MEETING 21ST-CENTURY CHALLENGES FOR ENERGY DISTRIBUTION

BETHESDA, MD — Are electric utilities obsolete? Depending on how well the industry anticipates their challenges over the next 30 years, today’s traditional electric utilities may become outmoded, says Wayne A. English, expert in nuclear engineering and electricity distribution.

"All is not bleak for utilities," says English in the March-April 2005 issue of THE FUTURIST magazine. He predicts that utility companies will start using hydrogen and other technologies to produce additional energy for customers. "This will be a game in which electric utilities can compete," English says. "The competition will not be against other utilities but against new technology."

Energy from wind farms, photovoltaic cells, wave generators, and animal manure, as well as hydrogen, may reduce the number of traditional electric utilities’ customers. The number of people who prefer to generate their electricity themselves will continue to grow as well, further cutting into utilities’ business.

Utility companies will have to evolve. In addition to generating energy for customers using hydrogen, utilities might provide emergency service or maintenance for customers using alternative technologies who are unable or unwilling to do so on their own, says English.

Read English’s forecasts for the future of electric utilities and options for utility companies in the March-April 2005 issue of THE FUTURIST, available for $4.95 at bookstores and newsstands and from the World Future Society, 7910 Woodmont Ave., Suite 450, Bethesda, MD 20814.