Connecting to The Grid and to One Another with Dr. Elizabeth Cook

In Brief

Onshoring of clean energy product manufacturing is happening across the supply chain as foreign companies move to the US.

More focus needs to be put on innovation and creativity across organizations that touch energy, such as utilities, industries, financiers, and regulatory agencies.

Forming a common understanding around how the current grid works and how a modernized grid works is essential.

Dr. Elizabeth Cook is a trailblazer in electric energy innovation and operational excellence at the Association of Edison Illuminating Companies (AEIC). Drawing on her deep knowledge of power engineering, she spearheads initiatives that strengthen technical strategies and cultivate collaborative partnerships with member companies.

Beyond her work at AEIC, Dr. Cook hosts "The Grid Mod Pod" and created the podcast "Integrated Being," where she delves into the connections between technology and personal development. As a founder and mindset coach, she provides practical, accessible guidance that inspires transformative shifts in perspective, boosts self-confidence, and encourages self-care across all dimensions of life. Through her multifaceted career, Dr. Cook makes meaningful contributions to both technological progress and personal empowerment.

How do you see increasing levels of foreign direct investment in manufacturing, like Qcells from South Korea, shaping U.S. energy independence and its competitive edge in the global clean energy market?

Foreign companies coming to the U.S. and developing manufacturing here, I would say that's happening a lot. I was in multiple conversations with a company that was hosting and then really shopping around India—a solar cell company. I was so blown away and just excited because not only are they going to make the final production of the actual solar cell and all the itty-bitty parts, but they’re also showing the whole supply chain of all of the other factories that are needed to build the actual panel, and all of those factories become a part of the economy of the area where they're building.

These large companies have stood up and driven the capability and feasibility and have helped drive down costs, and now are bringing that whole production line to the States. I think that's happening not just with Q Cells; I think we could probably do a little deep dive or dig into that reality. I don't think those are the things that we communicate effectively to the masses or the external audiences. We get stuck on the precious metals or the precious devices that have to be mined; we get focused on these very short-sighted linear thoughts that destroy any big, amazing gains.

If we could create our processes and our businesses around the reality that our ultimate goal is to continue to innovate and create towards an end goal, we have to have certain sets of devices and equipment that are going to transform us over. That’s very different than how the grid was made in the past. The speed for which we can now innovate and transform anything based on our knowledge, technology, and manufacturing has shifted from 20-30 years to now 10 years. How our business models are created and how we lead those transformations is a new way of doing business. Understanding how it is now and how it was - and the differentiating of the two - is key to evolving and creating.

How can the clean energy sector prepare for future advancements in AI, robotics, and automation while ensuring that the transition remains fair for all U.S. workers? Where do you see employment opportunities growing and where do you see them becoming scarcer?

I believe it’s all about upskilling the workforce and offering programs every step of the way, fostering partnerships with educational institutions. It’s like the New Deal; we put people back to work building out our transmission grid to serve all citizens, and now with clean energy, we need the same commitment. Automation may reduce some manual jobs, but I still feel there will be so much manufacturing and development that will continue to need humans. With all this technology, we’ll need high-tech positions, but reskilling can be taught and grown, so that we’ll have data analysts, software engineers, AI specialists, and then those overseeing operations, energy management, and cybersecurity - roles we didn’t need before but will absolutely need now.

And every time we mention AI, we should educate the readers. AI is really just a massive set of algorithms. If we educate people, if we steer toward helping each other and fostering a culture that’s not about getting ahead but about being together, we’ll thrive. There are so many jobs we overlook that keep the world running, jobs like manufacturing and even trades that connect to AI technology and clean energy growth. The need for this shift is huge; some studies say we’ll need to build two or even four times the transmission capacity we have today.

And we’ve seen this cycle before - cars existed before we had roads, gas stations, and diesel infrastructure, and those developments created new jobs. Now we’re seeing the same thing with electric vehicles, which bring with them a need for new skills and a new workforce to build, maintain, and manage this entire ecosystem. It’s all about reskilling, educating, and doing it together as a community. We’ve been here before, and the solutions lie in understanding that we’re all in this together.

What policy or economic incentives do you think are most important for the growth of clean energy manufacturing in both urban and rural areas?

There's an enormous economic benefit to those that have adopted, and deployed, and executed clean energy projects. If you look at individual states that adopted incorporating clean energy projects, they're making a lot of money. Those that have installed and are now reaping the benefits of selling electrons are making a lot of money. Which means that money is in that state, driving it to the workforce. I think with some of the items that have been put in place, such as the CHIPs Act, Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and Inflation Reduction Act, utilities are not seeing it with that same mindset. And so if we have this enormous amount of energy requirement, we're going to need an enormous amount of energy generation. And that's the fold that we're at. So how do we get that unified vision of where we're headed? I don't really have the answers, other than I do believe if we have the right policies and create the right incentives through some of the things that we've already done, it can continue to work in the right direction.

Your work involves collaboration among member companies. How do you foster effective partnerships within these networks?

Fostering effective partnership requires bringing folks together and having leaders that can drive the topics of interest and then move the development. It seems not as sexy and exciting, but it’s putting pen to paper, creating the language to formulate the framework, the guidelines, the best practices. And then for the hardest part, which I think is the transformation of how we share information. How do we create the bodies of trust so that when a document comes out of this forum, others would be like, 'Oh, this must be real.' Because there’s so much right now. So how do we find those authors and those authoritative voices that show the way? And I think that’s our biggest challenge, but we have to start somewhere with these networks.

As someone involved in leadership development and mindset coaching, how can we better integrate and elevate the voices of all stakeholders in clean energy, from plant workers to CEOs?

To elevate all stakeholders, especially in clean energy, I believe we need open, safe spaces and forums where all voices - CEOs to plant workers - are valued. The corporate culture has often been hierarchical, but successful companies use flat or matrix structures that encourage cross-level collaboration and challenge established views. A lot of wisdom throughout history reminds us that humans thrive in safe spaces. Unfortunately, over the last century, we’ve built these massive, impersonal structures. But now, with the complexity of energy needs, true progress depends on collaborative partnerships.

Building trust is slow and requires authenticity, but it’s critical. We need to identify where trust has been lost, and then design workshops and partnerships where genuine collaboration can flourish. There’s amazing work happening in energy globally, and while we have progress here, we need to learn from those who are advancing faster. By studying successful transitions and creating an environment for open conversation, we can move from a 'winners and losers' mindset to one of abundance. It’s about listening, empathizing, and respectfully challenging views. Instead of fearing the end of an industry, we can see change as an opportunity for transformation, much like the whaling industry which was required to adapt and evolve into other industries that were created and progressed.

What is the most significant missing resource needed to create more accessible pathways to clean energy?

The most significant missing resource is this comprehensive and accessible education and training around how the actual very large machine that we have built works, how all of the individual parts connect to each other, and how bulk generation, which is going through its own transformation with the new energy resources available, can perform differently, and possibly, if we do it well, serve the ultimate objective. The emphasis would be on creating accessible education around these topics. This is also a challenge because we've lost a lot of trust between each other, especially between these large establishments, which are the electric utilities and the governing bodies and the regulatory agencies. So how do we emphasize those partnerships between the government, industry, and educational institutions to create this pathway? This can only happen if we have people that see it as the missing resource.