SEPA’s 2025 Power Player Awards celebrate excellence and leadership in energy innovation. Nominate your project or team today Power Player Awards Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) 2024 Submissions 2024 Finalists and Winners SEPA’s Power Player Awards celebrate excellence and leadership in energy innovation. A carbon-free energy future depends on innovation, leadership, and collaboration in the energy sector. SEPA, recognized as a catalyst for collaboration, is relaunching the Power Player Awards to recognize utilities, corporations, regulators, policymakers and other energy stakeholders who played an essential role in advancing actionable solutions to progress a carbon-free energy system. In alignment with our commitment to driving industry progress, this year’s Power Player Awards categories represent SEPA’s six focus areas – Resilience, Transportation, Energy Storage, Emerging Technology, Policy, and Energy Equity & Inclusion, reflecting our collective efforts to address key challenges and advance towards shared goals. Nominate your project or team today! Award Categories Resilience Power Player of the YearThis award recognizes exemplary industry leadership, characterized by distinctive innovation aimed at substantially advancing energy resilience. The importance of energy resilience will only increase as grid disruptions from extreme weather events become more common and more severe. Our energy system must be able to withstand flooding, heatwaves, hurricanes and wildfires. Examples: Grid- and customer-scale solar PV, microgrids, advanced energy storage systems, vehicle-to-X Transportation Electrification Power Player of the Year This award recognizes demonstrated industry leadership through unique innovation, with a commitment to significantly advancing transportation electrification. The popularity of electric vehicles (EVs) and other low or no- carbon vehicles are transforming the transportation sector. Bringing together solar and other clean resources with vehicles, charging stations, and other vehicle-grid-integration technology will be critical to realize the potential of carbon-free electric mobility. Examples: Deployment of public EV charging infrastructure, V2G technologies, charging equipment incentive programs, fleet electrification programs Emerging Technology Power Player of the Year This award is characterized by unique innovation, with a commitment to significantly advancing emerging technology. Emerging energy technologies play a critical role in moving towards a fully decarbonized electric power system. These technologies span nearly all power system sectors and applications and include the advanced analytic techniques needed to make the best use of ever-expanding data sets. Examples: Virtual Power Plants (VPPs), AI or ML applications, green hydrogen, Advanced Distribution Management System (ADMS), Distributed Energy Resource Management System (DERMS) Policy Power Player of the Year This award will be presented to an individual/company that exemplified industry leadership characterized by unique innovation, with a dedication to significantly advancing clean energy goals through impactful policy or business models. Policy plays a crucial role in shaping the direction of the clean energy transition through federal and state legislation and regulations. Business models and regulatory frameworks, along with the underpinning policies, must evolve to further embrace innovation that is needed to reach a sustainable future. Examples: Internal governance structures to manage climate change risks, integrated resource planning (IRP) efforts, alignment of customer programs with carbon reduction objectives Energy Storage Power Player of the Year This award acknowledges an individual’s industry leadership demonstrated through unique innovation, with a commitment to significantly advancing energy storage technology. Energy storage will be paramount to delivering consistent, reliable power as we harness the full potential of clean energy generation. Storage advancements in battery technologies and applications will allow us greater flexibility to align generation with load profiles, and to deliver clean energy when, where, and how it is needed. Examples: Utility-scale storage systems, customer battery incentive programs, use of long duration storage technologies, storage-specific incentivized rates Equity Power Player of the Year This award acknowledges an individual’s industry leadership demonstrated through unique innovation, with a commitment to significantly advancing energy storage technology. Equity in carbon reduction is about ensuring that the benefits and burdens of any policy or program are as fairly distributed as possible and that all groups have a say in decisions that affect them. Examples: Affordability, community solar projects, electrification support in underserved areas, community outreach programs, demand-side management programs for LI customers Target Nominees: Utilities, corporations, regulators, policymakers and other energy stakeholders, project teams and/or individuals, are eligible Awards considered for activities from January 1, 2024 through December 31, 2024 Nominations Open: December 2, 2024 Nomination Close: January 20, 2025 Award Acceptance: An executive representative from the winning company or the individual must be present to accept the award at the SEPA Power Players Awards ceremony, co-located with the 2025 SEPA Energy Evolution Summit. Selection Process and Criteria The selection process for all categories (except individual Power Player nominations) will consider three essential criteria: Innovation Collaboration Replicability/Scalability We are looking for projects and initiatives that not only showcase innovative solutions but also demonstrate collaborative efforts and the potential for broader impact. Innovation The degree to which the nominee has demonstrated an outstanding or unique contribution in working toward a clean energy future. The scoring scale will be from 1 to 5, with 1 representing not innovative at all and 5 representing completely new or innovative. Collaboration The degree of collaboration the nominee has demonstrated and the effect on project goals or outcomes. The scoring scale will be from 1 to 5, with 1 representing no collaboration and 5 representing multiplicity and diversity (multiple and divergent groups working together to produce an outcome that exceeded initial expectations). Replicability The degree to which the material presented by the nominee can be replicated or serve as a catalyst to be built upon by others. The scoring scale will be from 1 to 5, with 1 meaning not replicable at all and 5 meaning replicable across multiple geographies and business models without alteration. The panel of judges, composed of members from SEPA’s Research Advisory Council, Program Advisory Council, and SEPA’s internal subject matter experts, aims to eliminate bias and ensure an impartial and equitable evaluation process. Explore the past award winners who showcased excellence in advancing towards a clean and modern energy future. View 2024 Winners View 2022 Winner View 2021 Winners View 2020 Winners View 2019 Winners View 2018 Winners