Thomas Casten Bio

Thomas R. Casten has spent 30 years developing decentralized energy recycling projects as founding President and CEO of Trigen Energy Corporation, a New York Stock Exchange corporation and its predecessors from 1977 through 2000, as founding Chair & CEO of Primary Energy Ventures LLC, an Oak Brook, Illinois based firm with a Toronto Stock Exchange traded subsidiary, Primary Energy Recycling Corp through 2006, and currently as founding Chairman of Recycled Energy Development, LLC located in Westmont, Illinois. Mr. Casten has served as the President of the International District Energy Association, has received the Normal R. Taylor Award for distinguished achievement and contributions to the industry, and has been named a “CHP Champion” by the US Combined Heat and Power Association. He is the co-founder and former Chairman of the World Alliance for Distributed Energy (WADE), an umbrella organization of national CHP and distributed energy associations, equipment vendors, government agencies and foundations that promote distributed generation to optimize the world's power system. In 2006, the WADE board inducted Tom as the first member of the WADE Hall of Fame.

Mr. Casten serves on the Board of Directors/Advisory Boards of the Carnegie Melon Electric Industry Center, the World Alliance for Decentralized Energy (WADE), the Ontario Alliance for Clean Technology (ACT), the Climate Institute, and the Center for Inquiry, and is an internationally recognized expert on energy and related environment issues. His articles have been widely published and he has testified on numerous occasions before U.S. Senate and House Energy committees and has advised Canadian, Indian, Chinese and Brazilian government officials on power industry governance. In 2006, Mr. Casten presented his views at the Clinton Global Initiative about profitably mitigating climate change. Tom’s book, “Turning off the Heat,” published by Prometheus Press in 1998, explains how the world can save money and pollution. He recently co-authored a chapter in “Energy and American Society, Thirteen Myths,” Sovacool & Brown, challenging the myth that the central electric systems are optimal.

About http://www.energyblogs.com/undergroundwires

Commission To 'Demand' Underground Power Lines - County commissioners are drawing a line in the sand over power lines. The board voted unanimously Tuesday to "demand" that Progress Energy install any new transmission lines underground in existing utility corridors and "with the best available technology." The commissioners assume the only way to serve load is with new wires, and demand the wires be buried, which will significantly raise the cost of delivered electricity. But there is often a vastly better solution - encouraging local power generation inside the distribution network. Contrary to conventional thinking, there is no 11th commandment that says power must be generated remotely in a large electric-only plant that wastes most of the fuel's energy. Local generation powered by industrial waste energy streams or local combined heat and power generation that produces electricity and then uses the inevitable byproduct thermal energy to displace boiler fuel or drive absorption chilling achieves twice the fossil efficiency or more of the best electric-only generation, cutting fuel costs and all emissions, including greenhouse gases. This local generation reduces the load on the wires, as electricity always flows to the nearest load. The load reduction has two economic benefits. First, it reduces line losses on all the power flowing through that transmission line. Second, it reduces the need for added transmission lines, since the power is generated locally. Commissions and all governments should demand that the serving distribution utility, in this case Progress Energy, make three changes to give clean energy a chance: 1. Offer a payment to any new generator in the distribution area equal to the annual amortization of the avoided new wires and a payment for the value of avoided line losses across present wires. 2. Offer to pay any new local generator for active voltage and power factor support, which also reduces line losses and the need for more wires 3. Provide a Clean Electricity Standard Offer Program (See www.recycled-energy.com for more details) that offers 20-year contracts for local generation that is at least 60% fossil efficient and is inside the distribution area. These actions will give local clean electricity generation a chance to compete with more dirty central generation to lower the cost of delivered power and reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases while stimulating investments and cost savings for local industries. Tom Casten