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Diane Lear of the National Hydropower Association: Previewing the Clean Currents Trade Show and Conference
Diane Lear of the National Hydropower Association: Previewing the Clean Currents Trade Show and Conference
The 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.
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Hydro Leader: Please tell us about your background and how you came to be in your current position.
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 worked for Voith, a large turbine manufacturer, for 15 years. Before that, I worked for Tampella of Tampere, Finland, and James Leffel & Company in Springfield, Ohio. Nearly my entire working career has been in hydro, and I have developed the most wonderful relationships with people in this great industry. While working for Voith, I served on the board of directors of the NHA. I found my experience working with the NHA board and staff to be rewarding and energizing, which made my decision easy when I was offered a job at the association in 2002.
Hydro Leader: Please tell our readers about the Clean Currents meeting.
Diane Lear: Clean Currents will offer the industry something new and fresh. The NHA’s staff and board of 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
Hydro Leader: How many interviews and meetings have you done over the years to plan Clean Currents?
Diane Lear: The development of Clean Current began well over 2 years ago. It started with dozens of phone and in-person discussions with our members all across the country. We spent a lot of time listening to the industry to find out what really matters to it. Our goal was to make sure that the NHA was in step with what our members and was responding to what they really wanted and needed. The NHA is truly member driven. Everything we do is to support the industry. To properly advocate for the resource, we have to know what our members’ pain points, challenges, and needs are. This is a continual process. Malcolm Woolf, our new president and CEO, supports that concept, and we connect with our members on those topics on a regular basis.
HERBIE JOHNSON General Manager Southern Company
Hydro Leader: What are some of the things that came out of those meetings and interviews? How will this trade show and conference be unique to the industry?
Diane Lear: The need for meaningful licensing reform—that was probably the biggest takeaway for us. The other was just having hydro valued for all its benefits, including its nonpower benefits, so that it gets fair treatment in wholesale electricity markets. We’ve incorporated what we learned from those interviews into our strategic plan and designated resources in these areas. We pivoted our Waterpower Week in Washington conference to focus on legislative and regulatory policy and electricity market design and reform and created Clean Currents as the new all-industry event to incorporate every facet of the industry, including technical innovations, modernization of the existing fleet, and new development. Rather than putting out a call for abstracts for the content of the program, we conducted hundreds of phone calls with our members to ask them what they wanted. We took this as an opportunity to start from a clean slate so that we could make this conference something different and valuable. We’ve used that feedback to create the meeting’s program. We’re excited about what we’ve come up with.
Hydro Leader: Please tell us about the structure of and the registration for the meeting.
Diane Lear: We’re also excited about that. We wanted to create a true community feel to the event and a level playing field. Registration includes access to everything: all the conference sessions, the exhibit floor, the lunches, and the evening networking receptions. Everyone is invited and encouraged to participate fully in every part of the event.
Hydro Leader: Is there anything different for vendors?
Diane Lear: Manufacturers and service providers are so important to an event like this, and the supply chain is essential for the health and strength of the industry. The power producers want the supply chain to be a part of the conference, and not just on the exhibit floor. So rather than having separate lunches and restricting conference sessions to delegates, everyone has access to everything. We wanted to create a community feel throughout the event. We’ve named the space CC Central, as everything is on one floor—the conference session rooms flank the exhibit area, the waterpower intelligence theater, the lunch area, and the lounges. Everyone is together all day long.
Hydro Leader: What is your message to the hydro community about your upcoming meeting?
Diane Lear: This is truly a hydro homecoming for the industry, and I would encourage everyone to take part. It is really important to have everyone there. Your participation and investment in Clean Currents directly funds the work we do on behalf of the entire industry. No other U.S. hydro conference does that. Given that the NHA represents 85 percent of the hydropower industry, we need your support so that the NHA can achieve its strategic goal of holding a conference that supports the industry in every way. We really are looking forward to having everyone there.
I want to add that our host utility, Georgia Power, owned by Southern Company, is so excited about the industry coming together in Atlanta. Southern Company has been incredibly supportive of the Clean Currents concept. It will be discussing a $1 billion investment program to rehabilitate and modernize its existing hydro assets and is anxious to see the entire industry there. It wants to talk to the supply chain. Several power producers also want to announce their investment plans at Clean Currents and are inviting suppliers to come and talk to them so that they know exactly what’s coming down the pipe. As I said, this truly is a different kind of event.
Diane Lear is the vice president of operations and member services at the National Hydropower Association. She can be contacted at diane@hydro.org.
