From the Desk of Managing Director, Electric Operations – Sam Mills

As you know, the electric utility industry is and has been changing for some time. The transformation as it is called by some is being driven by a number of key factors. A recent online survey conducted by Utility Dive revealed many of the same issues that we discuss regularly. An aging workforce, regulations, aging infrastructure, integrating renewable energy, and stagnant load growth are the top five concerns of the respondents.

The top pressing challenge is….you guessed it, an aging workforce. I thought I was the only old one around here but obviously not. The challenge presented by the retirements of employees and the knowledge that leaves with them is leaving a void in the industry that is concerning and may be crippling to some small systems.

As regulation of the industry has expanded over the years it has brought with it a variety of issues. One of which is finding money to deal with these regulations within a budget that is already stretched to the max.

Wind energy and solar energy installation have presented some unique challenges to the industry as a whole. Wind has become a much larger force in the SPP footprint than most everyone imagined. In the past several months wind has been responsible for producing at or near 50% of the energy in SPP. Residential solar installation brings different challenges to your utility, metering and recovery of the fixed costs of your utility are just a couple of them.

Stagnant or negative load growth is another aspect of the electric utility transformation. This puts a strain on rates as the utility tries to generate revenues to address the increasing cost of operation. At some point in the future will your load begin to grow? Nobody really has the answer.

I found this survey very interesting and quite telling of the industry as a whole. I have only written about a small portion of the survey but you can click on the link to read it in its entirety.

Enjoy!

https://s3.amazonaws.com/dive_assets/rlpsys/state_of_electric_utility_2016.pdf