Chris Davis owns and operates two wedding venues while also serving on Inland Power & Light Company’s and NWPPA’s boards. Before getting into the wedding business, he taught high school math, physics, and engineering for 11 years. He holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and a master’s degree in secondary education from the University of Washington. He joined Inland Power & Light’s board four years ago and was elected to the NWPPA Board of Trustees this past May.

What are the current challenges at your utility?
We are growing and thus have a need for system improvements to address capacity, resiliency, and wildfire safety. Other challenges include poorly conceived regulations in the state of Washington and volatile power markets. 

What do you see as the current challenges in the industry?
The largest challenge that I see is an increase in demand brought about by transitioning heating and transportation to the electric grid, with the decommissioning of gas and coal plants while artificial intelligence data centers are being introduced. A very close second is the difficulty of shaping and transmitting intermittent power, primarily from wind and solar generation. In short, capacity issues.

How does NWPPA help your utility and the industry with these challenges?
NWPPA does a fantastic job with employee training. NWPPA is becoming even more important in its role of connecting power suppliers together so that they can share the physical constraints and legislative burdens that they have with each other, as well as with their respective governing bodies. 

Any hobbies outside of the public power world?
I love to build unique spaces. I also have many other outdoor and exercise hobbies that are currently taking a back seat as my wife and I raise two beautiful young children.