Leadership Lyceum Podcast Summary
Gordon van Welie is the CEO of ISO New England.
Thomas Linquist is founder of The Leadership Lyceum and Managing Partner of Lyceum Leadership Consulting. He focuses on senior-level search assignments, including CEO and board of director roles within the power, utility and infrastructure sectors. See the complete body of leadership podcasts, interviews, and articles at www.LeadershipLyceum.com.
I joined Gordon van Welie, President and Chief Executive Officer of ISO New England at his office just outside of Springfield, Massachusetts late in the summer of 2018. The general population would likely not be aware of the critical role that an independent system operator or regional transmission organization plays in the reliable delivery of electricity across large regions of the United States moment by moment, twenty-four/seven.
ISO New England Incorporated is the RTO responsible for the transmission of electricity across the six-state New England region that includes Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. The company's power system engineers, economists, computer scientists, and other professionals ensure that the region has reliable, competitively-priced wholesale electricity today and into the future.
In the audio podcast we describe the origins of the ISO, but for brevity's sake we begin here in the middle of our conversation. We cover recent industry challenges and new policy questions that have emerged as the electric industry moves toward decarbonization.
Because clean energy and renewable resources produce carbon-free electricity, the prevailing thought across the country is that renewable generation is the stepping stone toward a decarbonized economy.