EleBlog

04 Oct, 2009

IIt's not online anywhere, but a transcript of John Colson (chairman/CEO) of Quanta Services -- speaking 9/15 at a JP Morgan conference -- includes some interesting data on the electrical grid. Building it out and maintaining it is what Quanta does (or one of the things it does). I'm retyping here, so forgive errors:


EleBlog note: The first time I read that, I thought it said that the amount of miles on the national grid had increased 14% in 2008. That's NOT what it says! It says the amount of miles built in 2008 was 114% of the number of miles built in 2007.


EleBlog note: It's not clear from John's words here whether that $2 trillion (or $1.5 trillion) includes major expenses for installation of The Smart Grid and its components, or not. I looked for the thing -- it's a Brattle Group report that dates to 11/08 (see news item here). Key paragraph from a news item on the BG report -- NOTE: This is NOT from the Colson/Quanta presentation!!!

I tried to find the report on the Brattle website, but all I could find (for free) is this two-page 11/08 release (PDF). However, following thru on a link there, it looks as if one can download the full report -- at no charge -- here.

One more thing from Colson's presentation:


Colson's remarks come in the context of him recommending investments in his company's stock. I'm not going to tackle that (although John Colson is one of the most honorable people I've met in 33 years of doing business-to-business journalism!!!). But clearly, the nation needs to make major investments in the grid . . . for what John is talking about above (rebuilding . . . lack of past spending . . . lack of maintenance . . . future increases in demand) but for the Smart Grid -- and also for the Extra High Voltage lines that Secretary Chu spoke about at GridWeek.

Wow!

Note that you can listen to Colson's presentation from the JPM conference at the Quanta site.