PJM Interconnection CEO Talks Power Distribution, Solar and Coal’s Prospects

Considering that a mistake made by Audubon’s PJM Interconnection could result in 65 million people losing electricity, it is no wonder that the company’s chief executive Andrew L. Ott sometimes wishes he could retire as a weather man, writes Jane M. Von Bergen for Philly.com.

“You can be wrong 90 percent of the time and nobody cares,” Ott joked.

PJM Interconnection is the electrical supply distribution network that coordinates the movement of electricity in Washington, D.C. and mostly mid-Atlantic13 states. The 90-year-old company acts as an intermediary for big utilities to buy and sell electricity from and to each other.

“We’re like the air traffic controller of the power grid,” explained Ott in an interview with Philly.com, “Our job is to coordinate across multiple utilities.”

Ott also talked about the coal renaissance promised by the current administration. He noted that while the export of coal may improve, national power generation will most likely move forward to other, cleaner options.

“Today we’re building gas plants. We’re building windmills. We’re building solar. When you build a lot of something, it gets better and better,” he concluded,

Read the entire interview at Philly.com by clicking here.