ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the issues that are routinely addressed by many utilities in their resource planning. From the perspective of a utility resource planner, these issues can be thought of as “constraints” that must be dealt with as the resource planner attempts to determine in his or her analyses a solution to the question of which resource option(s) is best for his or her specific utility. These constraints include: geographic constraints, regulatory/legislative constraints, self-imposed constraints, financial constraints, etc. The chapter places each of these constraints into one of three general categories. The three general categories of constraints are: “absolute” constraints; legislative/regulatory-imposed constraints; and utility-imposed constraints. This type of constraint has been a factor in utility resource planning almost since the first day that the electric utility industry emerged and the industry began to build new generating units. The use of the legislative/regulatory-imposed constraints can definitely result in negative impacts to a utility’s customers.
