In fact, the period from the early 1900s to about 1970 has been called the Golden Era in electric power.1 However, by the 1970s the industry’s reputation was falling badly—the result of a massive blackout in 1965, growing environmental concerns, and delays and massive cost overruns for nuclear power plants then under construction.2 At the same time, technological progress was boosting smaller powe. [...] For example, while most consumers in North Carolina fall under the traditional paradigm, the northeastern corner of the state resembles the hybrid paradigm because the local utility participates in the PJM market. [...] Monopoly utilities were forced to curtail service and were only able to contain the depth and duration of rolling outages because of massive increases of imported power coming from the restructured area served by PJM and the hybrid system served by MISO. [...] New England, on the other hand, has limited ability to bring in domestically produced natural gas and must resort to importing expensive liquefied natural gas to run natural gas generators during periods of high gas demand.63 Whether consumers see the benefits of wholesale market efficiencies appears to depend on the quality of state retail reforms.64 Poor regulation can mask the benefits of compe. [...] Under the hybrid model, RTOs can provide regional information and coordination services to help state regulators gauge the prudence of utility generation investment and retirement decisions.73 Consumer- Environment centered Dimension In the early days of electric power restructuring, analysts knew that it would affect 3 of 4 air pollution and climate policy goals, given the industry’s heavy relian.
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- 31
- Published in
- United States of America
