2009 Report - Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission
2009 Report - Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission
2009 Report - Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission
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Reliability Assessment 31<br />
The 2008 Long-Term Reliability Assessment<br />
represents NERC’s independent judgment of the reliability<br />
and adequacy of the bulk power system in North America<br />
for the coming 10 years. NERC’s primary purpose in<br />
preparing this assessment is to identify areas of concern<br />
regarding the reliability of the North American bulk power<br />
system and to make recommendations for their remedy.<br />
In its most recent reliability assessment for the 2008-2017 period, NERC<br />
identifies five key findings:<br />
1. Capacity margins in many regions are improved compared to 2007 figures,<br />
due in part to significant increases in demand response and supply-side<br />
resources. Nevertheless more resources will be required to maintain<br />
reliability in Western Canada and the Desert Southwest areas in the<br />
coming years.<br />
2. Wind resources are growing in importance in many areas of North America<br />
as new facilities come online. With growing dependence on wind<br />
generation, it is vital to ensure that these variable resources are reliably<br />
integrated into the bulk power system.<br />
3. Though total miles of transmission additions have increased when<br />
compared to last year’s assessment, much more transmission will be<br />
required to reliably integrate projected location constrained resources such<br />
as wind, nuclear, clean coal, and others into the bulk power system.<br />
4. Demand response programs increased significantly in this year's<br />
projections. The long-term sustainability of these impacts will need to be<br />
monitored closely as these programs are used to meet reliability<br />
requirements more frequently.<br />
5. NERC performed its initial analysis of reliability metrics from the last six<br />
years and concluded that the drive towards suitable maintenance,<br />
operating tools and training must continue. It is vital that these metrics be<br />
further refined and the trends analyzed so that root causes can be<br />
addressed.<br />
NERC offers several conclusions and recommendations<br />
1. Regulators need to continue their support for the development of additional<br />
cost effective transmission resources, including equitable cost allocation<br />
guidelines for such resources. Further, they should revise their existing<br />
31 NERC, 2008 Long-Term Reliability Assessment, October 2008.<br />
60<br />
<strong>Pennsylvania</strong> <strong>Public</strong> <strong>Utility</strong> <strong>Commission</strong>