Keeping the Lights on in a New World

摘要

The Electricity Advisory Committee (EAC or Committee) has assessed the current electric power delivery system infrastructure and concludes that it will be unable to ensure a reliable, cost-effective, secure, and environmentally sustainable supply of electricity for the next two decades. The early warning signs of a declining electric power delivery infrastructure are visible today. Fuel transportation, particularly by rail, is congested, and any outage of a rail line can create stress on electric power supply. Coal piles at power plants have been low in the recent past. Much of the electricity supply and delivery infrastructure is nearing the end of its useful life. Without attention, natural gas demand could grow faster than the supply and capacity of the associated infrastructure to produce and deliver it. Spent nuclear fuel storage at some reactors is reaching capacity without any policy direction on long-term storage or reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel. The integration of renewable energy resources rises and falls with the ebb and flow of congressional legislation to fund the production tax credits (PTCs). The transmission infrastructure is aging and becoming more congested.