Dive Summary:
- Vito Longo, the tech editor at Transmission and Distribution World magazine, questions if the the new normal of deregulated utilities is helping or hurting the industry. "If our industry was all in order, utilities would know how load was developing in their territories," Longo writes."But that is no more"
- Rather, many utilities struggle without adequate generation and transmission resources. "Transmission is the next item in the portfolio that is deregulated. And, without control of generation and later transmission, the utility is in a position to be whipsawed by whatever whims and fads du jour may come upon the regulators," Longo argues.
From the article:
"Utilities in the Electric Reliability Council of Texas have seen many early retirements of conventional energy generation and a considerable increase in renewable energy production. Of course, the retirements are in places with existing transmission, which ties the supply to the load. And, predictably, much of the renewable supply is in less convenient locations. The chaos of having supply not aligned with delivery is exacerbated by having load growth in some areas accelerate at unprecedented rates."