to complete scale the digital CS approach Such customizations actually doubled the engagement of customers and paved a way for them to stay on Most ideas for customers come from the CS world. Best people to give ideas are the account teams. Why not empower them with tools? A good digital CSM can drive huge growth. It is both an analytics and marketing role. A Good CS is about how we apply the same excitement on NOT what we build last  but what the customer used first. That first excitement. This and a lot more in this insightful episode!

This is Product Management
294 - No-Code is Product Management

This is Product Management

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 21, 2022 21:32


Jonathan Anderson, Co-founder & CEO of Candu shares how no-code is changing B2B and his take on experimentation, iteration, personalization, and more! BONUS! Jonathan created a special offer for our listeners, get your free trial of Candu at https://www.candu.ai/tipm. TIPM is produced by Feedback Loop, the research platform designed for products and marketing teams. Get access at https://go.feedbackloop.com/start-free-now-tipm to a free trial today. 

Just Go Grind with Justin Gordon
#323: Jonathan Anderson of Candu, on Problem Identification, Multiple Product Hunt Launches, and the Power of No-Code

Just Go Grind with Justin Gordon

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 14, 2022 24:30


Jonathan Anderson is the Co-Founder and CEO of Candu, the first no-code web builder for existing SaaS products. Candu is building a better way to activate users and release new features. The simple, drag-and-drop UI Editor empowers product and customer teams to create UI themselves, saving developer time and trimming technical debt. Unlike guide products, Candu enables customers to change the UI itself to drive user engagement. SaaS teams win when in-app experiences help users to adopt the features that ultimately help them do their jobs. That's why Candu gives customers the tools and analytics they need to rapidly redesign the in-app experience. Shape, launch, then improve onboarding experiences to drive user behavior and convert first-time users into devoted fans. Topics Covered by Jonathan Anderson in this Episode What Candu is How Jonathan came up with the idea Why Jonathan decided this was a problem he needed to solve Participating in accelerator Entrepreneur First and meeting his co-founder The timeframe for Candu – from original idea to launch Why problem identification is more important than solution orientation The problem Candu solves and who it's for The difference between their first and second launches on Product Hunt Why they chose to launch on Product Hunt The feedback around their second launch and how to measure it Building out the Candu team and what Jonathan has learned doing so Jonathan's advice for hiring Why they used a recruiter Their experience fundraising VC Finding work-life balance as a founder Being married to another high-performing startup founder What's next for Candu The future of no-code Listen to all episodes of the Just Go Grind Podcast: https://www.justgogrind.com Follow Justin Gordon on Twitter: https://twitter.com/justingordon212

YPE Podcast
Denys Elliot - Commercial Lead, Advanced Reactor Directorate, Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL)

YPE Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 28, 2022 54:04


If you listened to last week's episode, you already know Denys Elliot, Commercial Lead for the Advanced Reactor Directorate at the Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL). In this episode of the YPE Podcast, Denys talks with hosts Mark Hinaman and Sean McGhee about CNL's strategic research initiatives, the exciting work being done with small modular reactors (SMRs), and Denys's insights on the future of the industry. Show notes: 01:29 Denys's background 07:11 The mission of Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL) 09:04 How the nuclear industry is viewed in Canada; advantages of the CANDU reactor design; ongoing and future nuclear projects 14:04 CNL's three strategic research priorities; the importance of the actinium-225 isotope to cancer research 22:54 Supporting small modular reactor (SMR) nuclear technologies; CNL's relationship with Canada's nuclear regulator; Chalk River's SMR demonstration project 35:16 Denys's work with the North American Young Generation in Nuclear (NAYGN) 38:58 What excites & scares Denys most about the future of the energy industry 44:26 Denys's advice for young professionals in the energy industry 47:07 Where Denys sees the nuclear industry in the next decade Denys's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/denys-elliot-87984399/ Find an NAYGN chaper near you: https://naygn.org/chapters/ More about CNL's mission, the SMR siting project, and actinium-225: https://www.cnl.ca/about-cnl/corporate-profile-mission-and-values/ https://www.cnl.ca/clean-energy/small-modular-reactors/siting-canadas-first-smr/ https://www.cnl.ca/health-science-2/actinium-225/

The Visual Developers Podcast
No code roundup – February 21st, 2022

The Visual Developers Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 21, 2022 42:40


