Informational Interview With Liberty Tower

Last week I interviewed Felice Gorordo who is a consultant at Liberty Tower and is responsible with the government sales sector. Throughout the interview I learned key aspects of our industry that could help with the final paper. For an example, in the regulations section there are two aspects of the market, the regulated and deregulated, that require different policies and serve different types of consumers. Also, in the entrepreneur section I learned that there is a lot of opportunities for innovation in the renewable energy resources. I also learned that energy corporations are looking for researchers that can invent ways to supply "green energy" with more affordable prices. The Smart Grid is another innovation that is also being highly talked about. When I asked him what part of the industry he would recommend me to invest in, he suggested any sector within the renewable energy area.

Question and Answer:

Q: Can you first tell me about your job at Liberty Tower and what are your responsibilities?

A: “I am in charge of government sales. As we know, Florida is a monopoly, where consumers only have one choice for their energy supply which is FPL. In other states they have up to 16 different companies to chose where their energy comes from and this makes it a competitive market driving costs down. What I do is that I sell energy to the government at the state and national level from an energy source in Connecticut making costs more affordable.”

Q: What employment trends to you see in your industry over the next five years? For example, are you hiring more engineers and salespeople while decreasing the number of administrative support staff?

A: “There are a lot of opportunities in sales, innovation, research, and development especially in global energy.”

Q: In what area of the industry are there opportunities for innovation?

A: “Research development having to do with renewable energy. We are working a lot with wind, solar, ethonal, crude, and coal. The problem with renewable energy is that we have not been able to find a way to make it affordable. That is why there is so much opportunities for innovation, we want to make it affordable so that everyone can participate in it.”

Q: What are key regulatory issues that affect the industry's future prospects?

A: “There are two parts of the market, regulated and deregulated. Regulated are like the monopolies, they produce to distribute. Deregulated cannot do both so there are companies that focus on one aspect. When there are multiple companies, consumers have multiple choices making more competition driving down costs. This is where more regulatory issues come up because the more competition the cheaper consumers want power to be. There is also Cap and Trade where the government puts pressure on energy producers. The government puts a tax based on how much energy was produced and how much it polluted the air. If companies use renewable energy then the tax can be offset or exempt. Each company should participate in green energy to off set the carbon foot print so that taxes are lower. Using green energy gives credit to companies which can be bought and sold on the market for lower taxes. This affects many energy producers and their major consumers that manufacture goods.”

Q: In what area of the industry do you recommend to invest in and why?

A: “I definitely recommend to invest in any renewable energy area, not only in the production but also in the demand and response. In markets that have a high demand they are starting to implement a new technology called Smart Grid. Smart Grid offers to give companies that run big generators the ability to shut off production that uses a lot of energy remotely. The extra energy made through the generators can be sold through the Smart Grid system and they will get paid in either credit or cash. Also, there are a lot of opportunities in clean technology which cleans “brown energy” and lessens the pollution. The reason why I would recommend to invest in these renewable resources are that there are tax incentives involved.”