[narrator] On "Tomorrow's World Today," we explore the cutting-edge
advances that are shaping four different worlds.
The world of inspiration, where the wonders of
the natural world amaze and inspire us.
The world of creation, where ideas come to life from
traditional arts.
The world of innovation, where ideas and inventions
move us all forward.
The world of production, where innovations
are mass-produced to improve our lives.
From Inventionland World Headquarters, here's your host,
George Davison.
Electricity as we know it began with a bold experiment
involving a kite, a key, and a storm.
When Ben Franklin first captured energy from
lightning, he revolutionized our understanding of power.
This experiment ultimately led to the invention of
the lightning rod, protecting homes and barns.
It also sparked the world's first ideas about harnessing
energy to improve life. So let's fast-forward to today.
Electricity powers nearly everything that we do.
The light bulb, electric cars, and even our smartphones all
trace their origins back to that spark of discovery.
Now over time, we created entire industries
dedicated to generating and then delivering power.
Our world relies on electricity more than ever, and it's driving
continuous innovation to meet increasing demand.
Yet progress also brings new challenges.
So how do we produce enough electricity to sustain
our growing population?
And how do we innovate to make it reliable,
renewable, and affordable for everyone?
These are big questions that shape the future of energy
and the direction of our technology.
So I'm gonna send Greg to the world of innovation in
Grand Rapids, Michigan, to explore how leaders in this
field are pioneering new approaches to energy.
[Greg] Whether powering homes, businesses,
or entire communities, energy companies are taking
a forward-thinking approach to innovation.
I'm in Grand Rapids, Michigan at Consumers Energy to
meet with Lauren Snyder, Vice President of
Customer Experience, to discuss their cutting-edge projects
and their vision for energy in tomorrow's world.
-Hey, Greg. -Hi, Lauren.
-Welcome to Consumers Energy. -Thank you very much.
I'm excited to be here and excited to learn more about
what it is that you do.
-Yeah. Tell me a little bit about your mission.
OK, so I have to start with explaining where we are.
So us Michiganders, we like to use the hand as our map.
And we at Consumers Energy get the privilege to serve
6.8 million customers with electricity and natural gas.
[Greg] Now, as we look towards the future
and the electrification of things,
a lot of folks are worried about the grid,
and some of the problems that we've seen that have occurred with that.
What are you doing towards that end to make sure that all of
this energy remains reliable?
So we are deeply committed to providing reliable energy
that's affordable and it's clean.
And myself and my 8,000 coworkers at Consumers Energy,
we all live and work in Michigan.
We're deeply committed to this state and the success of this state.
And the work that we do at Consumers Energy is to make
sure that we are leaving this state better than we found it.
We have a big ambition to be net-zero by 2040.
That's excellent.
I would love to learn more about that.
All right, let's go.
So Lauren, as we talk about a net-zero future,
none of this is anything new for Consumers Energy. -No.
You've actually been involved in alternate sources of
generating energy since the '70s.
-Yeah. -But now there's a real shift happening.
Tell me more about that.
So innovation is a key part of our plan
as well as reliability.
And so the way that we are gonna deliver a reliable energy
to our Michiganders, our customers, is through what
we call our clean energy plan.
And this is a plan that is comprised of a diverse mix of
generation supply. We start with our gas plants.
As we start to make this transition, they are
the base load.
You layer on renewables like solar and wind,
and then you compliment those renewables with
battery storage.
The other aspect of our plan is an opportunity for us to engage
with our Michiganders in ways that we haven't before.
We are working with them to use less energy and to shift usage.
You know, we have the greatest demand on our electric system
during the summer when our customers crank up
their air conditioning units.
And so having them shift their usage is
also a key aspect of this plan.
-OK, well, that's asking Michiganders to engage... -Yeah.
...in a new way.
-Yes. -So now they've got to buy into this as well.
What's really in it for them in the end?
Well, to start with, this is a more affordable plan.
So between now and 2040, we will reduce operational
costs by $600 million.
The second is a more reliable energy mix.
And the third is a cleaner environment.
I think about cleaner air.
I think about the state of Michigan and the beautiful
natural resources that we have with our Great Lakes.
We are going to leave Michigan better than we found it.
