Constantly changing energy field keeps work fun for Swan

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Barbara J. Swan’s job would certainly be easier if a crystal ball could just tell her what the future will bring. But it wouldn’t be nearly as fun, either.

Swan, the chief administrative officer, executive vice-president and general counsel of Alliant Energy Corporation headquartered in Madison, instead relies upon her own best judgment and instincts, as well as those of her colleagues, to set the company’s course for continued success in the coming, uncertain times.

Alliant is a regulated, investor-owned public utility holding company providing electric and natural gas service to approximately 1.4 million customers in Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin.

“I do a lot of work with policy and the company’s strategic focus — what are we looking at as far as the big issues coming down the path, and how we need to work on those issues, from the legal, regulatory and legislative sides,” Swan said.

Since Alliant is the parent company to two regulated utilities, Wisconsin Power and Light Company and Interstate Power and Light Company, that’s no easy task.

For starters, times are tough and the company has seen a sizeable number of its large industrial customers close their doors within the past two years.

Throw into the mix the upcoming major environmental policy decisions and renewable energy mandates.

Swan notes that the company will likely have to spend a good deal of money retrofitting a number of its current generating plants because in this part of the country, coal is still the major source of fuel for generating electricity. Then there’s the unknown of potential climate change laws and regulations administering them.

“It’s difficult for planning. Utilities are probably one of the most capital-intensive businesses in the country, and we have to plan projects that are multi-year and require hundreds of millions of dollars in capital, when we don’t know exactly what the rules of the road are going to be when we get there.”

She adds, however, that, “While they’re challenges, they do make going to work every day interesting.”

Swan came to Wisconsin Power and Light in 1987, after she had represented it as outside counsel at Axley Brynelson in Madison.

Eleven years later, WPL was part of a complex merger that created Alliant, with Swan shepherding the company through the process for three years. “It was a three-way merger of three utilities, public companies. It’s the only one that’s ever been done successfully,” she said.