What’s an Energy Futurist?

…Well, the actual job title is “Resource Planner.” In the industry parlance, I’m a power supply and regulatory analyst developing long-term resource plans and rate design strategies for the Burlington Electric Department—BED, internally.

If you want a resume, it’s here: Resume — Ajey Pandey

In practice, my job is to build a crystal ball for an electric utility. We’re powering a 21st century life on a 20th century grid, and the time for change is here. My job is to read the swirling storm clouds and foretell the path from A to B that keeps the lights on and the electric bills low.

This is harder than your preferred ideology said it is—especially in New England.

Coal is dead. Oil is too expensive. Wind and solar generate when they feel like it. Lithium only goes so far. We’ve run out of rivers to put hydroelectric generators on. Our winters require more natural gas than we have pipelines. And your pet wunderwerk won’t sell me a 5-megawatt pilot project until 2030.

But we still need energy—and a lot more of it. Electric cars are selling. Electric heat pumps are selling. AI compute clusters, semiconductor fabs, and biotechnology labs need a lot of electricity. And both sides of DC agree we’re racing the Chinese on all of this.

Yet Burlington Electric must still fulfill its mission of safe, reliable, affordable, sustainable, and socially responsible electricity.

Electric utilities are used to decades where nothing happens, but now decades are happening in weeks. The old ways don’t work anymore.

My job is to find the way forward.