Spring CEO Meeting
Last week, LPPC CEOs convened in Nashville, Tennessee, for LPPC’s Spring CEO Meeting. The meeting brought together senior leaders from 29 of the nation’s largest public power systems to share best practices on load growth, enterprise risks, and emerging energy technologies.
In addition to updates on LPPC’s key policy priorities, discussions focused on cyber, operational, and physical security for critical infrastructure; advanced nuclear technologies; and managing rising demand from AI and data centers.
Guest speakers included Marc Nichol, Vice President of Nuclear Deployment and Fuel Cycle at the Nuclear Energy Institute, who discussed the state of Gen III+ small modular reactor technology, federal funding opportunities, and supporting legislation. He also highlighted how public and private utilities are working together to advance new nuclear projects across the country.
From left to right: Justin Driscoll, President/CEO, New York Power Authority, Marc Nichol, Vice President, Nuclear Deployment and Fuel Cycle, Nuclear Energy Institute, Tom Falcone, President, LPPC, John McClure, Executive Vice President, External Affairs & General Counsel, Nebraska Public Power District, & Tom Kent, President/CEO, Nebraska Public Power District
Congressman Chuck Fleischmann, Chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies, joined CEOs to discuss the importance of firm generation and the role advanced nuclear technologies can play in strengthening American energy reliability, affordability, security, and innovation.
Liz Martin, Global Senior Director Threat Fusion Ops of Dragos and Sezaneh Seymour, Vice President & Head of Regulatory Risk and Policy at Coalition, provided a cyber threat update and highlighted actionable steps that senior leaders and cyber teams can take to strengthen defenses, reduce vulnerabilities, and improve cyber readiness.
LPPC thanks Nashville Electric Service, and its President & CEO Teresa Broyles-Aplin for hosting our CEOs and senior leaders. Together, we look forward to applying these insights to maintain reliability and affordability for LPPC members' 30.5+ million customers across the country.
Nuclear Subcommittee Meeting
The newly formed Nuclear Subcommittee also met in Nashville, led by Chair, John McClure of NPPD and Steve Jackson of MEAG. The subcommittee discussed findings from the LPPC member's recent nuclear benchmarking survey and heard from two guest speakers on the national advanced nuclear landscape.
Key Findings:
- LPPC members currently own over 6,200 MW of nuclear generation;
- 63% currently include nuclear in their generation portfolio; and
- 35% have nuclear ownership interest.
Several LPPC CEOs and senior leaders in attendance heard from John Williams, SVP Technical Services and External Affairs at Southern Company, who shared findings from the completion of two AP1000s, Vogtle Units 3 & 4, which added an additional 2.2+ GW of capacity to their fleet. John also shared the state of small modular reactor technology, AP1000 models, as well as the financial, legislative, regulatory, and supply chain landscape for nuclear generation deployment in the U.S.
David Flaherty, Co-Founder and Chief Commercial Officer of Elementl, provided perspectives on development and utility partnerships, cost risk management, federal support through tax credits/cost-sharing, proposed legislation, and the major developers in Gen III+ SMR technology.
