Balancing customer and environmental demands and existing and emerging technologies to create a sustainable energy future requires bold, confident leadership to navigate the challenges of change. Here’s a look at the perspectives on the future of leadership and strategy from some of the C-level energy and utility industry leaders gathering at the 2010 KEMA Utility of the Future Leadership Forum later in June.

Energy and utility industry CEOs will be gathering at the Third Annual KEMA Utility of the Future Leadership Forum June 23 – 25, 2010 for an open dialog on strategies, directions in balancing customer demands, technology and environment for the sustainable energy future and to discuss the new directions needed in leadership and strategy to manage these competing demands and to inform, engage and empower the energy consumer for the smart, sustainable energy future.

In the weeks leading up to the event, a number of C-suite participants from across the energy and utility industry offered a look into the perspectives they will bring to the KEMA forum as they explore the new utility leadership paradigm. Here’s a recap of their quotes:

Duke Energy Chairman and CEO, Jim Rogers – “One of our industry’s top challenges is defining the most efficient and environmentally sound way to meet our customers’ growing demand for electricity over the next 10 to 15 years. Emerging technologies in generation, transmission and distribution, and consumer end use are driving our smarter, more sustainable energy future forward. The challenge today is defining a utility future vision and road map that leverages energy technologies and navigates uncertainties in carbon and environment policies in capital-constrained markets.”   

PJM Interconnection President and CEO, Terry Boston – “New energy technologies as well as state and federal energy policies are creating challenges and opportunities for grid operators. PJM and its members are working together to adopt new technologies and new ways of using electricity and technology to develop the full potential of renewable energy and enable greater cost efficiency.  Our industry is ready today to implement smart grid technologies, such as phasor monitoring units, that improve the efficiency and reliability of the system. We have to prepare now—and prepare our customers—for the implementation of other promising technologies such as electricity storage in all its vary forms: plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, batteries, flywheels, pumped hydro, compressed-air storage and my personal favorite water heater storage enabled by smart prices and two-way communications and control.”    

Beacon Power President and CEO, Bill Capp – “Addressing the urgent need for clean and sustainable energy solutions that operate efficiently and effectively and do not burn fossil fuel puts new challenges and pressures on the utility industry. With increasing penetration of various intermittent renewable energy resources, there is a growing need for grid-stabilizing frequency regulation. Technologies like Beacon flywheels have highly attractive performance characteristics, such as fast-response—providing the capability to quickly charge and discharge power to the grid and keep it in balance. This method of regulation has an added benefit of lower CO2, SOx, and NOx emissions when compared to any of the traditional methods, such as coal, natural gas, and pumped hydro storage systems.”

Viridity Energy CEO, Audrey Zibelman – “Smart grid, distributed energy resources and controllable load are revolutionizing large-scale electricity consumers’ role in helping to stabilize and balance the electricity grid. Ultimately the benefits of a smarter grid will be realized as large consumers of electricity transform into ‘pro-sumers’—customers who can maximize economic gain from energy assets while providing greater system reliability and environmental benefits.”    

PECO SVP and CFO, Phil Barnett – “Today’s utility capital investment plans must balance complex decision points. These include new electric and natural gas facilities, system improvements, and new technology upgrades to ensure service and reliability, address demand and regulatory changes. Balancing a capital program in a capital-constrained market poses new challenges and opportunities for utility financial strategy.” 

The New York State Smart Grid Consortium Chairman, Robert Catell – “The singular, most important thing a utility CEO needs to focus on is setting the vision and the strategy of the company going forward. With the rapid advancements in grid technologies, the unknowns in energy and carbon policies and the evolving energy markets and infrastructure, this is no easy task for today’s utility CEO. They need to go beyond having the management team in place and properly motivating the team to support and deliver on that strategy. Their vision and strategy needs a flexible, forward-looking roadmap that anticipates, guides and adapts to emerging sea change underway in our energy system—all in a way that delivers value to all stakeholders.”

EPB of Chattanooga EVP and COO, David Wade – “EPB’s vision for the future is a system that provides rapid, two-way communication with every meter, home and device. A smart, interactive, and self-healing electric system makes it possible and practical for utilities and customers to interact in cost and energy efficiency programs—fundamentally changing the customer relationship both with electricity and with their utilities.”       

NextEra Energy EVP of Federal Regulatory Affairs and former FERC Chairman, Hon. Joseph T. Kelliher – “Providing the right kind and right amount of regulation to the electric power industry is of critical importance. We want to provide just enough to steer the industry in a direction that serves our national energy goals, but not so much that we stifle investment and innovation. Equally important, we need to know when federal regulation is needed and when states are best suited to take the lead. To ensure a secure energy future for the nation, we’ve got to get the balance just right.”

