The powerline industry is entering a new era, shaped by the rise of smart grid technologies. These tools raise important questions. How will these innovations impact the job and how do line workers adapt to make the work safer and more efficient?

In this sponsored episode, managing editor Jeff Postelwait chats with Lea Maurer (Business Development Director at S&C Electric Company) about the push for more reliable, resilient power, and why utilities are turning to new technologies to modernize the grid.

This episode is sponsored by S&C Electric

By leveraging the power of AI, electric utilities nationwide are discovering ways to improve the efficiency and safety of their field crews. For example, the Grid Operations team at Southern California Edison (SCE) launched the AWARE system two years ago to mitigate outages, expedite restoration and improve productivity for the field workforce.

Listen to the narrated version of the October 2025 cover story to learn how the AWARE system monitors the health of the grid and alerts crews to early-stage faults. SCE and Edison International recently won the electric power industry's highest honor: the Edison Award from the Edison Electric Institute (EEI) for the AWARE technology.

If your utility is using technology in an innovative way, we'd love to hear from you. Email Amy Fischbach, Head of Content for T&D World and the host of the Line Life podcast, to put your utility in the spotlight.

Brandon Wylie, who was inducted into the International Lineman Hall of Fame in 2023, is the guest for Part 2 of our Hall of Famers series. He has more than 27 years of experience in the power line industry and currently serves as a regional director of training for Quanta Services in the Southeast. In this role, he leads workforce development, safety and leadership training initiatives across multiple operating companies.

Before joining Quanta, he served as vice president of apprenticeships with Northwest Lineman College (NLC) and director of training and safety at Electric Cities of Georgia, where he spent more than 15 years designing and leading training programs for lineworkers and safety professionals.

He has served as a chair of the APPA Safety Committee, vice chair of the National Association of Journeyman Linemen and a board member of the International Lineman's Museum and Hall of Fame. He's a certified utility safety professional, and he's proud to be a second-generation lineman. He's also the writer of "Highline Cowboy," a song inspired by his life as a lineman that was later featured in "Storm Soldiers" and "Life on the Line," starring John Travolta.

Listen to this episode to hear the excerpt of the song and learn about his life and career in the line trade. Also, tune in to Part 1 of this series featuring Robert Padgett, who retired from Lakeland Electric before starting Padgett Poleline.