If you word-search the pages of Public Utilities Fortnightly for the verb innovate and its various forms, you'll get plenty of hits. In our industry among others, innovating is what you should do, or must do, or are doing. Innovate or die.
From Latin, novus is new, novare is make new, and innovare is renew. Utilities, responding to digital developments, disruption from competitors, and demands from customers, are revved up to renew.
And so are we. Our company Public Utilities Reports was founded by some of the leading innovators of their day, Owen Young and top utility execs and regulators, in 1914. That was a hundred and three years ago. Sheesh!
Our mag Public Utilities Fortnightly was founded fourteen years later. The new President of the United States, Herbert Hoover, did not yet know his term was destined to have an unhappy ending. That was eighty-nine years ago, a good long while for sure. It's past time. Let's innovate!
To innovate successfully, you need to know what you're about. Essentially, Public Utilities Fortnightly is about impacting the debate. Utility regulation and policy have been and will be hotly contested. PUF is the forum to have at it.
Or, as in the Romeo and Juliet fight between the Capulets and Montagues, "have at thee, coward!" Though debates within the pages of PUF should be more civil.
So PUF is transforming, expanding and multiplying. We do this with a singular purpose, to further empower the best thinkers on utility regulation and policy to impact the debate.
We're transforming. We've introduced PUF AV. The AV stands for audio and video. You can make your point with an article or essay, as always. And then you can really make your point, emphatically, with a punchy audio or video. Check out my short vids on our web site. Or see the PUF AV page in the inaugural issue of PUF 2.0.
We're expanding. We've introduced PUF QS. The QS stands for quant services. Based on my years of research on the value of electricity, members of the PUF community will now be receiving each month our unique insightful analyses of trends in customer value and the grid.
We're multiplying. We've introduced PUF 2.0. We're fortnightly again. Well, kinda. Alas, the Gregorian calendar.
And, in another of our innovations, we're putting an even greater spotlight on innovation. Turn to the Nikola Tesla Corner page of this issue. There you'll see the ground rules for our new annual list, the Fortnightly Top Forty Innovators. Nominate someone you admire. Maybe one of our readers will nominate you. We'll publish the first Top Forty this November.
The now twice-per-month magazine for commentary, opinion and debate on utility regulation and policy, Public Utilities Fortnightly. In PUF, impact the debate frequently.
Steve Mitnick, Editor-in-Chief, Public Utilities Fortnightly
E-mail me: mitnick@fortnightly.com