FutureGen Alliance CEO, Michael Mudd – “Climate change is one of the most pressing environmental concerns—and the energy and utility response to this challenge requires a delicate and complex balance. Regardless of which specific climate policy is ultimately adopted by the U.S., the success of that policy will hinge on the availability of affordable low-carbon technology. Nuclear, renewables, biomass, and efficiency will all be part of the low-carbon technology solution. And given that coal is projected to remain the backbone of the U.S. electricity system for most of this century, and the growing economies of China and India will be fueled with coal plants, the availability of affordable, near-zero emission coal technology, incorporating carbon capture and sequestration, is essential to our sustainable energy future.”         

Tendril EVP, Sales and Strategy, Ivo Steklac – “The time is now to help consumers really understand what smart energy means for them. Existing and emerging grid technologies are changing the consumer-to-grid relationship and their relationship with their utility. Smart technologies are enabling electricity consumers large and small to tap into simple, cost-effective solutions to lower energy use, to lower overall costs and to be an active part of the sustainable energy future.”    

About KEMA’s 2010 Utility of the Future Leadership Forum – June 23 – 25, 2010
The Four Seasons, Washington D.C.
The Utility of the Future 2010 Forum will feature open-panel discussions on customer engagement, investment strategy, regulatory policy, the state of carbon and environmental issues, and on what a sustainable, intelligent infrastructure will look like. The agenda also includes a pre-forum session on engaging customers and avoiding customer backlash in utility smart grid strategies and deployments. Throughout the forum, there will be high-level networking opportunities to share perspectives, collaborate, and engage in dialog.

Confirmed speakers and panelists at KEMA’s Utility of the Future 2010 forum include:

• Phillip Barnett, CFO, PECO
• Terry Boston, President CEO, PJM Interconnection
• Hon. Garry Brown, Chairman, New York Public Service Commission
• Michael Burr, Editor-in-Chief, Public Utilities Fortnightly
• Bill Capp, President and CEO, Beacon Power
• Robert Catell, Chairman, AERTC and Chairman, NYS Smart Grid Consortium, and former Chairman, National Grid US
• Hon. David Coen, Commissioner, Vermont Public Service Board, and President, NARUC
• Scott DePasquale, Partner, Braemer Energy Ventures
• Trip Doggett, CEO, ERCOT
• Mike Edmonds, Global Smart Grid Strategies Director, S&C Electric Company
• Steve Hirsch, Manager, Demand Response Programs, Consumers Energy
• Michael Hogan, Program Director for Power, European Climate Foundation
• Lisa Johnson, Executive Vice President, Power Supply, ODEC
• Hon. David Lott Hardy, Chairman, Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission
• Hon. Joseph T. Kelliher, Executive Vice President, Federal Regulatory Affairs, NextEra Energy, Inc. and former Chairman, FERC
• Ben Koch, Managing Partner, Southwest Securities, Inc.
• William Lee, Vice President, Sun Edison
• John McDonald, Director, Technical Strategy and Policy Development, GE Digital Energy
• Hon. Philip Moeller, Commissioner, FERC
• Michael Morris, Chairman, President and CEO, AEP
• Michael Mudd, CEO, FutureGen
• Hon. David O’Brien, Commissioner, Vermont Department of Public Service
• John Passacantando, President, Our Next Economy, LLC
• Curt Puckett, Senior Vice President, KEMA
• Dan Reicher, Director, Energy and Climate Change Initiatives, Google
• Jim Rogers, CEO, Duke Energy
• Hon. Alan Schriber, Chairman, Public Utilities Commission of Ohio
• David Selsky, Vice President, Direct Energy
• Ivo Steklac, EVP, Sales and Strategy, Tendril
• Kevin Sullivan, Senior Vice President, KEMA
• Jerry Taylor, Senior Fellow, Cato Institute
• Hugo van Nispen, President and Managing Director, KEMA
• David Wade, Executive Vice President and COO, Chattanooga Electric Power Board
• Rob Wilhite, Senior Vice President, KEMA
• Audrey Zibelman, President and CEO, Viridity Energy, Inc. 

KEMA’s 3^rd annual Utility of the Future leadership forum
June 23 – 25, 2010
The Four Seasons, Washington D.C.

Designed in concert with an advisory panel of insightful, forward-thinking senior industry executives, KEMA’s Utility of the Future leadership series provides a view from the top on critical issues facing energy and utility industry and stakeholders and offers opportunities for leaders to connect with their peers as they seek to build for the future.

To register, and for more information, visit: www.kema.com/UtilityFuture2010. 

For a look into the insights gained from the previous years’ Utility of the Future leadership series, visit www.kema.com/UtilityFutureSeries.