電力公司如何讓颶風后的紐約重現光明

????首席執行官布克最艱難的任務或許還在前方。該公司股價在颶風后已下跌了10%，總市值縮水近20億美元。公用事業公司沒有像蘋果（Apple）這樣的公司增長率，它們通過持續穩定的盈利和高派息吸引投資者。布克必須要說服投資者，遭遇更多的風暴不會改變這一點，至少近期內是這樣。Con Ed的一個解決辦法是將曼哈頓以外地區的架空輸電線埋入地下，將靠近水邊的電力設施用磚墻圍起來，不只是依賴沙袋和防洪墻。這將耗費數十億美元資金。颶風過后幾天，布克說，他并不認為這些花費是必須的。

????與此同時，Con Ed必須確保其電網能繼續滿足一個不斷發展的城市的需求，精通科技的城市居民已日益依賴需要經常充電的各種電子設備，這可能是電力汽車時代即將到來的先兆。據報道，庫默正在尋求升級地區電網，希望能更快更好地查找斷電點，做出應對。“它們是美國最好的公用事業公司之一，”匹斯堡大學（University of Pittsburgh）能源中心負責人格雷格?瑞德表示?！暗聦嵤?，像其他公司一樣，它們的員工也在老齡化。”

????不管怎么說，如果投資者希望檢驗布克和他的團隊是否能解決這家公司面臨的最大問題，颶風桑迪提供了一個機會。

????譯者：早稻米

????CEO Burke's most difficult task may still lie ahead. The company's shares have fallen 10% in the wake of the storm, erasing nearly $2 billion of the company's value. Utilities don't have the same growth prospects of say an Apple. Instead, they attract investors with consistent earnings and high dividends. Burke will have to convince investors that being at the mercy, at least recently, of more and more storms won't change that. One answer is for Con Ed to bury the overhead power lines it has outside of Manhattan and enclose its power facilities near water behind brick walls instead of just relying on sandbags and flood walls. That will cost billions. Just days after making it through the storm, Burke says he doesn't think the expense is necessary.

????At the same time, Con Ed has to make sure its grid can continue to serve a growing city filled with a tech-savvy population increasingly dependent on a slew of electronic devices that are seemingly in constant need of a charge, on what could be the dawn of the era of the electric car. Cuomo is reportedly looking to upgrade the region's power grid with one would be better able to pinpoint power failures and respond to them. "They are one of the best utilities in America," says Greg Reed, who heads up the Center for Energy at the University of Pittsburgh. "But the fact is like everyone else their stuff is aging."

????Nonetheless, if investors were looking for a test to see if Burke and his team were up to the task of solving the company's biggest problems, Hurricane Sandy provided it.