Banking on the Big Build

Deck: 

The need for many hundreds of billions of dollars in capital expenditures creates huge opportunities and challenges, especially in a more challenging credit environment.

Fortnightly Magazine - October 2007
This full article is only accessible by current license holders. Please login to view the full content.
Don't have a license yet? Click here to sign up for Public Utilities Fortnightly, and gain access to the entire Fortnightly article database online.

The utility industry needs to prepare for a period of much higher capital expenditures. This results from the confluence of several factors:

• Shrinking generation reserve margins, as the glut of surplus capacity from earlier in the decade has been worked through much more rapidly than expected;

• Spending on compliance with NOx, SOx, and mercury requirements;

• Pressures to invest in lower-carbon—and more expensive—generation technology and associated infrastructure, including transmission;

• The need to replace aging transmission and distribution (T&D) infrastructure, much of which was put in place 30-40 years ago and is nearing the end of its design life;

• Continued robust rates of population growth and economic growth in many parts of the United States, resulting in the need for system expansion; and

• Technology spending on areas such as customer information systems and automated meter reading.

This full article is only accessible by current license holders. Please login to view the full content.
Don't have a license yet? Click here to sign up for Public Utilities Fortnightly, and gain access to the entire Fortnightly article database online.