Powering the Future: Reimagining the Grid for Tomorrow

12:00 PM ET Fri., Feb. 14, 2025

What will the process of creation and renewal look like by 2035? How will we leverage innovation to meet the challenges of the future in areas from our power grid and collaborative intelligence to community health and resilience building? Explore questions, ideas, and trends likely to affect business and society over the next decade. Let these ideas serve as a springboard for structured speculation about emerging issues and the next ten years.

Join Exelon leaders Sunny Elebua, Senior Vice President, Chief Strategy and Sustainability Officer, and Jeanne Jones ’01, Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer for a discussion how leaders in the energy industry are looking to innovation to stay ahead of future threats to energy transmission and distribution to their millions of customers across the country.

Tune in on Friday, February 14, 2025.

The Ten Years Hence lecture series kicked off with a compelling discussion on energy innovation, led by James S. O’Rourke ’68, Teaching Professor of Management at the University of Notre Dame. In this first of eight talks—centered on technological transformation—O’Rourke welcomed Jeanne Jones ’01, Chief Financial Officer at Exelon, and Sunny Elebua, Senior Vice President and Chief Strategy & Sustainability Officer at Exelon. Together, they explored the urgent challenges and groundbreaking opportunities shaping the energy landscape over the next decade.

Exelon: A Legacy of Innovation

Jeanne Jones ‘01 provided a sweeping overview of Exelon’s operations, which serve millions across major U.S. cities—including Chicago, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C. She traced Exelon’s journey from the era of Thomas Edison to its modern advancements in energy distribution, emphasizing the company’s commitment to reliability, affordability, and innovation. Jones’ insights illuminated not just Exelon’s enduring legacy but also its bold vision for the future, as the energy sector undergoes a profound transformation.

Three Forces Shaping the Future of Energy

The conversation spotlighted three seismic shifts redefining the energy sector:

Soaring demand: Data centers and digital infrastructure are consuming unprecedented amounts of electricity, pushing the grid to its limits.
The renewable revolution: As the push for carbon-free solutions intensifies, nuclear energy is emerging as a key player in the transition.
The climate imperative: The escalating impact of climate change demands bold, strategic innovation at every level of the industry.

Jones described how Exelon is tackling these forces head-on—reimagining grid resilience, storage, and efficiency to meet the evolving needs of a rapidly electrifying world.

Innovation as a Journey: Sustainability & Strategic Partnerships

Sunny Elebua framed innovation not as a one-time breakthrough, but as an ongoing journey—one that is essential to building a sustainable and resilient energy future. Through compelling examples, he illustrated Exelon’s strategic collaborations, where research meets real-world impact:

Partnering with Argonne National Laboratory to leverage climate modeling and predictive analytics, strengthening grid reliability against future threats.
Developing vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology with the University of Delaware, turning electric vehicles into dynamic energy assets.

These initiatives, Elebua emphasized, are redefining how energy is generated, stored, and consumed—placing Exelon at the cutting edge of industry transformation.

The Power of Smart Technology & Grid Intelligence:

Beyond high-level strategy, the discussion delved into the practical innovations revolutionizing energy distribution. Smart meters, automation, and AI-driven analytics are enhancing both grid intelligence and consumer empowerment, reinforcing Exelon’s commitment to a more reliable, efficient, and adaptable energy ecosystem.

But technology alone isn’t enough. Elebua and Jones highlighted a critical factor in Exelon’s success: a future-ready workforce. In an industry demanding agility, data expertise, and multidisciplinary problem-solving, Exelon is fostering a culture of adaptability and forward-thinking leadership—one built for the challenges ahead.

The Road Ahead

As the conversation wrapped up, O’Rourke fielded audience questions on topics ranging from cybersecurity risks to rate forecasting and the evolving role of renewables. The recurring theme? The road to a sustainable energy future is complex—but filled with promise. It demands persistence, innovation, and the courage to challenge convention.

For those who missed it, this Ten Years Hence lecture offered a front-row seat to the forces shaping the future of energy. With visionary leadership and bold innovation, Exelon isn’t just adapting—it’s setting the pace.

