IEEE PES
Tom Dunn is the president and CEO of Vermont Electric Power Company.
The 2023 Conference on Innovative Smart Grid Technologies - Latin America, sponsored by IEEE Power & Energy Society, focused on the theme of disaster recovery and network transformation in times of climate change. PUF spoke with two of the conference participants: Shay Bahramirad, senior vice president for engineering and asset management at LUMA Energy, Puerto Rico's power company; and Tom Dunn, CEO of Vermont Electric Power Company.
PUF's Steve Mitnick: Talk about your company and position.
Tom Dunn: I'm the president and CEO of Vermont Electric Power Company. A couple of notable things about VELCO: We are a transmission only company, and there're only a few of those around the country.
We were set up in 1956, to import hydropower from the St. Lawrence projects. That was a requirement that NYPA had to share some of the output with bordering states. We didn't have a transmission system, so the utilities got together and formed VELCO.
What's interesting about the ownership, it's owned by investor-owned, co-ops, and municipals, literally all the utilities in Vermont are owners of VELCO. So, they're both owners and customers.
We are a for-profit company; we make our money by making investments in the transmission system. The profits go back to all our owners, who are then required in Vermont to use it as a credit against their revenue requirement.