Partners for Progress- A Utility Perspective

Abstract

Central Power and Light Company, an Investor Owned Utility serving the greater part of South Texas, got the largest setback of its 75 year life during the 1980's when cogeneration hit home. It's no secret that the Texas Gulf Coast in 1980 was one of the greenest pastures in the country for the integration of cogeneration. Scattered throughout our coastal service area was a concentration of petrochemical plants and refineries placed like a row of dominoes waiting to be knocked over. These plants while operating in Texas were really doing business in a world market. If one company took advantage of a technology that could reduce its operation costs significantly, then very definite pressure was placed on all its competitors to follow suit in quick order or lose a share in the market. To make the story short, CPL lost over 250 MWs and eight of its largest customers in about a six year period to the implementation of cogeneration technology. By CPL I mean the stockholders who expected a dividend, the employees who faced possible layoffs and the remaining customers who faced the possibility of increased rates necessary to pick up embedded costs of the system. All these groups had a stake in turning the situation around. I have to add that even the customers who began to serve their own load had a stake in tile health of the utility with which they remained interconnected with and purchased standby and maintenance service from.