In an industry often characterized by its slow pace of change, few women leaders have played a more influential role in keeping the utility sector informed and connected than Audra Drazga. Over more than two decades, she helped build one of the industry’s most respected platforms—Energy Central—empowering utility professionals with the insights, trends, and innovations they needed to make informed decisions and drive their organizations forward. In this Q&A, she sits down with Alan Ross, Managing Editor of APC Media Publications, to reflect on her unexpected path into the power sector, the pivotal moments of her career, and what lies ahead as the industry navigates AI disruption, workforce challenges, and the push toward grid modernization.
Alan Ross: My guest is Audra Drazga, formerly of Energy Central, which we are going to talk about in a minute, but first tell me a little bit about how you got into the power industry and why?
Audra Drazga: My background is in Biology and Chemistry, with a focus on pathogenic microbiology. Not your typical entry point into the utility world. My journey shifted after I met my husband, who had a background in business and marketing. He was working at EDS management consulting when he identified a major gap in utility industry information access. That insight led him to launch Energy Central News Pro, a subscription-based news service. Back then, in the mid-90s, it was a real challenge to compile and deliver power industry news to utilities. We literally had satellites on our roof to pull in information and we had to get utilities to manually approve receiving our emails. It was a different world. I joined Energy Central in 2000, about 5 years after the formation of the company and the launch of News Pro. I originally saw myself working in healthcare, but once I stepped into this space, I never looked back.
You might say it is still a form of health care, just the caring
of power assets and systems.
It is, but it is different. If you think about how power systems run, it is like the nervous system of the body. It is just a different way of working. Now, as I am driving on a long road trip, like my trips up to South Dakota, I find myself looking at the transmission lines and, “I wonder where that power came from?” I would never have thought about that before.
I agree. When I go by a substation, I am counting how many transformers they have. Share with us a little of your Energy Central journey.
We started as a media company focused on the power industry and, over the years, expanded on that mission. Our journey evolved through three major phases. The first phase centered on information delivery through our paid subscription service (News Pro, as I mentioned earlier), which was soon followed by the launch of two widely read and successful print publications: Energy Biz, focused on utility business operations, and Intelligent Utility, which spotlighted the industry’s growing digital transformation. These publications were complemented by a series of in-person events designed to bring the content to life and foster deeper engagement across the utility community. Also, during this time we launched one of the first ever niche job sites specific for Power Industry professionals.
Our second phase began around 2014 with the launch of the Utility Analytics Institute, which operated much like a for-profit association centered on advancing analytics within the utility sector. The initiative brought together utilities and vendors to collaboratively address real-world challenges through structured working groups. These groups met monthly, developed actionable case studies, and presented their findings at our two annual events – one in the spring and one in the fall. The Institute quickly gained momentum and industry recognition, ultimately leading to its sale to Informa in 2017. In our final chapter at Energy Central, we developed an online community platform for utility professionals, providing a space where professionals in the industry could share, learn, and connect in a collaborative environment. This evolution culminated in the sale of the company to Smooth Media. Each phase of our journey reflected the shifting priorities of the industry, and we took pride in playing a role in keeping the power sector informed, connected, and forward-looking.
I didn’t realize there was such a background to Energy Central. Data problems and getting utilities to talk about data problems is still a problem today because they do not want to share anything with anybody. They will share with IEEE or with CIGRE, but not necessarily with each other.
Absolutely and that challenge is still very present today. But collaboration, especially when facilitated by trusted platforms, is key to driving innovation forward. When we address the future of the utility industry, we can talk about that a little bit more.
In the last 5 to 10 years, we have probably seen more change in this industry than in the 50 years before that. What changes from a macro level, do you think we have seen, and where are we today?
I feel like this industry is going through a second generation of change. If you remember in the early 2000s, deregulation marked what I considered the first major change in the industry. We launched Energy Central during this period of significant change. Deregulation was such a dominant topic at the time that it played a key role in the early success of our company.
Now, I feel like the industry is facing another big transformation, maybe even bigger than deregulation. This wave feels even more expansive. AI, distributed energy, digitalization, and grid modernization – it’s reshaping how the industry operates at every level.
That is a great perspective. It brings us up to where we are now. What is it going to look like five years from now? Is it just solving today’s problems and we are just going to do more of it, or is there something else happening that will create a new future? is AI going to change everything?
It’s interesting that you asked that questions. Over the past 20 years of attending Distributech, the conversations have evolved – but at their core, the challenges often feel very familiar. The utility industry continues to lag behind many others in terms of modernization. As was mentioned in the keynote presentation at the show, it’s not always seen as a “sexy” industry, which makes it harder to attract younger talent. Many still view it as slow-moving or outdated.
Some smaller utilities, for example, are still relying on paper-based processes. So, when we talk about the next five years, I do think we’ll see incremental progress – particularly as AI brings in new capabilities that could help smaller players move faster. But I think the fundamental issues we have been dealing with in recent years, like how to deliver enough power to support the surge in data centers, EVs, and potential growth in domestic manufacturing, will still be the same five years from now.
You mentioned that maybe in five years we are looking at more of the same thing. Will there be a weeding out, do you think? There are a lot of small players with technology advancements that can really change how utilities operate, and what you hear the utility saying is, “we can’t integrate so many multiple independent solutions. We need you to speak one language”. Is that going to weed a lot of these folks out, or are they going to just be bought up by the big three?
That is a great question. That was also talked a little bit about at the main keynote. There are so many technologies coming in that I think there is a potential for a lot of these companies, the smaller ones, who have the intention of selling to the bigger companies and bringing systems that can integrate their capabilities into the larger systems, so they can communicate with each other. I think you are going to see some consolidation for sure.
Switching gears a little, there is a labor issue in our industry, whether it is having people who can do it from the skills trade to the engineer who can make decisions. You have seen that coming because I know in Energy Central, that has been talked about a good bit. Do you think there is a solution to that, or is that just the problem that we are always going to have?
I think people is a problem. I do think there is a potential, as we understand AI more for AI to fill in for some of that. However, keeping in mind that AI is only as good as the data is, and the people being able to manipulate the AI and know how to use it to make sure they get the accurate information. As we become more proficient in that, I think we will see some incremental improvement in the area. My son is getting ready to graduate from Colorado School of Mines in Business Engineering Management Systems, and his emphasis is in data analytics, and AI. He sees AI already replacing some programmer tasks. But the human element – those who can prompt, interpret, and validate AI will remain essential. There is still going to be a need for the system engineers that know how to prompt AI and make sure the data that being used is correct. I think if the utility industry is able to leverage that and make sure that they are getting the data in the right places and feeding it into these AI systems, I think we will see exponential growth.
Yet, as to the labor issue, still, attracting new talent is tough. This industry isn’t seen as “sexy.” We need to change that narrative.
Audra, it has been a pleasure. Good luck with whatever you and your husband do next.
I appreciate it, Alan. Thank you for having me.
