Dear Colleague,

Earlier this month, the Edison Electric Institute published a paper I wrote 
on Bulk-Power Reliability: Potential Problems and Possible Solutions. 
Although aimed at the general reader, I hope you'll find the paper 
interesting. It is available on the Publications page of my website: 
www.EHirst.com.

The key problems I identify include:  

Declining generation reserve margins,  

Declining transmission capacity relative to load, leading to  

Increasing transmission congestion, and  

Growing number and complexity of bulk-power transactions.  

The primary solutions I discuss include:  

Federal legislation to (1) extend FERC authority over the entire bulk-power 
industry for reliability and (2) oversee a single North American reliability 
organization that sets mandatory standards;  

Large regional transmission organizations;  

Decide who decides where and when to build new transmission lines, with 
regional solutions? likely better than local ones; and?  

Expand demand-side participation in energy and ancillary-service markets.  



Please let me know if you have any comments on the paper.

Eric
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Eric Hirst
Consulting in Electric-Industry Restructuring
106 Capital Circle
Oak Ridge, TN 37830
865-482-5470 (phone & fax)??? Eric@EHirst.com
http://www.EHirst.com/