BURLINGTON, MA--(Marketwire - May 20, 2010) - PECO senior vice president and CFO Phil Barnett will be a featured speaker at KEMA's third annual Utility of the Future Leadership Forum, "Strategic Choices -- Striking Equilibrium." Barnett will join finance and investment executives in sharing their insights on the strategy and challenges to developing financial strategies that support current and future reliability, performance and sustainability objectives.
The KEMA forum is being held June 23 - 25, 2010 at The Four Seasons, Washington, DC. Barnett will be participating on the investment strategies panel session on Friday, June 25th. The panel will focus on the challenge of balancing the need for access to new capital with the costs resulting from a more risk-adverse marketplace.
PECO is one of six utilities in the country to receive major stimulus funding under the US Department of Energy Smart Grid Investment Grant. PECO's "Smart Future Greater Philadelphia" project is one of the largest investments in the company's more than 100 year history, with an overall estimated project cost of up to $650 million. The stimulus grant will allow PECO to deploy smart meters for all 1.6 million customers in approximately 10 years, rather than 15 years if the grant had not been received. According to analysis developed by Drexel University, the project may help customers save more than $1.5 billion in energy costs over its useful life. Smart Future Greater Philadelphia is expected to create more than 4,300 job-years of employment on an economy-wide basis, according to the Federal Office of Management & Budget. The initiative also supports the company's ongoing reliability investments and environmental efforts.
"Today's utility capital investment plans must balance complex decision points," said Barnett. "These include new electric and natural gas facilities, system improvements, and new technology upgrades to ensure service and reliability, address demand and regulatory changes. Balancing a capital program in a capital-constrained market poses new challenges and opportunities for utility financial strategy."
KEMA's annual Utility of the Future leadership series is gathering industry executives, senior financial analysts, government officials and other utility stakeholders to discuss strategic directions in balancing changing customer expectations, technologies and environmental policies and regulations. Leaders and innovators across the energy industry will take part in discussions focused on customer engagement, investment strategy, regulatory policy and the state of carbon and environmental issues, and they will explore strategic views of what a sustainable, intelligent infrastructure will look like.
Senior executives are invited to join their peers in the Utility of the Future discussion to share ideas and discover opportunities to shape a more sustainable, reliable and profitable utility of the future. Throughout the event, forum participants will have high-level networking opportunities to share perspectives, collaborate and engage in dialogue. To register, and for more information, visit: www.kema.com/UtilityFuture2010.
About PECO
Based in Philadelphia, PECO is an electric and natural gas utility subsidiary of Exelon Corporation (
About KEMA
Founded in 1927, KEMA is a global provider of business and technical consulting, operational support, measurement and inspection, testing and certification for the energy and utility industry. With world headquarters in Arnhem, the Netherlands, KEMA employs more than 1,600 professionals globally with offices and representatives in more than 20 countries. KEMA's US subsidiary, KEMA Inc. is headquartered in Burlington, Mass. and serves energy clients throughout the Americas and Caribbean.
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