Dive Summary:
- Craig L. Adams, CEO of the Philadelphia Electric Company (Peco), spoke with The Inquirer about the most pressing issues the utility industry faces today—from growth opportunities to smart meters and his worst fear.
- Adams doesn't foresee much change in load demand: “With mandated energy-efficiency programs, we're kind of holding our own on the electric side for the next couple of years. It'll be somewhere between 2019 and 2020 before our load grows back to the point where it was in 2008."
- Adams touched upon the controversy over smart meters: “I'm guessing you have a cellphone in your pocket. Most of the customers who are concerned about smart meters probably have a cellphone in their pocket. They're swimming in a soup of RF energy, and the smart meter's some distance away from them. I think the issue will solve itself.”
- Adams spoke about his worst nightmare: “I get a lot of calls at midnight or 2 in the morning. The first thing that goes through my head is, I don't want an employee to be hurt. We can work very safely with a dangerous product, but we have to do it every day, exactly by the rules. I don't want our employees to rush. They don't have to be a hero. Any time one of our employees gets hurt, I believe management didn't do its job. We owe it to employees to analyze each event, tear it apart, understand what broke down that allowed it to happen. Safety is just basic respect for human life."
From the article:
Q: What about electric cars?
A: Electric vehicles are a growth opportunity from a utility perspective. So we're certainly very supportive. It just doesn't seem that the customers have seen that value in the electric vehicle. Manufacturers are still wrestling with the battery capacity.