Full Title: Powering the Future: Ensuring That Federal Policy Fully Supports Electric Reliability
Author(s): U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski
Publisher(s): U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski's Office
Publication Date: February 1, 2014
Full Text: Download Resource
Description (excerpt):
Over time, one of the most critical aspects of the electric grid – it’s reliability – has steadily improved./ Today, outages on the Bulk Power System generally occur in only a handful of exceptional circumstances. Yet there are new factors and forces that are rapidly changing our energy supply mix in a manner that could fundamentally alter or degrade the system all segments of the industry have so carefully built. Among these are a mass of new environmental regulations that have contributed to the closure of many existing power plants and threaten to impact even more and, increasingly, subsidies and preferences for certain forms of power generation and use that may be leading to unintended consequences.
This white paper presents the case for greater awareness and engagement on electric reliability. Enhanced coordination between regulators and regulated entities as well as clearer voices about potentially looming problems is crucial – as are policy improvements that can and should be made by Congress.