Well, I would really like to learn more about
the Net-Zero 2040 plan. -Great, follow me.
Becoming net zero by 2040 is a huge undertaking.
What would drive a decision like that?
It's a huge undertaking.
You know, at Consumers Energy, we make decisions through
the lens of what's best for people,
for our planet, and prosperity,
particularly for the state of Michigan.
And so as we watch the economics of renewables get
better, we knew that that would translate into more affordable
bills for our customers. So that's a win.
We know, too, that more renewable resources equates to
cleaner air. That's a win for us.
And then when we think about prosperity, a lot of companies
have made sustainability goals.
And in the spirit of retaining businesses and attracting
new businesses, we wanna be able to deliver
renewable solutions for them.
OK, well, the economics of this are important.
So as you look at completing your transition out of coal in
2025, you look at those areas that -- where a coal plant was
probably a really big part of their local economy.
What are you doing to make sure that you don't leave
those communities behind?
Well, we aren't leaving them behind.
We are just changing the way that we show up in
those communities.
Again, these are our neighbors, these are our families,
these are our friends.
And so we have made a concerted effort to partner with those
communities to find out what would benefit them.
What do they want to see here as we decommission
these coal plants?
You know, one great example is we are revitalizing one of
our plants, the land on that property, we're turning that
into a solar array.
So that's just one example of how we are partnering to make
sure that we are leaving those communities most impacted
better than we found them. -Well, that sounds great.
And I'm actually heading out to
visit one of your solar gardens right now.
[Greg] I'm at a Consumers Energy solar garden in Grand Rapids,
Michigan, to discuss the future of solar panels with
Jessica Woycehoski, Executive Director of
Renewable Operations.
So Jessica, when people think of Michigan, they might not be
thinking of like, big sunshiny days.
Is solar energy still really viable
in an environment like this?
Absolutely, we're here in Michigan on
an October blue-sky day. It is powering up the panels.
You've seen the frost that has melted up and it's getting
ready to provide power to our friends and our neighbors.
[Greg] Excellent, now how many of these arrays does
Consumers Energy have?
[Jessica] We have several arrays across the state that
we have built, and we continue to build more
as we work towards our clean energy plan.
And we expect to have roughly maybe 10 or 20 projects here
over the many, many years that we've got.
OK, well, let's talk about some of the new technology
that's going into those new arrays.
Tell me about that.
What you see here is what's called a monofilm.
They only capture the sun from the very top of the panel.
But in the future, we're gonna have bifacial modules.
And what that means is that we will have the ability to
capture the sun from behind the panel as well as from
the front of the panel.
So on the snowy winter days that we have here in Michigan,
you're gonna have the sun reflect off of that snow.
It's gonna hit that panel, and that will provide much more
energy for our customers, 365 days a year.
That's excellent.
Anybody that's been out on a really snow-covered day knows
just how bright that reflection can be.
Now, these solar panels, these are fixed, correct?
These are fixed panels, and that's another improvement
in technology is we're gonna have single-axis trackers,
and that is what it's gonna do.
It's gonna track with the sun to give more and more power
throughout the day.
So I know that Consumers Energy is also involved in a lot of
different alternate forms of energy generation.
-Let's go talk about that. -Absolutely.
Jessica, as we look at alternate ways to generate
power and the energy mix that'll provide us with
a greener future,
hydroelectric is a big part of that.
Tell me what Consumers Energy is doing in that field.
[Jessica] Consumers Energy operates Ludington Pump Storage
Facility, which acts like a really large battery.
And we have operated it for 50 years.
When built, it was the largest one in the world.
And even 50 years later, it is still one of the largest.
When you talk about it being a battery, explain to me how
the whole system works.
It is a facility that sits on Lake Michigan.
And when we have beautiful sunny days where our solar
facilities are generating a lot of power, a lot of extra power
than what people of Michigan really need, we use that power
in order to turn on reversible pumps.
Those reversible pumps pull up water into
an 840-acre reservoir.
It sits about 363 feet high.
That water sits there until people of Michigan
really need it.
And then we draw that down by gravity.
It spins a turbine generator and it creates power.
Wow, so it really is like a different kind of a battery,
like not the way we would typically think about it.
You use when demand is low, you pull that power up to
the reservoir and then just let gravity do the work.
