Reliable Sources

The recent Administration’s commitment to increased usage of renewable energy sources has certainly made easier the strategies of those companies already implementing energy efficient programs. As VP of Renewable and Energy Solutions for PSE&G, Alfredo Matos is one man committed to raising the profile of energy efficiency and serving its ever-growing ‘green’ customer base.

“There are good examples around the world of where current nuclear has occurred and nuclear does have an important role in the overall energy infrastructure here in New Jersey and in the States”
-Alfredo Z Matos, PSEG

Obama’s energy strategy has stated a goal of ensuring 10 percent of America’s electricity to come from renewable sources by 2012, setting the precedence for energy usage now, and in the future. But Matos has been one step ahead – formulating renewable strategies since being named VP in January 2008, and ensuring the consistency of these with the overall corporate strategy.

Across the corporation, PSEG’s family of companies are committed to renewable energy, be it Matos’ arena within PSE&G or its sister company PSE&G Global, which is currently implementing a program of wind turbines. “That project is being done outside of the regulated utility and they were successful in placing a bid with the state in order to command with the partner that they have to operate offshore turbines,” says Matos.

Proposals
Matos’ concentration focuses on strategy making for energy efficiency, within the utility’s proposal, including its phenomenal $190 million dollar investment plan, which is currently seeking approval from the Board of Public Utility. “We anticipate that this will happen in June and we’ll invest that money over an 18-24 month period. That was in response to a call from our governor for the utilities to come up with a stimulus package that provided and created jobs within New Jersey, as well as providing the energy efficiency measures to our customers.

“It contains several programs within that filing. Many of those programs are already being implemented within the smaller program that we started back in January: we simply took the program, enhanced it and scaled it up in order to come up with $190 million to be spent over the next 18 months. It’s an innovative program where it looks at providing homes to residential customers with an energy audit, and then it follows up with implementing the various measures that the audit says one should do in order to become much more energy efficient, such as placing installation, caulking and so on. That’s on the residential side.

“We have similar programs for small businesses, hospitals and warehouses – we’re trying to cover the various segments within our customer base in order to provide them with an avenue to become much more energy efficient, essentially by buying down the investments or the costs they would normally make. Utility would then make those investments in those homes and businesses, in order for those customers to recognize or realize the energy savings. That’s a very high level view of the energy efficiency filing,” he explains. 

Solar strategies
Another aspect of the January program is a focus on solar energy sources, with a commitment to providing complete consumer-wide access. The current filing sitting in front of the board is a proposal for $773 million over five years, which will install those solar systems owned by the utility on its utility poles and on schools throughout its service territory, as well as municipal buildings. It also plans to provide solar resources for its low-income housing that typically would not enjoy the advantages of solar energy along with installing solar farms on certain properties that the utility owns.

“We call it ‘Solar for All’, because we firmly believe that through this approach we will be placing solar for all of our customers. The best example of this would be the pole attached solar which goes into every neighborhood, and power which hat solar panel is generating will be directly connected to the customer’s grid, going into their homes.

“So it truly is a solar for all project. It has various segments for the benefit of our hard to reach customer base. Solar for the longest time has been implemented in more wealthy areas, but if we provide gas and electric to everyone, we believe that as an energy company we should also be providing solar and energy efficiency measures to everyone,” says Matos.

‘Green collar’
The implementation of such strategies promises an increase in the amount of required workers to carry out these changes – from creating and constructing the solar poles, to the installation of individual customer grids. Obama’s statistical commitment to renewable sources is firmly backed up with the creation of a new workforce – a deployment of five million ‘green collar’ workers, through an investment of $100 billion dollars, to install clean energy, and with PSE&G’s renewable strategy, the utility certainly is one of those across America endorsing the new Administration’s goals.

“It takes a real commitment on the part of the American people, as well as businesses and utilities, to play an important role in achieving those targets. The utilities industry is in the business of energy and we are regulated just like everywhere else in the world, but regulators, utilities and customers need to work together to recognize that the utility plays an extremely important part in providing solar and energy efficiency measures, whilst still also being fair to the utility’s shareholders. In doing this we can reach those targets of creating jobs as an initial byproduct of this effort. The longer term would be to improve the economy and become more energy independent,” says Matos.

