Perspective

Deck: 
Regulators will have to decide who pays to upgrade the transmission system.
Fortnightly Magazine - November 1 2001
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Regulators will have to decide who pays to upgrade the transmission system.

In the mid-1980's, many consumer advocates argued that while there was serious discussion regarding the upgrading of the telecommunications network, little consideration was given to the question, "Who should pay?" The argument centered on whether a residential customer, who had only one or perhaps two lines and would not need to transmit data, should be forced to pay for an upgraded system designed primarily for business customers who needed the ability to transmit both voice and data. Using digital versus analog service and fiber optic versus copper wire for transmission also was discussed.

Today, we are facing similar questions in the electric industry, what price and who should pay?

Because reliable sources of power are essential for the seamless operation of numerous processes, commercial and industrial customers are demanding a reliability standard of 6-nines and talking about upgraded reliability to 9-nines (). In order to achieve these levels of reliability, massive upgrades to current transmission and distribution infrastructures with duplication and redundancy are required. This, obviously, will be extremely expensive.

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