ERMUSR MISC. ISSUES 01-13-2004 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Associates. "We won't be able to _ Don't Mess With Texas? design systems that are not going to ' have the problems that FirstEnergy had on August 14. But what we can The Great Blackout of 2003 hit the northeastern U.S.and Great Lak avoid is where one area's problems region.California had its own electric crisis in early 2001,and man feed into another area and another still worried about congestion on key transmission lines through area and another area." California. In both cases,a fair amount of blame for the crises has be Early blame for that cascading placed at the feet of electric industry deregulation. effect has focused on a number of Yet Texas has moved to the forefront of electric deregulation,and h interrelated issues. First, too many done so without any of the negative publicity associated with Califorr transmission lines in too many parts and now the northeast.How has Texas done it? of the country are overloaded and "We have a couple of advantages;'says Jess Totten,director of the de lack sufficient marginal capacity to tric program at the Texas Public Utilities Commission (PUC)."One is th handle excess load if a neighboring we are physically isolated from both the East and the West so if probler line goes down. That, in turn, is start in those areas,they won't propagate into Texas."Another,Totten sad directly related to the fact that is that the state has invested heavily in transmission facilities."We ha' investment in the nation's transmis- spent $1.3 billion on transmission over the past five years,and we mar sion infrastructure has lagged sure we made it easier for new generators to get onto the transmissic demand for years. The Edison system:' Electrical Institute (EEI) reports Texas has also been aggressive at promoting and building new gener that transmission investment in the don within its borders,thus shortening the distances power must travel i U.S. has fallen $115 million per reach customers. "Every morning / year for the past 25 years, from California wakes up they have to / about $5 billion in 1975 to $2 bil- import 30 to 40 percent of their . lion in 2000. During that same time power," says Heather Tindle, com- I period, EEI notes, both the overall munications director for the Texas i * demand for power and the demand PUC. "We don't have to do that 11 for power quality have risen and "There is tons of generation in continue to rise. Texas.We have reserve margins in 1 Transmission owners are also the 30 percent range faced with what is often referred to Mike Greene, president of as the "NIMBY" (Not in My Back Oncor Electric Delivery and chair- Yard) problem, where taxpayers man of ERCOT, says another key lesson is that successful deregulatic vote against any and all electric util- takes both careful planning and time.iry initiatives that come too close to "In 1997 or 1998 we created a transmission adequacy task force home. George Gross, a professor of Greene says."We made sure we had the infrastructure to make a move I . electrical engineering and public competition a reality." Greene says Texas also has the advantage of havii affairs at the University of Illinois, an active and single regulatory body— the Texas PUC — that encourag says the issue is so hot in some transmission and sets rules that let investors recover transmissic states that the acronym needs to investment costs.'We don't end up with long,drawn-out rate cases." I be changed to NANA — Nothing says."Our rules are straightforward and allow for a decent return c Anywhere Near Anyone. investment" In addition, open access provi- Texas regulators and executives,though are not resting on their laure sions enacted over the past decade or claiming the Lone Star State has solved all its electric generation as require transmission owners to transmission issues. offer transmission to competing "We are not invulnerable to bad things happening;'Tindle says,node companies at mandated prices. The that local outages struck Dallas this past spring after a lightning strike ar result is an under-funded,aging and College Stadon,Texas,when relays failed at a substation."We are not o overloaded transmission system thumping our chests saying this cannot happen here;' she says. that was never designed or intended "You are going to have problems in any system,but we have been ab to be used the way it is today. to recover from them:' adds Totten."This blackout on the East Coast "The grid was designed to han- going to focus public attention on reliability.I don't see anything specific v die native loads, native customers," are going to have to change as a result of it,but we will be watching dos says Luther Dow, director of power ly to see what they come up with." delivery and markets for the "You never know what can happen tomorrow;' Greene concludes." Electric Power Research Institute so far we've done a good job,we started early,we took it slow and v (EPRI). "Now we are having utili- seem to have got it right" • ties carry load for others. We are 26 1 th Quarter 2003