Electrical-Energy-Transmission Technology: The Key to Bulk-Power-Supply Policies

Transmission plays a pivotal role in the current electricity supply system int he United States. After reviewing the external forces generating recent pressures for change in the electricity supply industry, this analysis focuses on the essential technical and economic nature of the current transmission system, discussing its likely future technological advances and analyzing how these technological features might interact with public policy developments to alter the electricity supply institutions and their regulation. In particular, the existing and potential future impacts of small independent power producers and of calls for more widespread deregulation of bulk power supplies are examined in light of their effects on the design and operation of transmission systems.