When electric utility CEOs met in June 2021 for the Edison Electric Institute’s annual conference, the theme was the hottest topic in the industry: The Road to Net Zero.
Speakers talked about the urgency of transitioning to clean energy, and they included Princeton University’s Jesse Jenkins, who would help shape the Biden administration’s signature climate law. One notable panel at the conference focused on environment, social and governance (ESG) trends.
What a difference five years makes.
When utility executives gathered for the same conference last month at the Fontainebleau hotel on the Las Vegas Strip, phrases such as energy transition, climate change and ESG were conspicuously absent. The focus instead was on the estimated $1.4 trillion in new grid investments needed by the end of the decade, partly to accommodate booming power demand growth from Big Tech.
