BGE chief wants to power the city’s future
CEO confronts customer criticisms, infrastructure issues and social needs
Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. CEO Calvin G. Butler Jr. can look out the windows of his 15th-floor office in downtown Baltimore and reflect on how the city has changed since it was first lit by gas lamps in 1816 and how far the company he leads has come since it introduced that innovation.
But as one of the country’s oldest utility companies celebrates its bicentennial, Butler is thinking about BGE’s — and Baltimore’s — future.
“I always say I’ll be damned if it goes bad on my watch,” he said.
BGE needs to upgrade old infrastructure and plans to spend $4.5 billion on capital projects over the next five years.
The utility is also modernizing its means of communicating with customers. When power would go out in the past, customers would overwhelm service centers with reports of the outage. They’d get frustrated when customer service representatives couldn’t tell them exactly when the lights would be back on.
Now BGE’s smart meters, which the utility began installing in 2012, alert BGE to an outage, and it can respond more quickly. The company has also been installing devices in the system that divide the power grid into smaller segments, so when power fails in an area, fewer customers are affected.
The changes are a way for BGE to better connect with customers, who Butler knows get frustrated with the company. Recently, state regulators approved BGE’s request for its fifth rate increase in six years, raising the average residential customer’s monthly bill by about $7.53.
To compensate, BGE needs to find ways to prove its value and to set itself apart, he said.
Butler is also looking for ways for BGE to play a bigger role as a community leader in its hometown.
He is participating in a jobs creation initiative, BLocal, that launched earlier this year.
Through BLocal, Baltimore-area companies, including Legg Mason, T. Rowe Price, Under Armour, the Cordish Cos. and Whiting-Turner, have committed $69 million to improving training and hiring among local residents and minorities.