Electricity restructuring, innovation, and efficiency
The United States is now taking significant steps to encourage the restructuring of the electric utility industry. That industry's dominant installed technology, the steam turbine, is no more efficient today than it was in the early 1960s. Much of the motivation behind the restructuring effort is to permit competition from more energy-efficient technologies, particularly gas turbines. For example, the new generation of economically competitive electric supply technologies can lower greenhouse gas emissions by 40--80 percent as a result of their more efficient operation. Technological improvements in the production of electricity are essential to reducing energy costs, air pollution, and carbon dioxide emissions. At the same time, monopoly regulation appears to have stifled productivity and long term innovation in the US electric utility sector. Other factors also played a part in dampening the incentive to innovate, including overcapacity and the grandfathering of older plants by the Clean Air Act. Experience in the deregulation of other industries suggests that the capacity for sustained innovation may not be supported by the restructuring process alone. For example, the current electric utility restructuring proposal may produce less than one-third of the savings that are economically available in the generation and use of electricity. Other steps may be needed to encourage innovation within the industry.
- Research Organization:
- The Northeast-Midwest Inst. (US)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- Environmental Protection Agency
- OSTI ID:
- 20001873
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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