NRG CEO Crane: Power grid will soon be 'last resort'

[kristopher]

Remember that if you are a DUEE regular reader, you heard years ago that we were on this trajectory.

NRG CEO: Power grid will soon be 'last resort'

By Ethan Howland Dec. 11, 2013 |

Dive Brief:
- In a few years, most power will come from distributed sources and the centralized power grid will become a "last resort," according to David Crane, NRG Energy's president and CEO.

- Utility power sales have entered an “inexorable decline,” the "massive excess capacity" needed to meet peak demand "will become unnecessary" and the need for new power plants and transmission infrastructure "will be eliminated," Crane posits.

- Crane says three trends will lead consumers to stop buying power from utilities: cheap rooftop solar, automated conservation and extreme weather.

- But Crane sees a possible compromise between utilities and their customers on solar. Utilities should buy back excess supply that coincides with peak use, instead of offering average power supply costs, Crane said. Solar customers should pay for grid use at night or on cloudy days.

http://www.utilitydive.com/news/nrg-ceo-power-grid-will-soon-be-last-resort/204998/


In case you're wondering what the "Dive Brief" is about.
http://www.utilitydive.com/about/

[NYC_SKP]

1. NRG is an interesting company.

I've been watching them, visited a few sites, they don't have a favorite source, with solar, wind, natural gas AND oil and coal generation facilities.

They fill a lot of niches but they really "get" distributed energy and have, I think, a great business plan and vision for distributed energy.

Anyone interested in energy should be on utility dive's mail list.

K/R

[kristopher]

2. Yes, they are.

The got burned pretty badly in the S. Texas nuclear fiasco and I think that led them to re-evalute the nature of tomorrow's market. The OP article gives some references for the post that are well worth reading for those who haven't been following the rather startling change in attitude demonstrated by Crane.

I've never seen utilitydive before, but you're right, it looks like an excellent resource.