The book "Catch Me If You Can" (and the Steven Spielberg film of the same name) is an exciting true story about a con man who, while still a teenager, managed to pass bad checks all over the country totaling over 2 million dollars and convince people that he was a pilot, a doctor, a professor, and a Harvard Law School graduated attorney among other things. That teenage fraudster is now FBI advisor and fraud consultant Frank Abagnale Jr. and if you attended this year's DistribuTECH conference and exhibition, you got to hear his life story from the man himself. Because it was so fascinating, charming, poignant, and memorable, we thought we'd have a special episode of Currents to replay his speech in its entirety.

At this year's DistribuTECH conference and exhibition, the transformation of our outdated grid to the smart grid permeated the event. And rightfully so. The smart grid has been a long time coming, and if the 2008 DistribuTECH showed us that the industry was getting the smart grid vehicle in gear, this year showed us that the industry's getting ready to lower a lead foot on the accelerator. The two industry keynote addresses -- given by Michael R. Niggli, COO of San Diego Gas & Electric, and Kurt Yeager, the executive director of the Galvin Electricity Initiative -- were representative of the transformation theme. On this episode of Currents, senior editor Kathleen Davis and host John M. Powers will explore the two industry keynote addresses at DistribuTECH 2009 for some perspectives on how to transform the grid to be smarter, more efficient, and cleaner.

When you want something you need to be specific, or you won't get it. Sometimes that might mean getting a green sweater instead of the blue one you wanted. In that case, you can simply return the sweater for another one. It's a hassle but not that big of a deal. When it comes to the sort of SCADA system your utility needs, it's going to be much more than a hassle if you don't get what you want. Implementing a SCADA system -- depending on what you want -- can be a big and costly project. You want to have a solid idea of what to get so you don't get stuck. So, we asked author and SCADA expert Tim Shaw what features you need to make sure are included in a SCADA system when you're in the market for one.

In a typical year up to 35,000 people die of the flu, just in the United States. During a flu pandemic, the mortality rate can be enormous. And beyond that, flu pandemics can cause major disruptions in the normal functioning of society. As if that news wasn't bad enough, we're due for another pandemic. Health officials are in agreement that another flu pandemic is inevitable, and utilities are not ready for it, even though they will be absolutely essential to the response to such a disaster. On this episode of Currents we talk to renowned epidemiologist Dr. Michael Osterholm about the utility industry's most critical vulnerabilities and what they can do to get ready for the coming pandemic.

If you're working at a utility, take a look around your desk. You're looking at one of the biggest threats to reliability and, some say, the very future of the industry: the aging workforce. Almost half of the engineers and operations personnel around you, and maybe even YOU, will be retiring in the next five to ten years. And when they all leave, there may be no one to take their place. So what's the industry going to do? If there isn't a workforce in the pipeline, you go out and make one. On this episode of Currents, we tell you about a multi-pronged approach that Massachusetts-based utility NSTAR is taking to make sure they can replace the people about to walk out the door.

It helps if everyone is speaking the same language no matter what you're talking about. But there are a lot of words and acronyms that everyone uses all the time that may not mean the same thing to the listener that they do to the speaker. AMI (advanced metering infrastructure) is like that. Sure, there are technologies and ideas that we can all recognize as constituent parts of AMI, but can AMI mean different things to different utilities? Does AMI constitute different things in different parts of the country? On this episode, we tell you about one Vermont utility that's kicked off a collaboration with the goal figuring out what AMI means for them before they start to build their grid of the future. If you're someone who thinks you know what AMI means for all utilities, you'll want to tune in.