In a message dated 11/17/00 9:58:59 AM Central Standard Time,
playinmantis@earthlink.net writes:
> Michael, I don't think I agree with availability going upward. I currently
> work for a company developing enterprise management solutions for the
energy
> market. There has been very little increase in the amount of new power
> plants over the years. With deregulation, there isn't the state guarantees
> that once made it worth investing in energy plants. So now, we are faced
> with increasing energy usage and little increase availability. There are
> continual threats of brownouts, so utility companies are constantly buying
> energy from other parts of the grid. All we seem to be doing is figuring
> out how to distribute what energy we have to where it is needed when it is
> needed. We aren't changing our energy habits or increasing availability.
This doesn't seem consistent with my experience. A large part of my law
practice relates to construction of power plants, especially the new, smaller
"merchant plants" (they used to be called "cogeneration facilities" -- a
regulatory figleaf to protect these facilities from being trampled by the
monopoly utility companies in the early days of gas turbine tech). My
clients like Dynegy and Enron (to name just two of the dozens working in this
field) are building 50-500MW plants in the US as fast as they possibly can;
so fast, in fact that you can't get a new gas turbine generator (GTG) in less
than two years for love or money.
As for it being worth the investment -- look at Dynegy's stock price.
Building smaller, more efficient, more flexible power plants is attracting a
LOT of investment because it's very profitable right now. (It's also a LOT of
fun!)
Greg Burch <GBurch1@aol.com>----<gburch@lockeliddell.com>
Attorney ::: Vice President, Extropy Institute ::: Wilderness Guide
http://users.aol.com/gburch1 -or- http://members.aol.com/gburch1
ICQ # 61112550
"We never stop investigating. We are never satisfied that we know
enough to get by. Every question we answer leads on to another
question. This has become the greatest survival trick of our species."
-- Desmond Morris
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