| Photo by Bob Rashid |
 |
| Gene Zeltmann'62, CEO of
New York Power Authority, sits in on a
Thermodynamics and Kinetics course
during a January visit to Beloit. Rama
Viswanathan, professor of chemistry and
computer education, is in the foreground.
As head of NYPA, Zeltmann has worked at
the junction of science and public policy, a
place that has called to him since he was
a student at Beloit. |
New York may be known as the city that never sleeps, but lately it's been fueling its appetite for non-stop activity with notably less energy.
At New York Governor George E. Pataki's behest, the city and the state of New York have embraced all sorts of new projects that reduce energy consumption in a demanding market. But in addition to conservation, New Yorkers are also on the receiving end of cleaner, cheaper, more efficient power through a statewide initiative that enlists the latest technologies toward these ends. More power is coming from ever-more ingenious domestic sources, and it's costing less while generating a fraction of the emissions that came from older power sources.
At the forefront of much of this good work is Gene Zeltmann'62, who has led New York Power Authority for about the last decade, most recently as its president and CEO. It's a position that demands an artful melding of science with public policy, something that has always appealed to Zeltmann.
"Gene Zeltmann's outstanding service at the Power Authority and, before that, on the State Public Service Commission, has significantly benefitted the people of New York State," says Pataki, who appointed Zeltmann to lead NYPA. "His commitment to advancing energy efficiency, clean new energy technologies, and electric and hybrid-electric transportation has helped to make the Power Authority and our state national leaders in these critical areas."
NYPA, the largest state-owned electric utility in the United States, exists to generate and transmit reliable, low-cost electrical power, while also pursuing energy efficiency programs. The organization is fiscally able to achieve these goals, in part, because it pays no state and federal taxes. NYPA finances its operations by selling bonds and making its revenue mainly from the sale of electricity.
In 2005, NYPA produced more than 24.5 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity at its 17 power plants. (It takes one kilowatt-hour to light 10 100-watt bulbs for an hour.) The Power Authority gleans a considerable amount of sustainable energy through hydro-electric power from Niagara Falls and also maintains 35 percent of the state's high-voltage transmission lines.
Among its more demanding customers is the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which relies solely on NYPA for the energy it takes to run the massive New York City subway system.
"We have a very strong emphasis on energy conservation," Zeltmann explains, "and we think it's terribly important that we find a way to become less dependent on foreign energy. With that in mind, we have promoted not only energy conservation but also the development of domestic energy resources."
Although Zeltmann says that energy conservation, being respectful of the environment, and reducing costs are all state mandates, these are also things he believes in strongly.
"My friends will tell me that I've always been interested in saving a penny," chuckles Zeltmann. "But if we can do as much with less, then nobody's going to be worse off as a result. And we ought to do as much or more with less. That means conservation: using lights and motors and transportation in a more efficient fashion. It's almost unconscionable to leave our kids with a huge dependence on foreign energy because it can lead to no good for the country."
With a large population in New York and finite space and resources, sometimes NYPA "tries new things that others can't or won't do," says Zeltmann.
"I've always thought it was very important to bring advanced technology toward solving political issues," Zeltmann says. "That comes into play here in New York where there are so many millions of people, and the need for power is great. The need for very highly efficient, very clean power is critically important."
Plug-in hybrid cars are but one example of NYPA's dedication to doing what automakers may be unwilling to do. These vehicles, which operate on a combination of gasoline and electric power, use electric batteries that can be regularly recharged to cover shorter trips. Zeltmann, a longtime advocate of reliable electric transportation, says that the miles-per-gallon on an ordinary hybrid car could, for instance, be increased from 50 m.p.g to 100 m.p.g. with a plug-in system that allows for recharging when the car is idle, something car manufacturers have hesitated to add because of weight and cost.
NYPA has put about 800 electric and hybrid-electric vehicles in service around the state. It also helped support the development of a prototype and 10 pilot hybrid-electric city buses, leading to an initiative in which the city transportation authority put 325 of the vehicles on the streets and ordered another 500 in the largest program of its kind in the nation.
