Latest GreenBeat speaker: Duke CEO James “Green Coal Baron” Rogers
We’re delighted to announce that James Rogers, CEO of Duke Energy, the third largest utility in the U.S., will be speaking at our GreenBeat 2009 conference on Nov. 18-19 — the seminal executive event on the cleaner, more efficient electrical grid emerging around the globe.
Rogers, tasked with cleaning up one of the oldest and dirtiest utilities in the country, has become one of the boldest, and most active environmentalists in the utility industry. He’s made a point of listening to and adopting stances of advocates for alternative energies, clean coal technology and even carbon trading. In a New York Times profile last year, he was painted as a downright green movement stumper — a coal and oil baron with a heart and head for conservation.
Providing electricity to customers in Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, North Carolina and South Carolina since 1904, Duke is one of the most influential utilities in the country — setting precedents for smaller utilities that are closely watching and replicating its moves. Depending largely on coal-fired, gas-fired and hydroelectric plants, it also counts three nuclear facilities, one solar farm, and several future wind developments among its holdings.
When it comes to the Smart Grid, Duke is a fascinating case study for several reasons: It just received $200 million in stimulus grant money from the U.S. Department of Energy (the maximum allotment) to finance the roll out of smart meters, while almost simultaneously reporting a 49 percent plummet in profit for the third quarter (attributed to weak demand and a $400 million write-down of facilities in the Midwest).
On top of that, Duke, driven by Rogers, has been a vocal proponent of decoupling policies for public utilities that would separate their revenue from the amount of energy they actually sell — freeing them up to encourage conservation while still making money. It’s been dubbed the “Save-a-Watt” program. Duke has successfully won its decoupling proposal in Ohio, but the program has been rejected, revised and repitched several times elsewhere, including in North Carolina where Duke is headquartered.
The utility also has a see-saw of an environmental record, at once striving toward a smarter grid and expansion of renewable sources of energy (particularly wind power) while also being called out as the third biggest emitter of carbon dioxide of any company in the U.S. and the 12th biggest emitter in the world by the Energy Collective.
In 1999, the utility refused to comply with the Environmental Protection Agency enforcement of the Clean Air Act. After battling it out for more than seven years, the case went to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled against Duke in 2007. But recently, Duke Energy threw its support behind the establishment of a carbon cap-and-trade system in the U.S., which could become a reality if the Kerry-Boxer bill pending in the Senate comes to fruition. The utility went so far as to defect from the National Association of Manufacturers because it wouldn’t support a more stringent climate policy.
Rogers has been pivotal in improving Duke’s environmental rating, spearheading the partnership with Smart Grid startup Ambient to provide wireless communication technology for its smart meters and sitting on the board of Cisco Systems’ new Smart Grid standards consortium. This Halloween, it promoted a campaign to stop “vampire” electronics like plug-in adapters and battery-powered devices from sucking power unnecessarily. And these are just the first stirrings of more clean energy and efficiency initiatives to come, the company says.
See what Rogers has to say about Duke’s environmental positioning, plans for its $200 million in stimulus funds, and strategies for both decoupling and rolling out accurate, interoperable meters — register for GreenBeat 2009 today. And for more news on Duke and the Smart Grid, follow @greenbeat2009 on Twitter.
VentureBeat is hosting GreenBeat, the seminal executive conference on the Smart Grid, on Nov. 18-19, featuring keynotes from Nobel Prize winner Al Gore, Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Kleiner Perkins’ John Doerr. Register for your ticket today at GreenBeat2009.com.
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About the Author, Camille Ricketts
Camille is the lead writer for GreenBeat. She came to VentureBeat from Google where she worked on its traditional platforms team, particularly in TV. Before that, she was a reporter for the Wall Street Journal in New York and London. Follow her on Twitter at @camillericketts, and follow VentureBeat on Twitter at @venturebeat.
With GreenBeat 2009, VentureBeat's all-star conference on all things Smart Grid, coming up in November, Camille will be expanding coverage of this exciting space. Stay up to date by following @greenbeat2009 on Twitter or by becoming a fan of the event on Facebook here.