Back in April, I wrote post Exelon’s (EXC) Pepco Holdings (POM) merger conference call how it was becoming increasingly apparent that the future of the utility industry is all about the customer experience. On the heels of the Pepco deal, I became more confident in Exelon’s ability to use scale in its operations to invest in infrastructure and system reliability and storm response. Fast-forward to yesterday’s news  Exelon is now partnering with Bloom Energy for their on-site fuel-cell power generation systems and it is even more evident that Exelon is truly locked and loaded on its customer, someone with a growing number of more affordable distributed power choices and storage solutions these days. 

The deal with Bloom, the first of its kind in the power industry, further highlights the strength in demand for distributed commercial power systems and how important it has become to create better system reliability and provide quicker storm response for customers.

This suggests Exelon just backed its corporate slogan of “Performance that Drives Progress” with action by way of the long-term strategic partnership with Bloom. In the process, Exelon may have also just thrown down a gauntlet to the rest of the utility sector to create a more sustainable future for customers, something that should bode really well for Exelon and perhaps even help create a whole new demand client for Bloom’s clean power systems. 

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Photo: Some rights reserved by BloomEnergy

Interesting article on TUAW, "What would you have asked Tim Cook at All Things Digital?".. TUAW have a buggy system so here are my questions..

1- What are your thoughts on BloomEnergy with their Bloom Box Fuel Cell product? Are you satisfied with the performance of these devices on your FuelCell Farms and will you be purchasing more of them in the future? Do the Bloombox Fuel Cells fit the Apple ideal as using the best methods for energy generation, or would you like to see them (or Apple) go further with this?

2- D'you think the world will eventually move away from Coal, Nuclear, Oil and Fracking and towards Fuel Cells, Solar, wind and vortex-based water power production?

3- Will Apple one day be able to produce a Terawatt of energy via your server farms worldwide?

4- I would like to never have to charge my MacBookPro or iPhone - I'm also not a big fan of iPhone cases with solar panels, or backpacks with a battery and a solar panel as added weight - and they aren't aesthetically pleasing either. Should I give up and buy one of these clunky things, or can I remain hopeful that Apple could one day provide us with iDevices with solar-panel layered touch-screens, fuel cells and thus also a laptop that will never require charging?

5- You know one industry that is ripe for disruption? The Electrical Utility industry. Could you envision Apple as an electrical company?

6- If you were to re-think the original "Think Different" -campaign, which scientists, inventors, philosophers, educators  and artists etc would you add as the north stars of Apple for 2013 and beyond?

7- Who were your childhood heroes?

8- You've accomplished a great deal during your tenure at Apple - is there something more you would like to accomplish during your lifetime?

9- What steps have you taken to make sure that research engineers experimenting with inductive/wireless charging will no longer be dying of cancer at Apple? Is there a plan to advance internal knowledge at Apple re: cancer so that you no longer lose valuable employees?

10- Steve Jobs was quoted at AllThingsDigital as saying (of his passing) "Well, it won't be a party" (for the rest of Apple), but can you imagine Apple bouncing back from this great loss? Will it take some more time, or can you already witness healing happening at the company?