POWER Magazine: The Challenges and Opportunities Facing Power Companies Today

The power industry has experienced a whirlwind of activity in recent years. In fact, some insiders might argue that there’s never been more change in the power system since the grid’s inception than what we’ve seen over the past 10 to 15 years. The transformation goes beyond just the forms of generation being deployed; it also extends to technology utilized to operate and monitor the system, customer and employee expectations, and what it means to be sustainable. Looking ahead, artificial intelligence and machine learning could result in even greater changes in the not-to-distant future.

Tony Carrino, director of Power and Utilities with Solomon Associates, suggested utility leaders should take a good look at their assets and develop plans to adjust resources to better fit the future. “The potential exists for a significant revaluation of generation assets by technology in the coming years. It will affect changes in book value of installed generation assets,” he said. “While some asset types will more quickly lose favor, others will be deemed more necessary, resulting in a repricing of assets in purchases and sales. This repricing will likely occur for two reasons: the relative environmental impacts of each generation technology and the realization of what becomes the ‘optimum mix’ of generation technologies to recover and sustain electric grid reliability.”