Another perspective: what we need to attract capital

摘要

When everything is said and done, the reason the electric utility industry wants regulatory stability and effective energy and environmental legislation is simple. Between now and 2025, electricity demand will grow by nearly 2 percent annually, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Reserve margins—the difference between demand and capacity on hand— were at almost 28 percent in 2003, but margins in some regions will disappear completely by as early as 2007. That means U.S. utilities will need to spend more than $100 billion during the next 20 years on a new generation of capital-intensive powerplants—those that run continuously to meet a utility's or a region's minimum (baseload) demand. Those big plants will run on coal or nuclear; in some cases, natural gas and hydropower. Also, they will need more transmission capacity to deliver the electricity they generate.