Bob Frenzel, Xcel Energy’s Chief Financial Officer: “Obligation to serve” and “reliability” are not phrases we take lightly in our business.
The industry takes the impact of the loss of our product to the gross domestic product of the country, or the states that we serve, very seriously. Sometimes we appear to move slowly, so we can study a situation to ensure that our resiliency and reliability are high. I think they are higher now than they have ever been.
What is interesting is that the speed of recovery has been reduced across the industry. This is a real customer enhancement and recognition that the goods and services we provide are critical. The technology we're putting into place to achieve these goals is important. Advanced grid information systems allow us to isolate a fault and deliver a new piece of equipment and a crew to the right place at the right time.
Compare this year's natural disasters to those in the mid-2000s, and our relative speeds to recovery. You’ll see a significant improvement in how we’re handling them relative to the earlier hurricanes – Katrina, Rita, Hugo, Andrew – when recovery periods lasted much longer.
We have made a significant amount of investment in systems and mutual aid coordination. We should continue to make these appropriate investments, system by system, company by company. Making the right investments in the right areas can really drive this area forward for us.” Page 10, January’s PUF
Dave Christian, Dominion’s Executive Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer: “Since our midsummer innovation conference, we've had a quadrupling or quintupling of ideation starting to flow through. We're starting to see scale emerging as an issue.
Then there are software platforms that help with this. We've had groups of twenty review these innovation management platforms, and we’re starting to use one to facilitate capturing, prioritizing, and elevating the best and most profitable ideas.
You're going to have increased employee engagement. You're going to have people that previously were head down at a task start exercising scanning skills and looking at the horizon.
They are now more aware of the environment and much more amped to be engaged to a higher degree. This is part of the corporate strategy for monitoring the emerging trends and being able to adapt to them.
Engagement goes up. Costs should drop. Processes become simpler. There's going to be a lot of positive consequences of innovation in every company that exercises it.” Page 19, January’s PUF
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Steve Mitnick, Editor-in-Chief, Public Utilities Fortnightly
E-mail me: mitnick@fortnightly.com