Current state of the power industry
Lawrence Jones is Vice President for International Programs, Edison Electric Institute.
PUF's Steve Mitnick: Give me your take on the current state of the power industry, with an emphasis on global.
Lawrence Jones: The power industry, from a global perspective, is going through a transformation. All over the world, everyone recognizes that because of technology, demand from consumers, and environmental reasons, the industry is changing.
What is interesting is that the change is different, depending on where you are. I like to characterize it as being global in scope and local in context. But the change is occurring. Take some of the big trends that are driving it. If you look at clean energy, we know that across the globe, everyone is embracing the use of cleaner energy. But the pace at which it's occurring will differ, depending on the resources available and developed in different countries.
For example, if you go to Africa, where they have a wide range of renewable energy resources, they also have a deficit, in terms of infrastructure. Consequently, if they don't have the physical infrastructure, their ability to adopt renewable, or cleaner energy, faster is constrained.
On the other hand, you have countries like Japan, where they do have more developed infrastructure. However, they have a deficit, in terms of the natural resources. That means Japan's transition will hinge on importing certain types of their base generation resources, for example natural gas.