On Tuesday, May 6, 2008, I had the opportunity to attend a couple of sessions at Electric Power 2008, held at the Baltimore Convention Center. The opening session included a talk by Pat Wood, former Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and a very informative and engaging roundtable discussion among electric company CEO’s. The moderator of that discussion, Robert Peltier, is the editor in chief of Power Magazine. (He is also a retired Captain in the US Navy Reserve.) He did a fine job of selecting five guests that each had very different views of the electricity landscape because of their own company situation and each of them were quite candid in their predictions for the future.
The guests included:
Michael Morris, Chairman, President and CEO American Electric Power
Thomas Brooks, Vice Chairman, Executive VP Constellation Energy
Bill Carnahan, Executive Director Southern California Public Power Authority
James E. Rogers, Jr., Chairman, President & CEO Duke Energy Corporation
Milton Lee, General Manager and Chief Executive Officer CPS Energy
I took a lot of notes and captured some audio from the discussion. Though I hate to resort to the techniques of mainstream media, I am going to have to ask you to stay tuned until I have a chance to process all of the material to provide you my thoughts and impressions. Time to get ready for my day job.
While you are waiting, I highly recommend a visit to an article and video posted on the Nevada Sun titled A coal-fired discussion. It covers some of the same themes and topics that the CEO’s talked about with one glaring exception – the Nevada discussion only mentions nuclear in dismissive terms while the CEO’s generally had more nuanced and interesting thoughts about the technology’s value and prospects for growth.
