White Papers and Presentations

Relationships with other industry influencers are continually being tapped to reinforce our own experience and expertise. The result is informative white papers and presentations on topics that impact how we look at infrastructure decisions.

Please feel free to suggest topics that are of interest to you. Check this page frequently for new content. We aim to publish at least two new papers per year.

50% Underground by 2040

November 2022

50% Underground by 2040

Mike Beehler
CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE FOR CRITICAL TIMES

October 2022

How Electrification Will Drive Undergrounding:
A North American Perspective

Ben Lanz, Chair of the Power Delivery Intelligence Initiative
CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE FOR CRITICAL TIMES

May 2022

Commissioning Test Best Practices to Ensure 21st Century Cable System Reliability & Longevity

Mike Beehler, Sherif Kamel PhD, Landry Molimbi, Ben Lanz
CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE FOR CRITICAL TIMES

May 2022

Strategic Undergrounding’s Role in the 21st Century Grid

Ben Lanz, Chair of the Power Delivery Intelligence Initiative
CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE FOR CRITICAL TIMES

April 2022

CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE FOR CRITICAL TIMES

Mike Beehler & Robert Kondziolka
FPL Underground Pilot Program

March 2022

Resilient Power Grids: Strategically Undergrounding Powerlines (Video & Presentation)

U.S. Department of Energy

FPL Underground Pilot Program

February 2022

Public Utilities Fortnightly
FPL Underground Pilot Program

February 2022

Public Utilities Fortnightly
FPL Underground Pilot Program

February 2022

Public Utilities Fortnightly
FPL Underground Pilot Program
August 2021

21st-Century Costs of Undergrounding: Cable Systems for the Future

Southwire, G&W, & PDi2
Image Credit: Dominion Energy
August 2021

Is It Time for You to Consider Undergrounding Some of Your Distribution Lines?

POWERGRID International
FPL Underground Pilot Program

July 2021

21st-Century Costs of Undergrounding: Reliable Underground Insulation Systems

Borealis & PDi2
FPL Underground Pilot Program

June 2021

21st-Century Costs of Undergrounding: Thinking Ahead for the Next 100 Years

Centuri & PDi2
FPL Underground Pilot Program

June 2021

Fire Season Risk Mitigation: Undergrounding as a Solution

Distributech Connect
FPL Underground Pilot Program

May 2021

21st-Century Costs of Undergrounding: Underground Construction Strategies

Haugland Energy & PDi2
FPL Underground Pilot Program

May 2021

Selective Undergrounding in the Sunshine State (Video)

Public Utilities Fortnightly
presentation slide

May 2021

Hardening the 21st Century Electric Grid for Resiliency

Midwest Energy Association & Ben Lanz
presentation slide

April 2021

21st-Century Costs of Undergrounding: Material Solutions Enable Value of Strategic Undergrounding

Dow & PDi2
presentation slide

April 2021

What Everyone Needs to Know About Strategic Undergrounding (Video)

Mike Beehler & PUF
presentation slide

March 2021

21st-Century Costs of Undergrounding: Lowering Costs with the Technology to “See” Underground

IMCORP & PDi2
Today’s outdoor terminations are factory-produced and tested. Source: Ivan Jovanovic, director of engineering specialty products with G&W Electric and associate member of PDi2.

February 2021

21st-Century Costs of Underground Distribution

T&D World
workers installing underground power lines

November 2020

Rethinking Resiliency

Public Utilities Fortnightly
The Case for Underground Distribution document preview

July 2020

The Case for Underground Distribution

Mike Beehler
presentation slide

October 2020

Strategic Undergrounding: Dominion’s Lessons Learned

Dominion Energy & PDi2
The Case for Underground Distribution document preview

July 2020

The Case for Underground Distribution

Mike Beehler

May 2020

Impact of Severe Weather Events (with NOAA Data)

IEEE Power & Energy Society

January 2020

PDi2 Sponsors Utility Forum at NEETRAC Management Board Meeting

Fall-ICC-Education-Session

October 2019

PDi2 Hosts Fall ICC Education Session – Enhancing Reliability and Resiliency Using Underground Cable

Fall-ICC-Education-Session

October 2019

Georgia Power’s Strategic Overhead-to-Underground Conversions

Fall-ICC-Education-Session

October 2019

Intelligent Undergrounding at San Diego Gas & Electric

Fall-ICC-Education-Session
October 2019

System Modernization and Reliability Project (SMRP)

Fall-ICC-Education-Session

October 2019

High Pressure Fluid Filled (HPFF) Hydraulic System Data Analytics & Transition Joint Application

Fall-ICC-Education-Session

February 2019

Going up or down?

Factors to consider before going overhead or underground

Mike Beehler

National Spokesperson/PDI2

Mike Beehler has 40 years of electric T&D experience at Tucson Electric Power, Hawaiian Electric Company and Burns & McDonnell.  He is educated as a civil/structural engineer and is a registered professional engineer in eight states.  He currently is the founding member and Chief Opportunity Officer of Mike Beehler & Associates, LLC and serves as the National Spokesperson for the Power Delivery Intelligence Initiative. 

Mike is a Fellow in ASCE and a Member of IEEE and CIGRE.  He has been married for 40 years and has four adult children and some delightful grandchildren.  He lives on Singer Island, FL.

Tony Hemling

Earthgrid
Voting Member PDi2

Troy Helming is a modern-day industrialist and Unicorn founder. He’s an innovator, inventor, author, an elite athlete (invited 4x to compete on American Ninja Warrior), and a clean energy executive. As a creator, he’s founded clean energy & climate-tech companies that have generated more than $30 Billion of economic impact to date and invented 2 technologies that have led to over 60 clean energy patent claims.

