States and Utilities: Partners in Serving the Public

Share:

Listens: 0

We The States

Miscellaneous


Two dynamos of the power industry, Calvin G. Butler Jr., the CEO of Baltimore Gas and ElectricCompany , the nation’s first gas utility, and Nick Akins, the CEO of Ohio-based American Electric Power, joined Gil Gross, the host of We The States, the official podcast of the National Governors Association, to discuss the evolution of the power industry and the unique relationship utility companies have with governors.“We realize that at the core it’s a partnership because their constituents are our customers,”  observed Mr. Butler.“We’re investing billions of dollars into an infrastructure because I don’t want you as a governor come back to me after the fact and say, ‘Why weren’t you doing something?’. I want to proactively put together a plan in front of you and you hold me accountable for executing to that plan.”Both CEOs highlighted challenges to the U.S. power grid, whether from increasingly frequent extreme weather events or cyber attacks. They emphasized that cooperation with state regulators is essential to fulfilling their public-service missions, which include generating clean power but with an eye toward affordability to customers who span the socioeconomic spectrum.“At the same time with our customers, our customers certainly have different options available to them today, that they didn't have before. Certainly, we used to think about our system is one-way communication: generation, transmission, distribution, customers consume. That's what you got. Well, these days it really is centered on two-way communication so that we understand what the priorities of our customers are,” continued Mr. Akins. Listen to this fascinating discussion of how and why states and utilities work together to serve the needs of the public.