IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - November/December 2019 - 116

in my view

Alice K. Jackson

utilities aren't innovative?
who says they aren't?

WE HEAR IT EVERYWHERE: THE
energy world is changing rapidly. I would
argue that it has never been stagnant. In
leading a subsidiary of Xcel Energy that
has existed for 150 years, I cannot help
but reflect on our company's and our
collective industry's evolution. Not long
ago, curators presented an exhibit at
the Denver Central Library to commemorate the 150-year history of our legacy
company, Public Service Company of
Colorado; this exhibit was built from
an archive of more than 250,000 photos, artifacts, and memorabilia. While the
pictures of the wires and poles haven't
changed much, our generation assets, equipment, safety measures, and
modes of transportation certainly have.
Another thing that hasn't changed over
the decades is the pride our workforce
has in not only the service we provide
but also the many ways in which we
serve our communities.
In 1853, our employees walked
through downtown Denver to light
and extinguish gas lamps. Today, they
maintain overhead and underground
networks, build massive wind towers to
harness the winds off the Rockies, operate solar panels to take advantage of
the more than 300 days of sunshine in
our state, and maintain essential baseload plants on our system. That's not
even counting the dispatch, transmission operations, cybersecurity, community relationships, and policy aspects of
our business.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MPE.2019.2933686
Date of current version: 18 October 2019

116

ieee power & energy magazine

Beginning in the early 1900s, we produced electricity by pulverizing coal
as the population in the West grew. By the
mid-1900s, more customers were connected as generation plant sizes increased
and electricity became
the lifeblood of economic development.
As an industr y, we
handled the energy
c r isis i n t he 19 70 s
by changing our fuel
mix, ending the era
with excess generation and an abundant
supply of natural gas.
Nuclear technology
beca me a baseload
portion of the generation fleet. In the 1990s,
many states challenged
the centralized generation model and moved
toward deregulation.
Energy markets formed
a n d evolved; in the
end, some floundered
while others flourished.
Transmission became
a national focus and regional transmission organizations were born. The early
2000s brought viable large-scale renewables, again challenging us to evolve and
integrate these variable resources into the
system without affecting reliability.
In 2004, Colorado voters established
their first renewable energy standard
via ballot measure. This too has evolved
and now sits at a 30% standard by 2020.
At that time, Xcel Energy opposed the

standard, but since then, we have surpassed our renewable goals each year
and looked for more ways to eliminate
carbon. As we studied how to integrate
variable resources into our system, we
discovered it could be
accomplished in ways
that maintained high
reliability and affordability. As an essential service provider,
our ability to operate at expected levels
while taking in various forms of energy
to balance customer
demands is not only
innovative but also
has helped build and
grow the communities we all love.
I haven't always
served in the utility industry. In fact, I didn't
give the energy business a second thought
until, as a computer
programmer, I received
an email asking for
help to process and unwind an XML
file from the Electric Reliability Council of Texas. When I travel around Colorado and visit with community leaders
or college students, I'm often surprised
by how many people are unfamiliar
with the complexity of our business,
think they have a better way to structure it, and believe the existing utilities

Let's lead
by example
and show
how steady
innovation
will continue
to meet the
demands of
customers and
communities
for decades
to come.

(continued on p. 113)
november/december 2019

IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - November/December 2019

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