Welcome to this Special Episode of the Leadership Lyceum: A CEO’s Virtual Mentor focused on innovation in an industry that many of us take for granted.  We take an in-depth look at innovation in the electric utility industry.  It’s the Leadership Lyceum’s opening act to Edison Electric Institute’s annual industry convention that starts this weekend, June 11th in Boston.

In this retrospective, we look back at last year’s convention in Chicago, where we conducted 10 interviews that included 8 CEOs from the electric industry covering all points along the electricity value chain from generation to transmission to distribution to the customer meter and beyond.  We also have the perspective of a President of a venture capital-backed, technology provider to the industry; as well as the critical viewpoints of the regulator — with the President of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (or NARUC).

By way of context for our broad listenership, Edison Electric Institute (or EEI), is the association that represents all U.S. investor-owned electric companies. EEI provides public policy leadership, strategic business intelligence, and essential conferences and forums for the industry. 

As a bit of an appeal to our broad listenership — why should you care about this industry?  Well its impact and influence is far-reaching and profound.  The member companies of EEI provide electricity for 220 million Americans, operate in all 50 states and the District of Columbia — and directly and indirectly employ more than one million workers. 

Just prior to our interviews last year, Neil Irwin, senior economics correspondent for The New York Times gave us inspiration in his walk down the memory lane of innovation in his May 15, 2016 “The Upshot” column titled “Tracking Down the Golden Age of Innovation”.  

He posited in that article that a better way to understand the significance of technological change may be to come as close as we can to actually walking through those time periods, from the end of the Civil War to present, and understand the way we lived, ate, traveled and clothed and entertained ourselves.

Through our conversation with these industry leaders, we will attempt to walk you through our current age of innovation in the electric power industry.