Utility executives are increasingly anxious about how they can both meet booming electricity demand and the emissions reductions goals that matter to customers and shareholders.
But not Maria Pope, who leads Oregon’s Portland General Electric. With more than 900,000 customers — including not only households, but a thriving tech industry and 15 percent of the country’s semiconductor manufacturing — PGE sees balancing the various demands in its service area as an “opportunity,” Pope said.
Pope — who is currently chair of the utility trade group Edison Electric Institute — first joined PGE in 2009 and took over as president in 2017. In that time, she said, the utility industry has dealt with a “pace of change we haven’t seen in decades,” especially with a changing generation mix and load growth.
Add to that PGE’s decision to join a day-ahead Western market organized by the California Independent System Operator, and Pope finds herself at the center of a once-sleepy industry in flux.
