ABSTRACT
Planning a new generating station in today’s economic and regulatory climate is a very risky business because of the complicated and time consuming licensing process. Large capital investments are also being required to refit and modernize existing units for environmental compliance and to improve efficiencies. At the same time, more large sums of money are being spent on mandated conservation and load management (scheduling of consumer devices to achieve a lowered maximum demand) programs. These programs have affected the need for new generation or replacing older generation by significantly reducing the electrical energy requirements for system demand and total usage.
