The Narragansett Electric Company is the enviable position of having a product everyone
wants, offering a service everyone needs, and owning - hands down - the best-looking
yellow trucks in the state of Rhode Island.
At first glance, a "captive" audience may appear to be the kind of stuff
business dreams are made of; yet Narragansett Electric President and Chief Executive
Officer Robert L. McCabe sees the utility's penetrating community presence as an
opportunity to practice responsible corporate citizenship while never losing sight of the
basics. "I think of my job as a caretaker," he says. "We have to be sure
that the lights stay on."
As a wholly owned subsidiary of New England Electric Systems operating in Rhode Island,
Narragansett Electric sells and distributes electricity to 27 cities and towns with a 1990
Census population of approximately 725,000 residents. Its service area, a mix of urban,
suburban and rural areas, covers 839 square miles or 80 percent of Rhode Island, including
the capital city of Providence - the command center of the utility's operations.
To ensure the reliable flow of electrical energy to its customers 24 hours a day, seven
days a week, 52 weeks a year, the company owns and maintains an integrated network of
transmission and distribution lines - poles, wires, meters, and such - and substations. In
January of this year, it also unveiled what has already garnered praised as the
"cleanest, most efficient power plant in New England": the re-powered
steam-electric generating Manchester Street Station, on the Providence waterfront.
Named president in 1986, McCabe brought to Narragansett Electric 17 years' experience in
the industry and a personal philosophy of balance, stability and community. That
philosophy and industry know-how, coupled with lessons learned at the U.S. Military
Academy at West Point and in Vietnam, have guided the company along its current path as a
fully regulated monopoly and will chart its future course as a player in a competitive
marketplace.
Like other utilities in New England in the '80s, Narragansett Electric enjoyed twice its
normal rate of growth as people and companies set up housekeeping in Rhode Island. More
people working at more jobs automatically meant more business for the electric company,
which increased its generating capacity to keep pace with demand.
In time, however, the economy slowed and demand dropped, leaving Narragansett Electric and
its parent with excess power - and power plants. The current clamor over that surplus
power promises to change the electric business in Rhode Island "as we know it,"
McCabe says.
"Under the old (and still current) rules, you didn't know exactly who your customers
would be, but you knew that whoever moved in would be your customer.
"Under the proposed rules, what is being called 'choice,' Narragansett Electric will
have to compete for customers," he continues, much the way long-distance phone
companies go head-to-head for customers. "The energy part of the electric bill - the
generation part, the power plants themselves - will be up for grabs."
On record as the largest construction project in Rhode Island history, the three-year,
$514 million Manchester Street Station project incorporates the competing interests of
several unlikely partners: historic preservation, technological innovation, downtown
revitalization and environmental consideration.
The station's original 93-year-old building, containing the steam turbine hall, boiler
house, north annex and screen house, was restored and is eligible for inclusion on the
National Register of Historic Places. An attached new building, which houses the
combustion turbines and heat-recovery generators, was inspired by the architecture of the
old structure. Interior and exterior touches - paint, windows, restored copper
ventilators, for example - passed Rhode Island Historic Preservation Commission muster.
The "tools" used in the production of electricity have come a long way since
1903, when a shiny and new Manchester Street Station provided power for Providence's
electric trolley-car system. In those days when the station burned coal, barges delivered
it to the waterfront, workers shoveled it into 200-foot-high piles.
In these more modern times, however, as Providence intensifies its efforts to revitalize
its waterfront and downtown, Narragansett Electric has offered to maintain six acres of
its 26-acre parcel for public use. Collier Point Park will include a boat ramp, walkway,
park benches, observation tower, piers, and a buffer to mask the fuel tanks from public
view. Plans call for the park to be completed by Fall 1996.
Area residents and visitors will probably notice a change in the air. The switch from oil
to natural gas as the primary fuel has resulted in reduced emission levels of sulfur
dioxide, nitrogen oxide and particulates. The stations is also outfitted with the latest
in noise-reduction equipment. In addition, it now draws on its own groundwater well, thus
avoiding the need to tap into the city's public water supply.
"When we decided to re-power Manchester Street, we set out to do it in the most
aesthetic, environmentally benign way we could," says McCabe. "I believe we have
a responsibility to do our business as clean as we know how."
That said, responsibility is Narragansett's bottom line whether it be directed toward the
future or kept busy in the present.
"This is a business where what's important is how fast you respond when a pole gets
hit, when the lights go out," says McCabe. "You get out there and get the poles
up, and get to the substation and make necessary repairs. It's the same business it's been
for years.
McCabe believes the real risk from a corporate point of view is in the generation end.
"Who will be the low-cost provider? Who can provide the right mix of fuel and
location? Whoever can will be the winner," he adds.