Attended an ASAP Green breakfast this morning and it was certainly eye opening even if the coffee arrived late.
Hal LaFlash, Dir
Emerging Clean Technology Policy from PG&E -that's Pacific Gas and Electric
for the non-Californians - spoke on the many alliances that PG&E has been
cultivating in the interest of providing sustainable energy. While one is not
used to thinking of utilities in terms of innovation, social responsibility, or
even collaboration, PG&E certainly differentiates itself from its peers.
One reason came to light during the discussion. The State of California has
decoupled energy sales from earnings. Other utilities are trapped in a conundrum
that in order to earn more, they need to sell more energy. The net is there is
no incentive to encourage consumers to conserve energy or to explore external,
alternate sources of energy.
The decoupling
enables PG&E to operate in a model where there are incentives for efficiency
and to encourage alternative sources of energy to supply to the grid. Alignment of goals and core values was described as a
critical success factor for PG&E alliances. Their CEO is deeply commited to
environmental responisbility. The company has adopted a Pryamid of Values which
includes environmental responsibility. The resut is an amazing array of
partnerships, both formal and informal to stimulate innnovation in energy.
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