1:00 - Matt and Ben check-in3:53 - Webflow launched Workspaces (See blog post)7:00 - Whiteboard.is are looking to hire a Webflow Developer!8:56 - 8020 is hiring a Low-Code Developer!11:57 - Edgar Allan officially released Knockout!!12:47 - Visual Dev is going to host a Webflow Framework smack down and you're all invited14:15 - Last Round Up we mentioned No Code Map App which looks awesome, but has anyone tried Nown?14:43 - If you're looking for pre-built Webflow components you need to check out Mozaik (think Relume or Flowbase)15:24 - Stacket (mentioned in the Webflow forums) 17:43 - You know who we haven't heard much from this year? Memberstack and Parabola.18:50 - Noodl is a new no-code tool to help you build MVP's and web apps. (Editor Tour)19:42 - Bubble launched their #BuildwithBubble influencer campaign.20:25 - If you're into no-code and productivity then Bardeen is a tool you're going to LOVE.21:50 - Tally has hit $10K MRR!!!23:31 - Also, Tally announced they're a part of Coda's maker fund and they're building a Coda pack!!23:54 - Figment is another Figma to Website tool you can check out!25:05 - Candu lets you build components for your app with no-code!26:08 - Voicl lets you add voice to your website.29:05 - Circa is a new no-code app boasting some big logos that looks pretty interesting.31:35 - Postman released a Graphic Novel to cover the basics of APIs and it's pretty awesome.32:55 - Flow Ninja launched their own pre-launch checklist34:09 - Simon Bloom wrote us and said: Love your podcast and listen religiously. Would really like a roundup on the best no code apps for producing phone apps. Are any of them ready for serious native app creation? I have been a Webflow nerd for 5 years.39:47 - Flutterflow Showcase41:20 - RR Abrot's Twitter Thread

Podcast Tirto: INSENTIF
Susah Fokus? Candu Medsos Bisa Menyebabkan 'Short Attention Span', Lho!

Podcast Tirto: INSENTIF

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 14, 2022 9:41


Baru lima menit ngadepin kerjaan, udah buka Tiktok lagi. Baru baca buku setengah halaman, udah main Instagram lagi. Apa betul penggunaan medsos yang berlebihan bikin konsentrasi kita berkurang? Kalo kata ilmuwan: gak cuma berkurang, tapi bikin durasi fokus manusia lebih rendah ketimbang ikan mas koki. Nah loh! Kok bisa?

Pikir2 Lagi
Manajemen Candu

Pikir2 Lagi

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 17, 2022 15:31


Ngomongin bagaimana cara untuk mengelola rasa candu pada sesuatu, seperti rokok, alkohol, porno, dsb. Mengurangi atau menghilangkan candu pada hal hal negatif, serta menciptakan rasa candu pada hal hal positif

The Rational View podcast with Dr. Al Scott
A Brief History of CANDU Reactors with Chris Adlam and Tom Hess

The Rational View podcast with Dr. Al Scott

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 6, 2021 59:14


Nuclear power is a polarizing issue and there is a lot of misinformation that we can debunk through familiarization. A significant fraction of the public, for example, think Nuclear power adds to carbon dioxide pollution. Many more feel that nuclear waste storage is a uniquely dangerous problem. Many more don't understand that Ontario's electrical grid is one of the cleanest in the world thanks to nuclear power which produces 60% of our electricity. I wanted to go to the source and understand a bit about the history of CANDU reactors and nuclear power in Ontario. In this episode I am interviewing two key figures from Canadians for Nuclear Energy who bring a wealth of experience on the electrical grid and nuclear energy.   Tom Hess is a retired Independent System Operator with 31 years of experience at Ontario Hydro and its successor company, the Independent Market Operator, which is now the Independent Electric System Operator (IESO). Chris Adlam is an electricity system and power generation enthusiast whose interest stems from a familial history in power generation as his great grandfather Hubert R. Sills was a hydroelectric engineer for General Electric. Hubert worked on some of the largest hydro installs in the world. Chris' interest in nuclear power began around the time of the disastrous Ontario Green Energy Act. Chris is an IT professional who has been working in the healthcare industry for over 15 years. Check out my Youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWU2V-SviNZV7mXd6VB0dAA Join the Facebook discussion @TheRationalView Twitter @AlScottRational Instagram @The_Rational_View #TheRationalView #podcast #CANDU #netzeroneedsnuclear #greenenergy #cleanenergy #atomicenergy #nuclearenergy #SavePickering

The Rational View podcast with Dr. Al Scott
The bright side of nuclear power with Chris Keefer

