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NYT on capacity problems in our regional/national power distribution grids; do we regulate or deregulate?

September 1st, 2008 No comments

The New York Times has an interesting article that points out how the use of new wind and solar capacity is being hobbled by power distribution limitations, which limits result in part from the reluctance of state regulators to approve projects that might lead local power producers to seek higher returns by selling power out-of-state.  Can the federal government play a useful role in pressuring the states to further deregulate the power industry?

Of course, bottlenecks in distribution also create incentives for markets to find ways to store locally produced, off-peak energy and sell it later on-peak.  Another recent NYT article discusses plans recently announced by PSE&G,  New Jersey’s largest power distributor, to invest in compressed air storage as a way of stoing off-peak power.

H/T Lynne Kiesling‘s “Knowledge Problem” blog.

Categories: distribution, Kiesling, power, storage Tags: