Diane Lear of the National Hydropower Association: Previewing the Clean Currents Trade Show and Conference
T
he National Hydropower Association (NHA) is planning a brand-new industry event called Clean Currents for October 2021. After a year and a half of few if any in-person events, Clean Currents promises to be a homecoming for the hydro industry. All elements of the conference will be open to all participants, putting everyone on an equal footing and enabling conversations between people from every part of the industry. In this interview, the NHA’s vice president of operations and member services, Diane Lear, fills us in on the plans for the conference. Hydro Leader: Please tell us about your background and how you came to be in your current position.
directors are excited about charting a new path for the organization. This brand-new industry event will be held in Atlanta during the week of October 18–22 of this year. With everyone having been cooped up for a year and a half due to the pandemic, the timing of this event will make it a wonderful opportunity to finally come together again—a hydro homecoming, if you will. The concept of Clean Currents has been in the making for several years, and our board of directors gave us the green light in September 2019 to begin planning. We spent a lot of time talking to our members and listening to the industry so that we could create not just another conference, but a whole new experience. Having Georgia Power Every dollar spent by Company serve as the host attendees, exhibitors, and utility for NHA’s first-ever sponsors will go right hydro tradeshow and technical back into the association, conference in the Southeast supporting the NHA’s is very important to us. We’re work on behalf of the entire excited to bring the industry to industry. Our exhibitors and the great city of Atlanta. Hydro sponsors are doubling their was one of our first generating return on investment, first resources when our company by being part of a valuewas founded, and our first packed event, and second renewable energy source, by investing in their own and it’s as strong today as it industry. It’s a win-win. TM
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32 | HYDRO LEADER | July/August 2021
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PHOTO COURTESY OF THE NHA.
Diane Lear: I have been with NHA for 19 years. Previous to that, I was the marketing administrator for Voith Hydro in York, Pennsylvania. I HERBIE JOHNSON worked for Voith, a large General Manager turbine manufacturer, for Southern Company 15 years. Before that, I worked for Tampella of Tampere, Finland, and James Leffel & Company has ever been. in Springfield, Ohio. Nearly my entire working Hydro Leader: How many career has been in hydro, interviews and meetings HOST UTILITY: cleancurrents.org and I have developed have you done over the years the most wonderful to plan Clean Currents? relationships with people in this great industry. While working for Voith, I served on Diane Lear: The development of Clean Current began the board of directors of the NHA. I found my experience well over 2 years ago. It started with dozens of phone and working with the NHA board and staff to be rewarding and in-person discussions with our members all across the energizing, which made my decision easy when I was offered country. We spent a lot of time listening to the industry a job at the association in 2002. to find out what really matters to it. Our goal was to make sure that the NHA was in step with what our members Hydro Leader: Please tell our readers about the Clean and was responding to what they really wanted and needed. Currents meeting. The NHA is truly member driven. Everything we do is to support the industry. To properly advocate for the resource, Diane Lear: Clean Currents will offer the industry we have to know what our members’ pain points, challenges, something new and fresh. The NHA’s staff and board of and needs are. This is a continual process. Malcolm Woolf,
