How Many Must-Reads Can You Pack Into PUF?
Steve Mitnick is the Executive Editor of Public Utilities Fortnightly. He has authored four books on the economics, history, and people of the utilities industries. While in the consulting practice leadership of McKinsey & Co. and Marsh & McLennan, he advised utility leaders. He led a transmission development company and was a New York Governor’s chief energy advisor. Mitnick was an expert witness appearing before utility regulatory commissions of six states, D.C., FERC, and in Canada, and taught microeconomics, macroeconomics, and statistics at Georgetown University.
It wasn't that long ago that running an electric generating system was rather straightforward. You ramped up baseload coal units in the early morning hours. Demand was building as always for another workday. Before long it was time to prepare for the afternoon peak. You incrementally added intermediate sources to the mix — the more costly coal, oil, and gas units — along with pumped and stored hydro if you were fortunate to have that around.
A neighboring system might have an excess of economical megawatts hours to offer. Or alternatively a demand-supply deficit on its hands. So, a trade of power for money might make sense for both of you. And then, once the dinner hour had passed, demand routinely slackened.
You reversed course, first pulling off the more costly units. Then ramping down some baseload for another quiet night.
Then of course the cycle repeated itself the next day. And the next day, and the next.
Well, things sure have changed. I don't know where to start. How about this? Our generating systems are, these days, integrated in regional networks of other systems. Or this? Demand is far more dynamic now. Blame (or credit) demand response, and customer solar, storage, and electric vehicle charging. Or this? Third-party generators are all over the place. And their output can vary from zero to hero and back again with the vagaries of the weather.
In this month's Public Utilities Fortnightly, Sunshine Hydro's Rick McElhinney talks about deploying pumped hydro differently, considering these dynamics plus the latest emergence of hydrogen production, storage, and use. For those of us who grew up with consistent pumped hydro cycling, for the most part, this more opportunistic operational approach is an eye opener.
That's not the only eye opener herein. This month's PUF includes a thorough examination of utility M&A strategy by the man who wrote the book, literally. It's Tom Flaherty's first article since authoring "Roll Up: The Past, Present, and Future of Utilities Consolidation."
Want to consider the culture at utilities? You're in luck. This month's Portrait of a Leader article is about the recently retired CEO of DTE Energy, Gerry Anderson. You simply need to see what he has to say about the importance of utility culture. For that matter, check out as well the article by leading talent advisor Paul Benson and two of his Heidrick & Struggles colleagues on how utility culture is now more important than ever.
Indeed, this issue is packed with plenty more. Including interviews with a FERC Commissioner, an NRC Commissioner, the present and future Presidents of NARUC, and count em, six CEOs of large public power utilities. When you're done with those, good news. There are only a few more pieces in this month's PUF for you to get through. On resilience, energy efficiency, global energy cooperation, and supplier diversity.
