The power business is facing unprecedented change,

Across much of the U.S., demand for electricity is flat or declining. The industry's aging infrastructure needs to be beefed up with a big capital investment. And more people are turning to distributed generation—making electricity on-site with solar panels and other methods.

To see how the industry can meet these challenges, Wall Street Journal contributing editor Jeffrey Ball spoke with Nicholas K. Akins, chairman, president and chief executive of American Electric Power Co. Here are edited excerpts of their discussion.

A Different Landscape

MR. BALL: I want to give you a couple of numbers: 2009 at American Electric Power and today. Coal, as a percentage of total electricity generation, has shifted from 86% down to 70%. Natural gas has doubled from 6% to 12%. Nuclear has doubled, from 5% to 10%. Wind renewables have more than doubled from 2% to 5%. Energy efficiency has increased a lot as well.

There was a time when your business was about maintaining and building coal-fired power plants. Is that still the case?