Welcome to EPRI Current – bringing you the latest on new and evolving research and findings on the generation, delivery and use of electricity, and how this work benefits society as we shape the future of energy.
Your host, Samantha Gilman, talks to EPRI experts and industry guests who provide insight, context and science-based observations on what’s new – and what is yet to come – in the energy transition.
Latest Episodes
Battery Energy Storage Safety: From Cells to Systems
Host: Samantha Gilman
Guests: Stephanie Shaw, Technical Executive, Energy Storage, EPRI; Lakshmi Srinivasan, Principal Team Lead, Energy Storage, EPRI; Kieran Claffey, Senior Research Engineer in the Research Environment and Sustainability Group of Southern Co., Industry Lead, Safety and Grid Security Tiger Team for the Long Duration Energy Storage National Consortium
Join EPRI experts Stephanie Shaw and Lakshmi Srinivasan of EPRI’s Energy Storage research area, and Southern Company’s Kieran Claffey to learn how research, risk assessment, and analysis continues to improve the safety of battery storage technology and operations. As battery storage energy grows across the globe, with the vast majority of deployments being lithium ion, what have we learned about the safety of battery storage as both a source and as part of a larger electric system?
Find out more about EPRI’s Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) Failure Incident Database, initiated in 2021. It tracks incidents involving BESS systems, providing valuable data on system age, manufacturer, chemistry, and application.
For more information:
EPRI Failure Incident Database: BESS Failure Incident Database - EPRI Storage Wiki
EPRI Whitepaper: Analysis of Failure Root Cause: Insights from EPRI’s Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) Failure Incident Database: Analysis of Failure Root Cause
Just Keep Swimming: New Tech Enables Fish Migration at Hydro Dams
Host: Samantha Gilman
Guests: Mika Sohlberg, Co-Founder, Fishheart; Michael Melchers, FERC Administrator, Santee Cooper; Paul Jacobson, Technical Executive, generation sector, EPRI
Teach a person to fish, and they just might teach the rest of us how to innovate to preserve the species.
Hydropower is one of the world’s oldest low-carbon sources of electricity generation. And as long as there have been dams, there have been migrating fish needing to swim upstream past them to spawn. Join EPRI Current host Samantha Gilman and her three guests as they discuss testing the new Fishheart fish passage technology in North America. Developed by fishermen in Finland, the technology was tested in North America at the Santee Cooper utility as part of a Department of Energy research project supervised by EPRI.
The Quantum Challenge: Pioneering Fusion Technology
Host: Samantha Gilman
Guests: Diana Grandas, Dr. Charlyne Smith, Emma Wong
In this episode of EPRI Current, we explore how quantum computing could help solve key fusion hurdles—from plasma control to materials engineering—bringing us closer to a commercially viable fusion reactor.
Join host Samantha Gilman and EPRI experts Diana Grandas, Emma Wong, and Dr. Charlyne Smith as they discuss EPRI’s work in fusion innovation, the intersection of quantum mechanics and energy research, and what’s needed to push fusion from the lab to the power grid.
Also discussed: the @EPRINews 2025 Quantum Challenge Fusion Edition, an international contest aimed at finding groundbreaking quantum computing solutions for fusion technology. Learn more at: https://aqora.io/epri-fusion-quantum-challenge-2025#about-event