LinkedIn

Tim Wagner, Executive Director

Tim Wagner has nearly thirty years of association management experience, including positions as President & CEO, Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, Chief Operating Officer, and Director of Finance. He has been instrumental in the financial and program success of several associations in the power, energy, and broadband industries. He has vast experience at national trade associations, including association governance, grant management, workforce development, planned giving, meeting planning, accounting, investment management, employee benefits, building operations, and information systems. Tim is a graduate (summa cum laude) of the University of Virginia, where he presented his thesis on the Economic Impact of the Rural Electrification Administration.

Landry Molimbi

Head of Asset Management and Prysmian Electronics
Prysmian Group North America
Voting Member PDi2

Landry Molimbi is responsible for leading all Asset Management and Product Development activities for High Voltage & Medium Voltage Partial Discharge testing/monitoring services, optical sensing products (DAS, DTS) and innovative solutions for the North America Business Units (High Voltage, Power Distribution, Industrial, Telecom).

In this role, Landry is focused on business development, project management, technical sales support, and Partial Discharge measurement services for the Prysmian Group proprietary and revolutionary PRY-CAM technologies for the asset management of electrical systems, helping utilities increase uptime, asset longevity and safety while reducing maintenance costs & risks.

Landry started his career with General Cable (Silec) in 2007 and joined NKT Photonics in 2011. He moved to the Prysmian Group as Vice President for the Prysmian Electronics BU in 2018.

Born in Paris, France, Landry holds a master’s degree in Engineering from the ENSEM, a school of the National Polytechnic Institute of Lorraine in Nancy. Landry is also a member of various industry committees and an active member of CIGRE.

John W. Fluharty, II

Quanta Services Inc.
Voting Member PDi2

John W Fluharty, II is currently working as part of Quanta Services, Inc.’s (Quanta) underground cable group that performs large underground electrical projects.

Previously Mr. Fluharty was Vice President of Mears Group, Inc. (Mears) a subsidiary of Quanta Services, Inc. He was an owner of Mears until its sale to Quanta in 2000. He managed every division in the company and at the end of his tenure with Mears he focused on business development, asset management, safety and operations for large projects.

Mr. Fluharty is a board member of the Power and Communications Contractor Association (PCCA), and the American Pipeline Contractors Association (APCA).

LinkedIn

David Lindsay

Marketing Manager – Energy Borealis Compounds, Inc.
Immediate-past Chairman/Voting Member PDi2

David Lindsay is currently Marketing Manager for the Energy business of Borealis Compounds, Inc. in North America. He has over 20 years in the US wire and cable business, working at manufacturers, non-profit organizations and electrical contractors. His experiences range from research and product development, to manufacturing, construction and installation of EHV cable systems. At Borealis he is responsible for customer and end-use marketing, and strategic planning of all wire and cable related product lines.

David serves on the NEETRAC Advisory Board, is actively involved in IEEE Insulated Conductor Committee and is past US representative to Cigré SC B1. He holds a Bachelors of Materials Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology and Masters of Business Administration from the University of West Georgia.

LinkedIn

Paul Caronia

Application Technology Leader, Power Cables - DOW
Executive Board/Voting Member PDi2

Paul Caronia, is the global power cable materials application technology leader in the Wire and Cable materials group of The Dow Chemical Company. He is responsible for leading the development and commercialization of new product technology for power cable applications. He has been involved in the development and commercial usage of today’s tree-retardant crosslinked polyethylene used in medium voltage cables, crosslinked polyethylene insulation used in high voltage cables as well as semiconductive compounds and flame retardant compounds. He is a senior member of The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Power Engineering Society and the IEEE’s Insulated Conductors Committee (ICC) as well as a voting member of the IEEE standard association. As a member of the IEEE ICC, he chairs ICC A7 on power cable jackets which just recently completed revising IEEE Guide P532for Selecting and Testing Jackets for Power, Instrumentation and Control Cables as well as the chair of ICC A6 on accelerated aging of materials used in cable applications. Paul is also a member of CIGRE (International Council on Large Electric Systems) and was a member of working group B1.55 that developed recommendations for submarine cables to 60 kV and is currently a member of working group B2.75 developing an application guide for insulated and un-insulated conductors used on medium and low voltage overhead lines. Is the author of over 40 publications/presentations, has over 12 granted patents and is a recipient of the R&D100 award. He is a graduate of Rutgers University, holding Degrees in Engineering as well as a licensed professional engineer.

LinkedIn

Ben Lanz

Director of Applications Engineering, IMCORP
Chair/Voting Member PDi2

After 20 years in the power cable industry, Mr. Lanz currently holds the position of Director of Applications Engineering at IMCORP and has technical oversight of power cable life cycle consulting. He is a Senior Member of the IEEE Power & Energy Society, a voting member of the IEEE Standards Society, and a member of the IEEE Dielectrics and Industrial Applications Societies. He has served as Chairman of the Insulated Conductors Committee (ICC) technical committees responsible for cable testing, cable reliability and surge arresters, Chairman of the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) O&M Balance of Plant technical subcommittee, a UL technical study committee member for MV and HV DC cables and is a reviewer and voting pool member for InterNational Electrical Testing Association (NETA) standards. Mr. Lanz received his electrical engineering degree from the University of Connecticut (UCONN) under mentorship of Director of the Institute of Material Science Electrical Insulation Research Center (EIRC), Dr. Matthew Mashikian. He has published over a dozen papers on power system reliability, asset management, and diagnostics and regularly presents on the topics.