[Jessica] Correct.
So, it sounds like it would be pretty clean.
It's just water that's flowing down by gravity to create power.
That's excellent.
Well, there's a new technology that I've just been learning
about that I'm really interested in finding out some
more about it, a renewable natural gas.
-Can we talk about that? -Yeah, absolutely, let's go.
Well, Jessica, we're all pretty familiar with the way natural
gas has been provided for us for a very long time, which is
you drill for it. So how can that be renewable?
That process is definitely not a renewable process.
What is renewable that we're working on is that we utilize
cows and manure.
And so that manure generates methane gas, which can be
collected and it'll provide a low-cost, clean energy
alternative to the natural gas we provide today.
Is it the same as fossilized natural gas?
They're chemically exactly the same.
The only difference is that we are getting that from
a renewable resource, which is cow manure.
Consumers Energy doesn't operate its own dairy farm.
How are you making all that happen?
We've got two industries that are combining together.
You have an energy utility and you have your local
community farm dairies.
So we're gonna come together and we're going to be able to
create a low-cost alternative to natural gas.
How have the dairy farmers been reacting to all this?
[Jessica] They've been excited.
I think it's a great opportunity.
And one story we have is that we are building a 140-megawatt
solar facility called Spring Creek.
And next to that is also Spring Creek Dairy Farms.
And joining those two together, it really sets up that
Spring Creek Dairy Farm to be very prosperous
here at the state of Michigan.
Thank you very much for teaching me about a lot of
great new technologies that are gonna be happening in
energy production. -Yeah, you're welcome.
[Greg] I'm meeting with Neil Dreisig, Executive Director of
Natural Gas Strategy and Projects to discuss clean,
reliable, and affordable energy sources.
-Hey, Neil. -Hi, Greg.
-How are you? -Doing great, thanks.
This facility is really something else.
Tell me how this all works.
This is a compressor station, and how this works is we take
gas from outside the state, it comes in through
transmission lines into this facility.
And what this facility does is it takes it, pressurizes it
and pushes it underground.
Now the unique part about this is Michigan is geographically
disadvantaged in that it's a peninsula,
but it's geologically advantaged in that we have
naturally occurring underground formations.
These underground formations are about as close as you can
get to an underground storage tank.
Well, what would the advantage for your customers be in
storing the gas this way?
We buy the majority of our gas in the summertime
when prices are low.
We take the gas, we store it in these formations.
When the colder months hit, we take the gas out of
the formations and deliver it to customers
when those prices are higher.
But the best part is that the customer is paying
the lower summer rate.
Now, what are some of the other strategies that
Consumers Energy has to help people
reduce their energy costs.
One of our favorite things to do is to partner with customers
by going into their homes and helping them understand how
energy efficiency works,
strategies on how to use less energy.
Well, that seems a little backward that an energy
provider would want their customers to use less of
the product, but I guess that's one of the ways that you're
taking care of Michiganders.
That's one way they can count on us, Greg.
[Greg] Next, I met with Kelsea Salgado, who has had various
roles at Consumers Energy.
Kelsea, we've been talking a lot today about
the transition away from coal and fossil fuels to renewable
energies, and you've kind of
followed the company through that transition.
Tell me a little bit about your story.
I started with Consumers Energy in the call center,
and then I went from the call center to
an auxiliary operator with the coal plant.
Once it was announced what the future was for the coal
plant, I then transitioned to the underground light
department, and that's where I've been ever since.
[Greg] OK, well tell me about that transition.
Did Consumers make that easy for you?
Yeah, they made it extremely easy.
There's a multi-level process as you work your way up in that
particular department.
But we have, it's a combination of in-class training,
in-the-field training, and then the apprenticeship
that happens after that. -Excellent.
Well, let's talk about the underground power lines
because we're here on the west side of Grand Rapids. -Yes.
And as I look up, there are not a lot of power lines.
So tell me about that process.
[Kelsea] So we go ahead and take the above-ground lines
and we install them underground.
[Greg] How do you get the power lines underground
without digging up the whole town?
[Kelsea] The boring machine, when you set it up, you'll set
it up and back it up into an area in the direction that
you want the rods to go.
Once the rods are in the ground, you're actually
going underneath the driveways.
You're going underneath the sidewalks.
