November 26, 2008—Black & Veatch, a leading global engineering, consulting and construction company, recently released the results of its third annual “Strategic Directions in the Electric Utility Industry” survey showing system reliability, aging workforce and infrastructure among the top concerns.
The 2008 report identifies issues and concerns on the minds of US power industry leaders. Also, this year’s survey includes a detailed look at the acceptance and implementation plans for demand-side management and energy-efficiency programs.
In this year’s survey, fuel policy rose into the top five as a concern, up from eighth place last year. Also, this year’s results demonstrated a rapidly growing degree of emphasis on renewable sources of energy, such as wind and solar.
“The survey was conducted this summer, just before the credit crisis. If we had conducted it a month or two later, I’m reasonably sure that long-term investment’ would have been high on the rankings, particularly among our municipal utility respondents,” said Rudden. “At the time of this year’s survey, respondents ranked financing number seven out of ten in level of concern.”
This year, as in past surveys, nuclear power was regarded as the preferred technology for meeting future base load power needs. “Coal gasification seems to have lost the most ground according to the survey,” said Rudden. “Decreasing government interest in this technology and escalating capital costs could be the reasons.”
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