Story by Kyra Buckley, Staff Writer • 6h ago
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/shell-and-nrg-ceos-say-electrification-will-lead-the-way-in-the-shift-to-clean-energy
Electrification can help propel the shift to clean energy if changes are made to the current system, the chief executives of Shell and Houston-based NRG said in separate discussions Thursday at the major energy conference CERAWeek by S&P Global taking place in Houston this week.
While there are differing views in the energy industry on how to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions in the coming decades, nearly every major energy company has cited electricity – from electrifying equipment in the oil field to supporting electric vehicle adoption – as key to the transition to clean energy.
“The world is going to move into more and more electrification,” Wael Sawan, CEO of Shell, told conference attendees, noting that by 2050 electricity is going to be an even bigger share of the globe’s energy system – as much as two to three times what it is today.
he-l in recent years has added electricity generation to its core oil and gas production business, including renewable power such as offshore wind. It also began selling electricity to Texas residents last summer.
NRG, a longtime player in the Texas electricity market with natural gas and coal-fired power plants, also has a small amount of renewable generation. And it, too, sells electricity to residential and business consumers under brand names Reliant, Green Mountain and Discount Power.
Mauricio Gutierrez, CEO of the Houston-based power giant, said a lot of emphasis has been placed on increasing electricity supply from clean sources, but he’d like to see more focus on the demand side. He pointed to innovations in technology that allow consumers to use electricity more efficiently, which can help relieve strain on the grid during times of peak demand.
“You're seeing a convergence of distributed energy technologies with smartphone technologies,” Gutierrez said. “We have smart thermostats, smart appliances, home automation, I mean, everything is happening inside the home. There is tremendous connectivity.”
Most of the country doesn’t have an electricity market that can take advantage of those technologies, Gutierrez said. A competitive market such as the one in Texas, he said, is the ideal way to incentivize adoption of technology that can help bring down electricity demand.
As a competitive retail provider, he said, if NRG says it will sell power to a customer at 10 cents per kilowatt hour for a month, but a weather event makes the wholesale price spike that month, the retailer has to figure out how to mitigate that cost.
“I have to either go to the market and buy that incremental power to serve my load,” Gutierrez said, “Or I'm incentivized to find ways to shave that peak, to lower that peak demand, and to share those savings with a customer. See, that's the right incentive that we need to make sure that we are activating the technology and the user – the consumer – that is sitting on the other side.”