Special CUB Conference Preview: Opening Panel with NW Utility CEOs

Summer marches forward, and CUB’s staff is gearing up for our fifth annual conference, Utility 2025: Building the Northwest’s Energy Future. Registration is now open for this year’s event, which is shaping up to be our most expansive and forward-looking conference to date. We look forward to hearing and sharing many fruitful conversations on the issues that will define the next decade.

With the theme of Utility 2025, we will ask two sets of questions: 1) What challenges and opportunities will northwest utilities face in 2025? And 2) Will our current set of tools be adequate, or do we need to turn our attention to building better tools that will more effectively meet our needs ten years from now?

In 2025, we will be in the middle of grappling with the federal Clean Power Plan introduced by the EPA last year. (The compliance period extends from 2020-2030.) Additionally in the Pacific Northwest, we will have completed the requirements of the 25% Renewable Portfolio Standard. PGE’s Boardman coal plant will have closed, as well as three of Pacific Power’s fleet of plants serving Oregon customers (Naughton 3, Cholla Unit 4, and Wyodak). But the future of 25 other coal plants currently contributing to Oregon’s energy mix remains uncertain. Regardless, it is all but certain that we will still be grappling with those plants’ relationship to climate change and its impacts on the energy industry.

The future of natural gas is also uncertain. Natural gas is developing a reputation as the go-to cheap replacement for utilities seeking to reduce their carbon footprint by removing coal from their portfolios. But natural gas also has the potential to leak methane, which is much more potent as a greenhouse gas than the CO2 released by burning coal. If natural gas becomes the next target for climate change mitigation, how does that affect the utilities and customers who rely on it?

At the same time, public opinion about the impacts of climate change is sure to have progressed from where it is now. Many innovative technological and market solutions are now being developed that will play significant roles in mitigating climate challenges: Rooftop solar, demand response programs, the smart grid, energy storage, and energy imbalance markets are all making headway in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and by 2025 they all may be much more efficient and cost-effective.

Simultaneously, these measures will surely wreak havoc with the economics of traditional utilities. “The costs of climate change resolution” says CUB Executive Director Bob Jenks “will not fall evenly through the region. Customers may want to move from high to low cost utilities, and this could have disruptive results across the Northwest.”

Jenks will introduce the day’s agenda with a presentation touching on all these questions and more. Next, CUB is proud to be bringing the Jim Piro, CEO of PGE; Stefan Bird, CEO of Pacific Power; Gregg Kantor, CEO of NW Natural, Scott Morris, CEO of Avista Corp., and Elliot Mainzer, CEO and Administrator of BPA together with Bob Jenks to address these questions. Jude Noland, Senior Contributing Editor of Clearing Up will moderate the executives’ discussion as they contemplate the outlook for utilities in the Pacific Northwest. The CUB Conference opening panel has become a central highlight of this event – last year, former Pacific Power CEO Pat Reiten revealed during the opening panel that the company would not be pursuing an appeal of the Clean Power Plan. Who knows what revelations await this time?

Register today for Utility 2025, and stay tuned to our blog for previews of the breakout sessions! You can view the full agenda and supplemental info at cubpolicycenter.org/conference.

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