Oftentimes you're going underneath trees.
And then you place the wire on the opposite end of
wherever you're going.
And then you pull the wire actually through the ground.
Sometimes you use water, sometimes you don't.
That just has to do with the boring machine itself.
So once you get the wire through, that's when you start
putting the transformers and other mechanisms on top of
it, or running them up the poles, if there is still
that connection to overhead.
And that's when we work jointly with the above ground linemen.
Clearly, it's aesthetically pleasing to not have
power lines everywhere.
But does it have other impacts as well?
Before being an auxiliary operator,
I was working at the call center.
And the call center gave me a front-row seat to hearing all
the calls from customers, whether it was down power
lines, it was tree on wire, the arcing and sparking that
will happen anytime you have a wire across the road.
There's a lot of dangers that are affiliated with that,
whether it's an ice storm, there's rain, whatever kind of
inclement weather that you have, putting them
underground will eliminate or at least manage that risk to
a much more maintainable level, making it much more reliable
for our neighborhoods. -Kelsea, thank you very much.
I wish you nothing but luck with your new role with
Consumers Energy. Let's get on out of here.
Wonderful, thank you.
[Greg] I'm heading back to Grand Rapids to talk to Lauren Snyder
about their energy efficiency programs.
-Hey, Lauren. -Hey Greg, how'd it go out there?
It was great.
I got to see and learn so much today.
I am so glad to hear that.
OK, so before we leave, I have one more story to share
with you that is really near and dear to my heart.
So the city of Flint, we identified an opportunity to
help some residents there really benefit from our energy
efficiency programs.
And to benefit, you have to have good roofing, you have to
have proper insulation, upgraded windows,
things like that.
And at no cost to them, we did those things so that
when we came in with our programs,
they could actually see savings that were sustainable.
The next thing that we're doing in Flint is around
workforce development.
We see an opportunity to go beyond just energy to help
support our communities.
It's an opportunity for residents in Flint to learn
a new skill, and it benefits us because we're developing
a pipeline of new workers into our programs.
So it really demonstrates how together, our communities can
count on us to help deliver a more sustainable future.
Wow.
That really is a next level community engagement.
-Yes. -[Greg] Excellent.
Well, I know you're heading off to Inventionland to meet up
with George, and I've got to get back to Pittsburgh.
-OK! -Let's go.
Hey, Lauren. Welcome to Inventionland.
-Thanks for having me. -Oh, you bet.
Well, I got a great picture, and it's your grandfather,
so you must be a third-gen. -I am.
I'm a third-generation employee of Consumers Energy,
and that's Russ Youngdahl Sr., my grandfather.
Oh my goodness.
And I hear he's quite an innovator.
He was involved with this massive hydroelectric plant
back in the day, wasn't he? -He was.
You're looking at it.
That's what it was back in the early '70s,
and that's what it is today.
So this powers 1800 megawatts of electricity, which equates
to 1.4 million homes. -Oh my goodness.
And you're tied to that. Way to go.
Well, you know what else?
I got this picture from your team.
-You have a great team. -Yeah.
And I was thinking, that looks like a robotic dog.
And you know, at my house, we have dogs,
and we love our dogs.
And they, while we're sleeping, they keep up security
and they monitor. -Oh yeah, exactly right.
So this is our robotic dog, Spot.
And his role is to patrol our substations and use
infrared technology to identify if there's any issues.
And if he comes across an issue, it will alert
our crews to come out and fix the issue before
a power outage occurs. -That makes a lot of sense.
Does Spot have his own like, doghouse?
Actually, he does. Yes, he does.
That's where he goes to recharge.
And then your team sent me this unique device.
-What is this? -Yeah, yeah.
So, you know, we've talked a lot about how we generate
power and we also distribute that power to our customers
over power lines.
And we have enough power lines to circle the globe nearly
four times. -Wow.
It's a lot of power lines.
So this is called a line sensor.
And this line sensor hooks onto the power line.
And it allows us to identify the source of the outage so
that our crews know where to go and they're faster at
restoring power. -Oh, I like this device.
Well, everybody, thanks for tuning in for
"Tomorrow's World Today." We'll see you next time.
[George] And remember, tomorrow's world is where
inspiration and creation drive innovation in production.