The Rational View podcast with Dr. Al Scott

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 6, 2021 45:36


The Rational View episode 41 is an interview with Dr. Chris Keefer discussing the many benefits of nuclear power.  Chris Keefer is an emergency physician, medical simulation educator, nuclear energy advocate and podcaster. He is the medical director of EMdeliberate practice, the President of Canadians for Nuclear Energy and the Director of Doctors for Nuclear Energy and the host of the Decouple Podcast. Together we delve into the amazing benefits of Canada's CANDU nuclear fleet, and the damaging double standards that prevent society from achieving abundant clean power. Follow me at https://therationalview.podbean.com/# Join the conversation at https://facebook.com/groups/therationalview Insta https://instagram.com/the-Rational_view Twitter https://twitter.com/AlScottRational #therationalview #podcast #evidencebased #climatechange #nuclearpower #nuclearenergy #atomicenergy #nuclearreactors #nuclearfornetzero

We CANDU It
Medical Isotopes? We CANDU that!: Feat James Scongack

We CANDU It

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 3, 2021 35:22


Medical isotopes make modern medicine possible. We depend on a steady supply to sterilize medical equipment, as radiation sources for oncology treatments and for diagnostic imaging. Canada is a world leader in the production of medical isotopes and punches far above our weight. Our national research reactor, which closed in 2016, provided a number of isotopes including Molybdenum 99 which treated 76,000 patients a day in over 80 countries. Now CANDU power reactors have been put to the job and crank out enough Cobalt 60 to sterlize 25 billion pieces of medical equipment and 40% of the world's single use surgical instruments. I am joined by James Scongack, chair of the nuclear isotope council and an executive at Bruce Power, Canada's largest power plant, to deep dive this topic.

We CANDU It
We Did It! The past, present and future of CANDU Feat. Dr. Jeremy Whitlock

We CANDU It

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 18, 2021 58:56


Due to the global geopolitics of the 1940's Canada became the unlikely centre for the world's second largest nuclear research infrastructure at the end of World War II. Devoting itself to the peaceful use of the atom It went on to develop a unique power reactor design, the CANDU, based on the use of heavy water to avoid the need for uranium enrichment and pressure tubes to get around the need for a heavy forging industry for reactor vessels. These features make the CANDU ideal for export and technology transfer to less developed countries with industrial capacity resembling that of Canada back in the 1960's. CANDU reactors provide 61% of the power for the Ontario grid, the largest province in Canada, making it one of the cleanest electricity grids on earth and allowing for the complete phaseout of coal. CANDU has been exported internationally and delivered on budget and on time in China, South Korea and Romania. Alongside it's high grade uranium deposits which are the richest in the world, Canada has a unique ability to foster a made in Canada reponse to climate change. It can export its ultra low carbon technology to address its climate debt by helping developing countries to leapfrog fossil fuels on their way to ultra low carbon energy. CANDU meets many of the criteria for an advanced reactor design with passive safety elements, modular design, and the ability to use nuclear waste as fuel. Why then is CANDU languishing especially in a country where the supply chain is 95% in country? Dr. Jeremy Whitlock former president of the Canadian Nuclear Society and Section Head of the Dept of Safegaurds at the IAEA walks us through this incredible history. He is the brains behind nuclearfaq a treasure trove on the history of nuclear energy in Canada. http://www.nuclearfaq.ca/

TechCrunch Startups – Spoken Edition
Candu raises $5M to help software companies onboard users intelligently

TechCrunch Startups – Spoken Edition

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 10, 2020 5:39


This morning Candu, a software startup that provides no-code web tools for SaaS apps, announced a $5 million funding round. TechCrunch caught up with founder Jonathan Anderson and lead investor Villi Iltchev, a partner at Two Sigma Ventures, to chat about the deal. First thing: This round, a bit like Scotch, has aged. It's from […]

CELab: The Customer Education Lab
Episode 36 - Jonathan Anderson and the Power of UI in Product Adoption

CELab: The Customer Education Lab

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 27, 2020 51:48


In this episode of our CEO Series, Adam speaks with Jonathan Anderson, Co-Founder and CEO of Candu on the Power of the User Interface in your Product Adoption journey.

The Strongcast
StrongCast 36 | Andrian Candu, President of the Moldovan Parliament

The Strongcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 10, 2019 19:13


Andrian Candu (https://twitter.com/andriancandu) has been the Speaker of the Moldovan Parliament since 2015 after joining in 2014. He visited Washington DC in an effort to drum up support for his efforts to ideologically shift Moldova towards an embrace of western values. We were privileged enough to have Speaker Candu take some time out of his busy schedule to sit down with us. Take a listen. Leave us a rating and tell a friend! Subscribe to The Strongcast on iTunes at: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-strongcast/id1299887231?mt=2 on Stitcher at: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/armstrong-williams/the-strongcast?refid=stpr on Soundcloud at: https://soundcloud.com/thestrongcast on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/arightside on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/realarmstrongwilliams Find out more about Armstrong and The StrongCast at: https://armstrongwilliams.com