In this episode of Energy Stories, Nick Tumilowicz, Director of Distributed Energy Management at Itron, discusses a rapidly shifting energy landscape. He explores the complex balancing act utilities face between modernizing grid operations and meeting evolving consumer demands. Nick highlights how the partnership between Itron and NET2GRID is helping bridge this gap, offering a preview of what the "Utility of the future" will look like for the average household.
Our host is Emily Fisher, Regional Sales Manager at NET2GRID.
*The podcast episode was recorded on May 27th, 2026.
In this episode, you will learn
In this podcast you will learn
The 2026 Grid Dilemma: How utilities are adapting as the central generation utility model is shifting and evolving and millions of customer-owned devices come online.
In this podcast you will learn
Infrastructure vs. Intelligence: How combining Itron's edge infrastructure with NET2GRID's intelligence helps utilities balance grid reliability with customer satisfaction.
In this podcast you will learn
Equity in Innovation: Practical strategies for keeping energy programs affordable and accessible for low and medium income households.
Our guest
Director of Products, Distributed Energy Management at Itron Inc.
Nick Tumilowicz
Nick Tumilowicz is the Director of Product Management, Distributed Energy Management Solutions at Itron Inc. A distinguished strategist and recognized thought leader in energy flexibility, Nick brings over 25 years of industry experience to the forefront of the global clean energy transition. As the Director of Product Management at Itron, Nick spearheads the Distributed Energy Management business unit, where he is responsible for the strategic vision and global development of Itron’s industry-leading Grid Edge DERMS platform.
The key to the old paradigm was that you build a big power plant and it's there for 30 plus years. Now we're building power plants all over the place, and there's an opportunity for the utility to curate, facilitate, and just make it really, really easy for the consumer to stay engaged.
Working in partnership with folks like NET2GRID, you start to really see what is causing that transformer's life degradation … It really shines the light to say, now that we know that this is the problem, and we can see those load profiles... we can do something for them and with them in order to manage their load.