Some of the other areas NYPA has researched and expanded under Zeltmann's leadership include photovoltaic (solar power) projects, fuel cells that use natural gas or existing gas from wastewater treatment plants for emission-free electricity, electric cars especially designed to serve train commuters, and highly efficient combined-cycle power plants, which combine simple-cycle combustion turbines with steam turbines to produce a power plant that is 50 percent more efficient than conventional steam plants.
In a cooperative program with the New York City Housing Authority, NYPA recently completed a multi-year program to remove nearly 185,000 energy-sapping refrigerators from public apartments and replace them with high efficiency models. The Power Authority is recapturing its initial investment by sharing in the energy-cost savings; the Housing Authority will retain all savings once the investment is recovered. The replacement refrigerators use just one-third the power of the old ones.
All told, the Authority spends as much as $100 million on energy efficiency research projects around the state each year, but the forward-thinking nature of these projects reaches far beyond the state boundaries of New York.
"Eventually, what happens here starts to happen around the country," Ashok Gupta, director of the air and energy program for the Natural Resources Defense Council told the New York Times in a December 2005 article about New York's progress in the area of energy efficiency. "The market that New Yorkers provide is clearly an important factor in moving the rest of the country. That's the way the markets work."
At the Junction of Science and Politics
Zeltmann has approached his work with a scientist's dedication to good research, a politician's aptitude for recognizing opportunity, and an ethicist's commitment to doing the right thing.
When he talked with Beloit College Magazine in January—only a few weeks before he planned to retire—he said he felt fortunate to have capped his career at NYPA, a near perfect opportunity for enlisting the latest science in the interest of the public good.
Zeltmann's interests were nurtured at Beloit, especially one year, when political science professor Warner Mills helped him arrange a semester in Washington, working for then-Congressman Henry Schadeberg from Wisconsin. Immediately after that, chemistry department faculty steered him toward a semester of study at Chicago's Argonne National Laboratory, allowing him to further explore how these interests might complement one another.
"That was a kind of immersion in the two disciplines all within about a seven-month period," Zeltmann reflects. "And Beloit was uniquely qualified to provide that kind of exposure and that kind of an opportunity. Those are things that you don't forget."
Zeltmann graduated with honors from Beloit, earning Phi Beta Kappa membership, majoring in chemistry and completing considerable course work in political science. He showed signs of the leader he would become when he delivered the Commencement address at his own graduation.
Later, after finishing the master's and doctoral programs in physical chemistry at Johns Hopkins, Zeltmann went to work for the General Electric Company, where he spent much of his career as an executive, focusing on international trade, government relations, and environmental issues regarding power generation.
He got a taste for public service when he took a two-year leave from GE in the early 1970s to accept a prestigious Alfred E. Smith fellowship with the state of New York's Public Service Commission, the state's regulatory body.
Nearly three decades later, when Zeltmann found himself in a position to retire from his corporate role, he again had the chance to bring his private industry expertise to bear on the issues affecting public service utilities.
An appointment by Governor Pataki put him on the five-member Public Service Commission, the very same organization for which he had interned many years earlier, bringing his career full circle. Just months later, he was named the Commission's deputy chair. Following that, he was appointed to lead the Power Authority, first as president and chief operating officer, and later as president and chief executive officer.
Currently, Zeltmann also chairs the board of the Electric Power Research Institute, the world's foremost electric utility energy and environmental research organization.
With his retirement close at hand, Zeltmann reflected on his place at NYPA's helm, at a time when energy is arguably the most important issue of our time.
"Having had the ability to implement your own ideas and thoughts in a position like this has been extraordinarily rewarding," he said. "And having the ability to work with very talented people on complex problems is a fascinating and also very rewarding thing to do. I thank Governor Pataki for affording me the opportunity of a lifetime."
Editor's note: Shortly before this magazine went to press, Gene Zeltmann was named Beloit's newest member of the board of trustees, a post he accepted in February.
