Snippets from CERAWeek by S&P Global.
Steve Mitnick 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.
There were so many sessions at CERAWeek to choose from. Oftentimes two sessions of great interest to the Public Utilities Fortnightly team and PUF community (i.e., you) took place simultaneously. After days in Houston running around at this gigantic conference, among the many speaker statements we recorded, these four were of particular value for you to see:
At the CERAWeek session entitled "Delivering the Low-carbon Infrastructure of the Future," Commonwealth Edison CEO Gil Quiniones said this:
"The projection is that the climate of Chicago will be more similar to Central Missouri as we approach 2050. Which means there will be a lot more trees. The growing season is going to be a lot longer. So, our vegetation management will have to change. A lot more of the insects that eat our poles will be more robust. Therefore, our pole replacement program will change.
And because of the hotter weather, the cycle for our transformers to cool down will not be as they are today. Usually, transformers cool down from midnight to the morning. Therefore, most of our transformers will probably have to be derated five to ten percent."
At the CERAWeek session entitled "Clean Energy Investment: How Much Bigger is the Opportunity," NextEra Energy Resources CEO Rebecca Kujawa said this: