AEIC's 123rd Annual Meeting: Continuing Drivers of Utility Fortunes
ScottMadden's view on the long term drivers of utility fortunes
Brad Kitchens, president and CEO of ScottMadden, spoke at AEICs 123rd annual meeting on the drivers of utility fortunes.
Utilities are facing an unprecedented combination of long-term challenges. The global population is expected to grow 25% by 2030, greatly increasing demand for natural resources and energy. The U.S. will also experience an increase in its energy needs, and despite current cries for energy independence, reliance upon imported petroleum and natural gas will increase. Potential carbon regulation and fuel price volatility create high levels of uncertainty and risk in planning new generation capacity, even while capacity margins are shrinking. Utilities will discover that the new workforce from Generations X and Y have different expectations than the current 'graying' workforce, forcing changes in management practices. In addition, the future pool of available workers will be smaller than the number of jobs that need to be filled, escalating competition for these resources. Addressing these challenges will be difficult; fortunately, there are strategies utilities can follow to address the issues.