Compliance goes beyond following regulations. For many dam operators, it's about satisfying multi-faceted requirements, such as managing razor thin reservoir levels or storing sufficient water for future releases, in a systematic and reliable way. Join us for a casual conversation with operators from Entergy, Great River Hydro, and Northwestern about how they use forecasts to inform compliance decisions, where the margin for error is thin and there's little room to react late.
In this practitioner-focused discussion, we'll explore:
- How teams stay inside tight regulatory thresholds — from reservoir elevation limits to flood warnings for emergency action plans
- What actually makes a forecast useful when the margin for error is measured in inches, not feet
- How operational teams coordinate internally, and with regulators, as conditions change
- Lessons learned from real compliance windows, and how they've shaped current practice
Entergy, Great River Hydro, and Northwestern each experience different versions of this challenge — but staying ahead of regulatory requirements, not just reacting to them, is a issue that operators across hydropower, utilities, and government agencies share.
Meet the speakers
Jake Stagnoli, NorthWestern Energy
Jake has been with NorthWestern Energy for 15 years. He began his career as a Real Time Trader, a role he held for seven years before becoming a Resource Coordinator eight years ago. In his current role, Jake coordinates scheduled outages across NorthWestern Energy's resource portfolio, manages water resources at Hebgen Lake and Mystic Lake, and serves as a backup Day Ahead Trader when needed. His experience spans energy trading, resource management, and generation operations and optimization. Jake also has extensive experience with the EIM organized market and how the market dispatches NorthWestern Energy's resources. He helps develop strategies to bid and optimize NorthWestern Energy's resources and maximize opportunities within the market.
Jason Canaday, Great River Hydro
Alexander Ellis, Entergy
Hunter Johnson, HydroForecast
Hunter is a Technical Account Manager for HydroForecast, bringing over five years of experience in hydrology and water resource engineering across academia and industry. His expertise spans flood modelling, groundwater regulatory compliance, and reservoir inflow forecasting. At Upstream Tech, he supports organizations globally in adopting AI-driven forecasting to optimize operations, protect infrastructure, and safeguard communities.
Alex Truby, HydroForecast
Alex is the Solutions Strategy Lead in North America for HydroForecast, leveraging her expertise in water resources, energy, and climate to expand HydroForecast's reach. Before joining Upstream, she spent over four years in climate tech, working in data science and product-focused roles across non-profits and startups, collaborating with organizations ranging from international NGOs to enterprise clients. Prior to that, she spent five years in water and engineering roles in the energy sector.