An utility perspective of power supply security under open market conditions
Traditionally, security of the power supply was one of the major objectives of utility companies; this objective was optimized on the basis of mainly technical considerations. Economic aspects imposed at most some limits to investment planning. Under today's market conditions unbundling is the key. Identification and isolation of the individual activities and services of the all-encompassing utility task forces is needed, starting from generating power to supplying it to individual customers. In order to properly price each of these services which will include the security of the power supply, all inherent costs have to be taken into account. Confronting the end user of the service with individual components of the price will give him the possibility to make the right trade-off when choosing his desired level of security. Looking from different angles, the definition of the service ``Security of Power Supply'' may vary. For example, when speaking about security of production, either the security of the transmission or the security to guarantee the end user a supply with a defined quality may be meant. For a power utility on the way to the open market the shaping of the service ``Security of Power Supply'' is both a labor-intensive and a controversial job. It requires the exact definition of the services as well as the identification of all the associated costs. Besides the utility' s internal activities also a marketing job needs to be done: Customers have to be educated to the idea of having a choice of security levels - with different price tags--when buying power.
- Research Organization:
- Aare Tessin Ltd., Olten (CH)
- OSTI ID:
- 20018787
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-9806214-; TRN: IM200018%%21
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Power-Gen Europe'98, Milan (IT), 06/09/1998--06/11/1998; Other Information: 1 CD-ROM. Operating Systems: Windows 3.1, '95, '98 and NT; Macintosh; and UNIX; PBD: [1998]; Related Information: In: Power-gen Europe'98, [2400] pages.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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