Panel: Utilities can do more for consumers, renewables

BROOMFIELD – Utilities must embrace new technologies, generate more electricity from renewable energy and work closer with the renewable industry to incorporate the generation into the grid, according to experts.

Derek Elder, member services manager for Grand Valley Power in Grand Junction, said that customers’ preferences for renewable energy has led the utility to increasingly generate electricity from solar. In 2013, 25 percent of the utility’s generation came from solar, and the utility plans to add more solar this year.

“The utility and solar industry must work together to meet those shifting values and identify those values,” he said.

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Elder discussed the relationship between the solar and utility industries during a panel discussion on the future of utilities at the Colorado Solar Energy Industries Association conference Wednesday. The three-day conference at the Omni Resort and Conference Center ends Wednesday night.

Coal-fired power plants generate much of the electricity consumed in the Boulder Valley and Northern Colorado, though a portion of electricity comes from solar and wind. Panelists agreed that consumers want a greater mix of renewable energy powering their homes, and that utilities nationwide could do more to fulfill that desire.

David Freeman, a veteran utility executive, said that the utility industry has the ability generate all of its electricity from renewable energy, and it should do so soon to stave off climate change. Engineers at utilities could find solutions to generate more electricity from renewable energy, but executives beholden to shareholders remain wary of progress.

“What’s needed is a change in attitude by top management that this must be done,” Freeman said.

Marc Romito, manager of Arizona Public Service’s renewable energy program, which has almost 1 gigawatt of solar in its system, said the utility could generate all of its power from renewables, but the company needs better technology and energy storage capability to do so.

“It could be done,” Romito said. “It’s not a technical impossibility.”

Heather Bailey, Boulder’s executive director of Energy Strategy and Electric Utility Development, said that to thrive, utilities must interact more with customers by generating data on how they use electricity. Bailey has led the city of Boulder’s push to break with Xcel Energy Inc. (NYSE: XEL) to form the city’s own utility to generate more electricity from renewable energy.

“Focus on the customer and the service: That’s going to change the industry,” she said.

Bailey added that deregulation would foster more competition in Colorado, leading to innovation in the utility industry.

Julie Blunden, founder of Blunden Consulting, expects solar energy to play a greater role at utilities in the coming years as companies such as Princeton, N.J., NRG Energy Inc. (NYSE: NRG) forecast increased revenue from solar.

“Renewables are going to dominate what gets built,” she said.