July 1, 2009

Power Industry Needs to Do a Better Job of Educating and Messaging

Gail Reitenbach

Energy Education Deficit

In his introduction of the Power Industry Executive Roundtable panelists (Figure 2), POWER’s editor-in-chief, Dr. Robert Peltier, PE, noted that different utilities and power generators have different problems, and the executives’ comments proved that point. But some common themes, including the cost of the energy education deficit, emerged that transcended regional and fuel type differences.

2.    The 2009 Power Industry Executive Roundtable panelists. From left to right: American Electric Power Chairman, President, and CEO Michael Morris; Dynegy Chairman, President, and CEO Bruce Williamson; Edison Mission Group Chairman, President, and CEO Ron Litzinger; Exelon Corp. President and COO Chris Crane; Sempra Generation VP of Asset Management Michael P. Gallagher; Moderator Dr. Robert Peltier, PE, editor-in-chief of POWER. Source: POWER

Michael Morris, the first of the panel to offer opening remarks, set the theme by stating that the industry needs to educate Capital Hill about CO₂. Morris, chairman, president, and CEO of American Electric Power (AEP), noted that Congress doesn’t understand that customers pay for the costs of production.

In the Q&A segment, Bruce Williamson — chairman, president, and CEO of Dynegy — commented that there’s a big difference between "old" and "new" pollutants — SO_x and NO_x vs. CO₂. "The press," he said, "doesn’t want to deal with the fact that industry doesn’t know yet how to use CO₂. We need to make sure CO₂ will stay underground."

Later, when asked about their response to recent comments by new Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chairman Jon Wellinghoff and Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar about the potential for renewables to supplant fossil fuel and nuclear generation, Williamson hit the education theme again by addressing the need to educate the public about everything related to electricity, including the fact that "power moves at the speed of light" — faster than FedEx (which garnered one of the rare audience laughs).

Morris added later that such comments by officials (even if they’re intended to set a vision for 30 or 40 years down the road) give the general public the impression that achieving grand goals is simple.

Ron Litzinger, chairman, president, and CEO of Edison Mission Group (EMG), said he’s still amazed "how few people [outside of the industry] realize that you can’t store electricity. And that’s a very basic, fundamental principle that needs to be well-understood."