Because Change Happened

The past year has marked unprecedented change in our world. I welcomed 2021 as many of us did – with excitement for what the new year will bring and with hope that as time evolves, so will we. My own life has been marked by tremendous changes, both personally and professionally. I find myself having now spent nearly a full decade of my life growing within one company. A company that has also experienced its own dramatic shifts through the years since I began my journey here in 2012.

In January of 2012 most of my identity was organized around my personal life. I was a newlywed who spent evenings at World of Beer with our team, trying to get into the “WOB 500 Club” so we could earn free food and drinks. Professionally, I was an engineering new hire working on gas turbine calculations and visiting power plant sites for performance testing of our units. A full decade later, I am helping to lead our company’s hydrogen efforts in the coolest (and most demanding) role I’ve held at our company yet. My role at home evolved in much the same way. Being a father to two young children, with another baby on the way any day now, means that the home landscape has changed much like my professional life – coolest job, yet…VERY demanding. The late night WOB 500 club has been traded in for bedtime stories and wrestling with my three-year-old son to get his pull-up on, or trying to answer life’s most impossible questions flowing from my six-year-old daughter as she goes to bed. My life today would have been unrecognizable to me 10 years ago. Yet what’s arguably changed even more than my personal life and experiences is who Mitsubishi Power is today. [Ducker Family Photo: Mikey Ducker (L), Michael Ducker, Katie Ducker, and Evey Ducker.]    

As a company in 2012, we talked to our customers about gas turbines, steam turbines, coal boilers, and air quality control systems. We focused on selling products and were always concerned about what our competitors were doing. Although we had the best gas turbine product out there, we were finding ourselves just barely making the podium. Something had to change.

And so we did.

Today, our mission statement is unambiguous about our goal as a company: we are here to help our customers affordably and reliably combat climate change. That purpose fueled our development and organization, and things started to change. Now we’re a company offering carbon-free hydrogen turbines, PV solar development, and battery energy storage. More importantly than that, however, is that we’re also actively engaged with our customers in integrating these products as comprehensive solutions within their portfolios so they can more reliably and affordably achieve their climate goals. And we’ve moved away from looking outward at the competition and instead have focused inward on how best we can achieve our goals. In doing so, we’ve become the industry standard to follow.    

I don’t say all this as an employee embellishing my world view of our company. In the past several months, I’ve had people reach out to me with a variety of interests and requests: new young professionals looking to start their careers at Mitsubishi Power, customers seeking help to achieve a carbon-free future, industry leaders requesting us to speak at conferences. Different people from different places with different goals, tethered together by the same purpose of working toward a carbon-free future. But in these conversations, something stuck out to me – they all echoed the sentiment that: “We’re interested in working with you because Mitsubishi Power has changed. You are no longer just a fossil company. You’re a leader in decarbonizing our industry.” 

What may not be shocking to know is that anytime I told someone I worked for Mitsubishi Power, company confusions typically ensued and the immediate follow-up question was usually around cars (that’s Mitsubishi Motors) or those nifty wall-mounted air conditioners (that’s Mitsubishi Electric). But over this past year, when I introduced myself as being from Mitsubishi Power, I’ve been met by positivity around the amazing things we’re doing with hydrogen turbines and green hydrogen, battery energy storage, and renewables development. The most noteworthy first-hand (pre-pandemic) experience I had was being in a small bar in the middle of Western US state, and upon introducing myself to some fellow patrons their response was: “You’re working on that incredible project looking to make green hydrogen! Can we get talking points?” In this small city, I had the community asking me for talking points so they could relay details of this exciting endeavor in order to further mobilize local support. It was something that, 10 years ago, would not – and could not – have happened.

Our motto at Mitsubishi Power is “Solutions for a Change in Power.” As someone who has spent the past decade observing the changes across our company and our changing role in the energy industry, I don’t think there has ever been a more appropriate time to recognize the power of change. You see, what we’re doing is not only helping to mitigate the impacts of climate change as part of a generational challenge. We’re creating jobs in an industry that has had many concerned what the ongoing transformation will mean for their economies and their livelihoods. We’re providing stability to ratepayers – the average American citizen like you and me – who depend on both affordable and reliable power so they can care for their families and focus on enjoying their nighttime routines (be it WOB 500 or 500 questions from their young daughter). And we’re doing all this in a company which has undergone its own unprecedented change through the years. See where that change has led us on changeinpower.com. 

I know that the next decade will hold even more changes. My son’s diapers will likely be swapped out for a sports uniform. I will probably pine for the days when my daughter came to me of all people to answer the questions of the universe. And who knows what paralleled changes will happen in the energy industry? What I do know is that it’s an exciting time, all around. There is much to be hopeful for in 2021 and beyond. And there has never been a better time to be a part of this industry and to be part of Mitsubishi Power. As the times evolve, so will we. 

We're sharing this evolution in our new Change in Power webinar series. Our first episode, "Vision of a Decarbonized Grid" is available on demand for free.