In PSE&G’s deployed state of New Jersey, there is a 30 percent target of supply to be sourced from renewable energy by 2020, with two percent of this target being solar. Matos explains that despite this being only 1800 megawatts, a very small amount of the total energy consumed in the state, it is a huge stepping stone for the future of renewables.

“It’s an enabling initiative that will show the world that this type of technology is something that is very much achievable, that we can implement it. It has positive qualities, such as job creation and helping the economy, and also contributes to a reduction in foreign sources of energy.”

Infrastructure
However, before utility companies or its consumers can dream of a 100 percent renewable empowered world, there is still the old infrastructure to consider. Ranked as number one in the nation for reliability, PSEG is keen to ensure that the amalgamation of the old with the new does not disrupt its dependable energy delivery.

“As we move towards a new 21st century infrastructure, there will have to be a continuation of investments in our systems to maintain the level of reliability that PSEG is noted for. As we continue to put distributed systems throughout our territory, it’s going to require additional smart grid and more intelligent communications.

“Also as we start introducing plug-in vehicle, this is going to alter and change the way utilities have done things on a go-forward basis. A plug-in vehicle will take energy from the grid, but will also give energy to the grid if that area requires it. So metering technology is extremely important and smart grid again plays a vital role in this view of the utility of the future,” notes Matos.

Renewables does not simply stop after wind, hydro and solar, however. As utilities are becoming increasingly aware of the benefits of nuclear power, and consumers become educated on the safety of nuclear as a safe energy source that can be deliverable to their homes, nuclear is re-emerging as a viable, clean source of energy, and PSEG are certainly keen to include it within their strategy.

Nuclear
“We have a three-prong approach of energy efficiency, renewables and nuclear being the third leg of that three-legged chair. Nuclear plays an important role. I consider it to be green and the technologies have obviously improved over the past 20 years since the last plant was built. There are good examples around the world of where current nuclear has occurred and nuclear does have an important role in the overall energy infrastructure here in New Jersey and in the States,” he says.

Attempting to seize the opportunities that nuclear brings, PSEG is currently looking at the viability of building a new nuclear plant at the site of its Hope Creek and Salem units, and as far as Matos is concerned, the utility’s consumers are very excited for nuclear.

“We haven’t seen any negative feedback. It seems to be pretty quiet. People seem to recognize that nuclear does play an important clean role. For the most part people have learned more about nuclear over the years. Over the past 25 years nuclear has worked well and so people are more accustomed to it than they were prior to that.”

Mato’s strategies for PSEG’s renewable future seem promising. “The key is to implement quickly those strategies that we’ve laid out over the past 12 months, so that the customers can see and touch those strategies and make it real for them, versus something that’s hypothetical or theoretical.

“We’re now doing that here in New Jersey with some of our programs whereby we’re going into people’s homes and doing the audits, we’re doing some of the energy measures and once we get the solar approved we’ll start installing those on the top of our utility poles. When people see them, they’ll see that it’s technology that does work, so implementation over the next 12 months of the strategies we’ve laid out is important. That will breed additional success.”

Alfredo Z Matos joined PSEG in 1981 and was named Vice President of Renewables and Energy Solutions of Public Service Electric and Gas Company (PSE&G), in January 2008. Prior to this, Matos had been VP of Distribution Operations and EHS of PSEG Global since 2004.

PSEG’s nuclear plants
Hope Creek Generating Station is a 1220 megawatt nuclear power plant located in Lower Alloways Creek, NJ, adjacent to the Salem Nuclear Generating Station. PSEG originally proposed the plant in the early 1970s and received a construction permit in November of 1974.

The Salem Generating Station consists of two nuclear generation reactors with 2,304 total megawatts of electrical capacity located in Lower Alloways Creek, NJ. It sits next to the Hope Creek Generating Station, also owned and operated by PSEG. Salem Unit 1 began producing electricity in December 1976, roughly 11 years after it was first proposed. Unit 2 began producing electricity in May 1981.

“Regulators, utilities and customers need to work together to recognize that the utility plays an extremely important part in providing solar and energy efficiency measures, whilst still also being fair to the utility’s shareholders”
-Alfredo Z Matos, PSEG