The Data Center Phenomenon Vast Energy Consumption in Action | Imagine an explosive surge in energy demand equivalent to adding two New York cities’ worth of consumption within Exelon’s service area. This is primarily driven by the rapid expansion of data centers. These colossal structures, often the size of multiple football fields, operate around the clock, necessitating unprecedented levels of reliable power. This staggering uptick in demand symbolizes the world’s increasing reliance on data-driven technologies, underscoring how energy providers must innovate at breakneck speeds to keep pace.
Nuclear Power’s Encore: The Carbon-Free Contender | At a time when global energy transitions are increasingly necessary, nuclear power—long perceived with skepticism—is making a remarkable comeback. Contrary to previous downturns and plant closures, heavyweights in the tech industry are now funding new nuclear initiatives, recognizing its unmatched capacity for providing constant carbon-free energy. This pivot marks a monumental shift in the world’s clean energy strategy and prompts a reevaluation of nuclear’s role amid future energy narratives.
Smart Meters: A Quantum Leap in Energy Management |With 94% of Exelon’s customers now equipped with smart meters, technology has transformed grid management into a dynamic system where potential outages are detected and addressed seamlessly. Picture a future where your lights blink momentarily in response to grid maintenance, with smart systems rerouting power invisibly and instantaneously. This innovation emphasizes the radical improvements in efficiency and reliability, revolutionizing how utilities interact with and serve customers.
The Geopolitical Climate Challenge: Weather Realities | With climate models projecting Illinois to feel like central Missouri within a decade, the urgency of addressing climate-induced infrastructure challenges becomes crystal clear. This impending shift isn’t just theoretical—it demands immediate action in planning and retrofitting the energy grid to manage extreme temperature variations and humidity. Such stark geographic transformations in climate provoke a pressing call to action across the industry.
Security within the Electric Frontier: Protecting the Grid | Tensions rise as grid security becomes a matter of national safety, driven by cyber threats and physical sabotage risks. With Exelon’s security strategies guided by former FBI experts, the robust defenses encompass cutting-edge technological safeguards and fortified physical measures. The real potential for systemic disruption highlights the critical importance of having rigorous security protocols to maintain operational integrity and protect millions of homes across the nation.

Speculating the Future: “Our aim is to engage in some structured speculation about the future, specifically the decade just ahead, and the world we’re likely to inhabit ten years from now.”
— James S. O’Rourke ’68 [00:00:25 → 00:00:37]
Future-Proofing Energy: “Our strategy, as we said, as an executive committee, we’re constantly thinking about where our customers are going to be 10 years from now. And what do we have to do today to address that?”
— Jeanne Jones ’01 [00:02:51 → 00:03:00]
Understanding Energy Monopoly Structures: “Imagine if we were sitting here investing to set up all of this structure for one neighborhood, and then another company was doing another neighborhood— the inefficiencies that would exist there would be massive. And so because of that, we are a monopoly. We have franchise agreements with our territories that allow us to serve those customers and no one else. So we are a monopoly, but we are regulated.”
— Jeanne Jones ’01 [00:05:56 → 00:06:03]
The Future of Energy Investment: “It’s a unique time where you’re battling between investors that typically are pretty conservative, but yet see this opportunity for a big increase in growth in the sector that has not been seen before.”
— Jeanne Jones ’01 [00:10:03 → 00:10:20]
Smart Grids and Energy Choices: “The convergence of physical infrastructure with data-driven technologies makes energy systems significantly smarter. A prime example is the smart grid and smart meters in homes. These devices provide valuable insights into power quality, consumption patterns, and ways to optimize energy use.”
— Sunny Elebua [00:25:07 → 00:25:30]
Cost of Energy in Today’s Market: “Some technologies are more expensive than others when sized for their capacity and investment cost. The most expensive technology right now would be constructing a new nuclear plant. If you were to build a plant with storage, it would be even more costly. Offshore wind is also relatively expensive. On the cheaper side, traditional solar is quite affordable but intermittent.”
— Sunny Elebua [00:53:29 → 00:54:00]
Blurring Boundaries in the Workforce: “The traditional career distinctions—engineer, finance professional, accountant—are becoming increasingly blurred. Today, we see more professionals who are what we call “great athletes”—individuals with highly transferable skills who can adapt to various roles while maintaining a core expertise. This shift encourages us to prioritize hiring not just specialists but also versatile, coachable individuals who can excel across multiple domains.”
— Sunny Elebua [01:03:35 → 01:04:06]

Powering the Future: Reimagining the Grid for Tomorrow

More Like This

Chart Your Venture

Collaborative Intelligence: Leading the Forefront of Enterprise Innovation

The Power of Sports to Drive Social Change

2024: Notre Dame’s Year in Photos

Year in Review: Notre Dame in 2024

Game Changers: From Zoomers to Boomers—The Generations at Work

Business as a Global Force for Good

Accountability in a Sustainable World Conference

Game Changers: Decoding AI

The Courage to Stand Up: CEO of Deloitte Consulting on Ethical Leadership

Subscribe to our Newsletter