For over two years, The Keystone Center facilitated a two-phase dialogue on Utility Planning Using Least-Cost Principles and, in the second phase, on the role of Externalities. The intent of this report is to assist policy-makers faced with decisions about changes to traditional utility...

Utility energy efficiency programs hurt shareholders because these programs reduce electricity use, and this reduction lowers revenues by more than costs are cut. Utilities and their regulators have adopted various methods to deal with these net lost revenues. The two most widely used methods...

In response to the Energy Policy Act of 1992 and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission`s subsequent rulemaking on transmission access, many states are exploring options to restructure their electric industries. In their deliberations on restructuring, policymakers should consider (1) the...

In contemplating a regulatory approach, the challenge for regulators is to develop a model that provides incentives for utilities to engage in socially desirable behavior. In this primer, we provide guidance on this process by discussing (1) various models of economic regulation, (2) problems...

The degradation of the material in critical components is shown to be an effective measure which can be used to compute the risk adjusted economic penalty associated with different maintenance decisions. The approach of estimating the probability, with confidence interval, of the time that a...

To project the US potential to meet future electricity demands with wind energy, estimates of available wind resource and costs to access that resource are critical. The US Department of Energy (DOE) Energy Information Administration (EIA) annually estimates the US market penetration of wind in...

Battelle, Pacific Northwest Laboratory (PNL) is conducting a program to help assess impacts of energy-related developments through the year 2025 in six northwestern states--Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and Alaska. ELSA (Electric Power Supply Analysis Model), one component of this...