The North American Power Plenary chaired by Lawrence J. Makovich, CERA Managing Director, Global Power Group, discussed the transformation of the power industry now that global warming is so much a focus and carbon management so central and issue. Jeff Sterba, Chairman, President and CEO, PNM Resources, has long considered the climate change issue not as “a good or bad thing, or what’s the right economic model, or how do we engage other nations … but first and foremost as a technology challenge.” Technological advances needed in transmission for intermittent renewables, in clean coal, in service for plug-in hybrid vehicles, and in carbon sequestration must have support from an educated public and from policymakers. Charles W. Shivery, Chairman, President, and CEO, Northeast Utilities, described the company’s transformation through three business models across several years and likened the process to making the strategic choices needed to determine the mix of solutions to the emissions problem. The new technologies will change the way the industry thinks about its opportunities and organizes to take advantage of them. Thierry Vandal, President and CEO, Hydro-Québec, discussed the company’s broad spectrum of involvement to meet “the obvious main challenge: global warming and climate-change as a result of human activity.” Programs cover residential, commercial, and industrial energy use; turbine and generator efficiency; renewables growth; and electric car research and development. David Crane, President and CEO, NRG Energy, Incorporated, said that the power industry’s impact on global warming requires “a paradigm shift, a once-in-a-business lifetime issue.” The industry has the opportunity to reinvigorate the notion that centrally generated is the best, cleanest source of power. NRG is seeking first-mover advantage in the spectrum of answers to the carbon question.

Thursday Critical Issues Forum sessions and Industry Plenaries addressed a wide range of topics, including power generation’s shifting center of gravity to Asia, innovation in power industry structure, capital costs of fossil generation, power finance and investment, renewable power, and US CO₂ policy.

Luncheon Keynote speaker John G. Rice, Vice Chairman of General Electric Company and President and CEO of GE Infrastructure, described the company’s decade-long program to reduce its environmental impact, which not only reduced greenhouse gases but also targeted revenue growth from environmentally responsible technologies at $20 billion a year. Behind this program are two ideas: the need for private enterprise involvement, and ensuring truly sustainable activities through risk and reward—profit. The company supports a properly structured cap-and-trade system, incentives such as the Production Tax Credit in wind to support long-term investments, and emissions-free nuclear power. “All of the answers we have will generate a portfolio of opportunities,” he said, and urged that the United States take the lead in finding answers.

On the Power Insights panel CERA experts offered their views on key industry topics from rising capital costs to the nuclear renaissance, and discussed trends for carbon dioxide emissions, policy, and technology around the globe.

In his closing address for CERAWeek 2007, CERA Chairman Daniel Yergin encapsulated the pervasive themes of the week that crossed all industry sectors: climate change policy, supply anxiety, escalating costs, energy security, and innovation in finding creative solutions. He cited the fundamental law of unintended consequences, as well as how the energy industry is powerfully shaped by larger forces outside, ranging from politics and economics to ideas and beliefs.