ORLANDO, Fla. – Beta Engineering joined 2,200 electric utility professionals at the 2025 Southeastern Electric Exchange conference in June to discuss grid modernization. This year’s conference focused on how to update and transform energy systems to efficiently and sustainably meet future demand.

Session topics focused on a range of topics, including storm damage assessment and recovery, how factory-built substation solutions can shorten construction to help utilities keep up with projects, and new FERC standards.

Highlights from the S.E.E. Conference

• Preassembled Substation Solutions— Fast-tracking the construction phase of a project is critical now more than ever because of the difficulty of expediting engineering without sacrificing quality or moving procurement lead times on critical equipment. Dominion Energy shared how they are exploring more efficient ways to complete construction projects, such as preassembled substation options for large structures that have lots of bus and bolts. By modularizing these types of structures, they have reduced construction time by 20 weeks.
• Storm Response—A panel of experts from Duke Energy, Georgia Power, and Tampa Electric shared lessons learned from the storm response to Hurricane Helene, from portable generator usage to how to safely assess damage when a substation is underwater.  During one of the supply chain sessions, Duke Energy, Georgia Power, and Flower Power & Light also discussed tropical storm impacts on material management risks and shared lessons learned on how they handled storm challenges and mitigated material controls during storms. During another session, Dominion Energy presented about a critical project where they tested how well transformers can withstand major storms, with the goal of gathering data to improve infrastructure reliability and protect communities.
• Utility Training—Several sessions focused on training. Duke Energy presented the value of bringing engineers into the field to see projects firsthand in order to build better working relationships across teams and gain hands-on feedback for future designs. They also discussed how field rotation schedules require intentionality and planning to ensure the engineering workload and deadlines are balanced with the field rotations. In another session, CenterPoint Energy provided insights from their new facility where they provide hands-on training with real-world scenarios to equip distribution personnel with the skills and safety expertise they need in the field.

Innovation and collaboration are the key to modernizing the U.S. power grid. Collaboration between utilities, as well as with external partners, is a critical component of this process to meet growing demand and weather storms while also finding ways to innovate and improve.

Throughout the S.E.E. conference, electric utilities put this collaboration into practice as they shared lessons learned and best practices, from developing proactive engineering measures to protect power grids to sharing findings in order to foster innovation and ensure a stable power supply for their communities—now and in the future.

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What Is S.E.E.?

The Southeastern Electric Exchange (S.E.E.) is a non-profit association of investor-owned electric utility companies across the South, Midwest, and Northeast U.S. The organization provides training, workshops, seminars, and an annual conference and tradeshow to share technical knowledge and lessons learned.

The S.E.E. conference offers valuable sessions for both substation engineers and electric utility decision-makers. The conference’s smaller size compared to other top electric utility shows, such as IEEE PES T&D, RE+, and Cleanpower, provides opportunities for productive networking and deep conversations where smart, passionate industry leaders can gather to share experience, technical knowledge, and best practices.

About Beta

Beta Engineering is a substation EPC company headquartered in Pineville, Louisiana, with an office in San Diego. Since 1975, we’ve helped power delivery companies across the U.S. complete high-voltage substation and transmission line projects. Contact our team to tap into 50 years of problem-solving experience—and a proven commitment to safety.