December 16,  2026

Sam Beaudet

Consumers Energy

How Consumers Energy anticipates and prepares for severe weather events that can impact the power grid

Samantha Jacques is a four-time Emmy Award-winning meteorologist and holds the American Meteorological Society’s Certified Broadcast Meteorologist (CBM) designation. She is the former Chief Meteorologist at WZZM 13 On Your Side in Grand Rapids, where she spent 6 years forecasting and communicating West Michigan weather to the community. Samantha now serves as a Senior Meteorologist at Consumers Energy, where she uses her expertise in weather forecasting to support electric reliability and help the company prepare for and respond to weather related impacts across Michigan.

Samantha will discuss her transition from broadcast meteorology to the energy industry and how weather forecasting plays a critical role in keeping the electric grid reliable. Her talk will focus on her work with Consumers Energy’s Electric Reliability team, where she provides weather and outage forecast to help anticipate and prepare for severe weather events that can impact the power grid.