NEWS RELEASE

Office of External Communications

Houston, TX 77204-5017 Fax: 713.743.8199

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 13, 2006

Contact: Angie Joe
713.743.8153 (office)
713.617.7138 (pager)
ajoe@uh.edu
POWERING UP: INDUSTRY LEADERS TO DISCUSS THE FUTURE OF THE
ELECTRICITY MARKET DURING UH-GEMI CONFERENCE

As electricity prices continue to rise, energy leaders are considering new technologies that could keep consumers from digging deeper into their pocketbooks.

Industry executives will convene during an event sponsored by the University of Houston’s Global Energy Management Institute (UH-GEMI) to consider electricity’s future. The “How Will New Power Technologies Transform the Electricity Market Place?” conference will take place Thursday, June 29, at the UH Hilton Hotel.
UH-GEMI is part of the Bauer College of Business.

“The electricity industry faces many complex challenges,” said Craig Pirrong, energy markets director for UH-GEMI. “Those challenges include improving efficiency to keep consumer costs under control, diversifying the fuel mix to avoid excessive dependence on natural gas, meeting increasingly strict environmental requirements and facilitating price competition that will benefit both commercial and residential consumers.”

Christopher Ross, vice president at CRA International, will deliver the luncheon keynote address “Energy in Transition – New Business Models.” Ross’ expertise is in strategy and organization assignments in the worldwide petroleum industry, where he has more than 30 years of experience.

For more information about the conference, go to https://www.bauer.uh.edu/uhgemi/Forms/power06.htm.

WHAT: Power Conference: How Will New Power Technologies Transform The Electricity Market Place?
WHO: UH-GEMI
WHEN: Thursday, June 29
 

8:40 - 10 a.m. Generation Technologies

 
    • New Nuclear Power -- Ed Cummins, Vice President, New Power Plants, Westinghouse
    • IGCC and Super Pulverized Coal with BACT -- Daniel W. Tse, Commercialization Manager, General Electric
    • Generation Technologies in a Carbon-constrained Future -- Steven Specker, President & CEO, EPRI
 

10:25 - 11:35 a.m. Future Transmission Technologies

    • Armchair Quantum Wires -- Wade Adams, Rice University
    • Superconductivity -- Alex Ignatiev, University of Houston
 

11:35 a.m. - noon Demand Management and Metering Technologies

 
    • BPL/Smart Grid Technologies -- C. John Wilder, Chairman, President & CEO, TXU Corp.
 

12 - 12:30 p.m. Institutional Innovations

 
    • Market Design & Regulatory Framework -- Tanya Bodell, Vice President, CRA International
  12:30 - 1:30 p.m. Luncheon Address: Energy in Transition – New Business Models
 
    • Luncheon Speaker – Christopher Ross, Vice President, CRA International
WHERE: University of Houston Hilton, Waldorf-Astoria Ballroom

For more information about UH visit the university’s ‘Newsroom’ at www.uh.edu/admin/media/newsroom.