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RE: Outage traced to dim bulb
OKAY......okay.....It was me.....I admit it. I was bored out of my scull.....So I went down to the hardware store and I bought a dehumidifier..........and a humidifier. I iced down a 12 pack of Bud long-necks, plugged 'em both in, kicked back in my barka-lounger and watched 'em fight it out........Well, long story short.....I must'a fell asleep. I guess things got a little of hand and I should have been paying closer attention to the fight. I mean.....I had on the black and white striped shirt......heck, I even had a whistle...My cat (Chaos) was supposed to be keepin' score so I guess he's partly to blame too. Cat napping.......who'd of thought it could get so far out of hand.
You have my sincere apologies.
Sorry.
Floyd W. Flanigan B.S.Nuc.H.P.
-----Original Message-----
From: goldinem@SONGS.SCE.COM [mailto:goldinem@SONGS.SCE.COM]
Sent: Tuesday, August 19, 2003 10:31 AM
To: radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu
Subject: Outage traced to dim bulb
I may be a bit behind in this discussion (I read the digest version, hence
delayed) but here's my 2 cents. Ruth wrote:
"Transmission lines are not regulated, are owned by utilities and there is
no way to mandate reliability standards, according to the Electric
Reliability Council (I think that is its name), which is a private industry
group."
Regulation, in the traditional sense, applies to the financial arrangements
whereby a company (utility) was given essentially a monopoly in exchange
for providing a service; a service for which the company is obligated to
provide electricity to the customer, rates being set by the "government"
(public utility commission).
I can't speak to the reliability standards but as far as regulation,
traditionally, electricity was a "vertically integrated" system - the
utilities generated, transmitted (high voltage from the plants to the
substation), distributed (lower voltage from substations to neighborhoods)
and metered (measured usage at the end user). Deregulation was intended,
in California, to "unbundle" the generation, only one component of the pie.
Generating plants were sold by the utilities such that other entities own
and operate the plants (except nuclear and hydro), a competitive scenario
that was intended to drive generation costs down. Clearly, transmission
and distribution (T&D) was to be retained in the regulated environment
where the utility invests in the T&D system and receives a return on that
investment according to the whims of the state public utility commission.
Operating costs are "passed through."
If a state PUC wants to keep customer rates as low as possible, they reject
plans for adding capacity to the T&D lines. Moreover, if local activists
fight mightily against new transmission lines because they're either ugly
or cause brain cancer ;-) then the utility (now a "wires company") has to
make do with what exists. I don't know any better than anyone else, but
suspect that many of the regional "grids" do not have the capacity that the
utilities would like to see to handle the ever increasing loads due simply
to more people and economic growth (reportedly one big factor in
California's problems was the inadequate capacity to move electricity up
and down the state due to constricted high power transmission lines). Note
that in the traditional system, and this still applies to most if not all
utilities, the company makes money only as the PUC decides during rate case
proceedings. There are obviously a ton of laws and rules associated with
utility financing and I'm convinced that the stories I've heard in recent
years in California are true - that utility financing is one of the most
complex types of business affairs in the US.
Bottom line, I'd guess that much of the blame for the blackout probably
should go to some version of state or regional energy commissions for not
requiring new T&D investment and to state PUCs for not approving such
investment. The utilities, of course, should share some blame if they
failed to adequately identify the need. But since added T&D usually means
more income for a utility, I doubt if they fought hard against improving
the grid.
Of course, there are many other factors such as which plants must operate
in various locations to keep the grid stable, etc. That's why reliable,
large nuclear units strategically located around the grid are important
(see, I can still relate this to a Radsafe issue).
Eric M. Goldin, CHP
goldinem@songs.sce.com
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