Virtual Conferences
Like other industry events, the Edison Electric Institute's annual conference couldn't take place this year. On the eighth and ninth of June, Austin's J.W. Marriott was quiet, and this historic gathering was nowhere to be seen. The National Electric Light Association regularly held the conference from its founding in 1885 through its disbanding in 1933 and then the new national organization of investor-owned utilities, the EEI, started holding the conference from 1933 through to today. That is, at least until COVID-19 proved to be an insurmountable barrier.
The EEI was undeterred and put together a virtual conference that was jam-packed with too many industry execs and thought-leaders to count. The PUF team of course joined the throngs of digital attendees on the ninth and tenth of September. What follows are excerpts of, in our opinion, ten of the most moving moments of the meeting.
I. Xcel Energy CEO (and EEI Chair) Ben Fowke: But the grid does get saturated. That last twenty percent of carbon [emissions to be eliminated] is going to require technologies to be commercially and economically viable that aren't today.
We need to start investing today and nurturing those technologies, so they can be ready for tomorrow. It's important that we're out there continuing to lead and reduce carbon, while at the same time thinking about those long-term goals that will require different technologies.