Due to large amounts of capital involved, the financial considerations gain paramount importance in the capacity planning decision of an electric utility. Three important financial issues are choice of appropriate capital and fuel costs, effect of regulation and scarcity of capital. The first section of the dissertation is devoted to an overview of the electric utility industry and literature review. In the second section, we address the issue of selection of appropriate capital and fuel costs. When a time-stepped approach is used for electric utility capacity planning, an important question is what fuel and capital costs should be used in a single period model to replicate the first period part of the multiperiod optimal solution. We address this question and show that a generalization of Baughman-Joskow surrogate fuel price is optimal for the case of a linear load duration curve. Similarly, a generalization of Soyster- Murphy annualization process is obtained for the selection of appropriate surrogate capital costs. In the third section, capacity planning for a regulated utility is analyzed when the objective of the utility is value maximization. the resulting mathematical program is shown to have the same algebraic form as the cost minimization capacity planning model. The optimal solution under the value maximizing assumption is consistent with several important results of regulated economics. The value maximizing approach is extended to include certain inperfections like lead times and finite equipment lifetimes. In the final section, a single period capacity expansion model is developed for a utility faced with a rising supply curve of capital. The properties of the optimal solution to this model are analyzed. It is shown that if one uses a constant cost of capital model for a utility faced with a rising cost of capital, one produces an overly capital intensive solution. A graphical procedure for solving the rising cost of capital, single period model is developed and presented. A technique for estimating the capital supply curve for the electric utility industry is developed. The sensitivity of the capital supply curve to various regulatory parameters is analyzed and the capital supply curve is found to be very sensitive to regulatory parameters. / Ph. D.

This dissertation investigates the perceived riskiness of electric utilities based on their mix of residential and industrial customers. While previous studies have attempted to develop a simple measure of the total riskiness of individual customer classes, this study examines the relative riskiness of the total utility as impacted by customer mix. Because the cost of risk is an element in the determination of the utility's revenue requirement, it impacts the set of optimal tariffs derived from a constrained welfare-maximization problem. The null hypothesis that investors do not base their perception of the riskiness of a utility on the customer mix is tested against the alternatives that residential customers decrease and that industrial customers increase the perceived riskiness of a utility. The hypothesis is examined using cross-sectional data for 1981. The weighted-average, after-tax cost of capital is used to measure the relative riskiness of the utility. In addition to the customer mix variables, the explanatory variables include operational and regulatory variables. The analysis provides support for the hypothesis that investors do not differentiate the riskiness of a utility based on the size of the residential class. Further, the analysis permits rejection of the alternative hypothesis that investors perceive a utility to be more risky when its customer mix is heavily industrial. The results suggest that, in fact, investors may associate greater risk with an absence of industrial customers. / Ph. D.

In this dissertation I offer an explanation for why Indian states are undertaking economic liberalization at different rates, focusing on reforms to the electricity sector. In the period between 1991 and 2003, India's states restructured their electricity systems to vastly different degrees. The dissertation evaluates three variables that feature prominently in the literature on economic policy change: ideological predilections of governing elites, external pressures like those coming from international financial institutions, and state-society interactions. I argue that it is the last explanation, focusing on the degree to which the potential "losers" from reform dominate state politics--that most compellingly accounts for the unevenness in state-level reforms. In my work, I lay greater analytic weight on the role of rural actors than much of the existing literature on the political economy of market reforms. The primary independent variable that explains this variation in reform outcomes is the organization and political strength of societal actors in each state, particularly rural and industrial constituencies, and middle class interests. In some parts of India, the advent of Green Revolution technologies in the late 1960s meant that farmers--chiefly larger landowners--became the primary beneficiaries of extensive development subsidies, including those for electricity. During India's period of economic liberalization in the 1990s, these beneficiaries constituted the main opponents of privatization, which today threatens to change the rules of the game by allocating resources according to market logics. Given these dynamics, where farm sectors are large or well-organized, reform has not proceeded. In the absence of rural political clout, state elites elected to privatize in order to satisfy industrial and urban constituents and signal the state's openness to private capital inflows. By comparing outcomes across states within the single country of India, the research design can control for some variables that are proposed as determinative of government policy, like electoral institutions and macroeconomic shock. I have selected cases to both capture variation of the dependent variable and control for other plausible explanations, such as ideology, financial crisis, and external pressure. / text

The South African economy went through drastic changes since the new democratic government took power in 1994. Different programmes were changed through the process of transition from the old apartheid regime to a new democratic government. The first programme introduced was the RDP, followed by GEAR and then ASGISA, but all these programmes were not enough to circumvent all the challenges experienced by the South African economy. This is the context within which the debate around privatization occurred in the ANC. All the programmes that were changed favoured privatization in one way or other. Through these changes privatization was one of the policies envisaged to be a possible means to address past inequalities. This thesis focuses on the impact of privatization on the electricity industry in South Africa with specific reference to Gauteng. The paper is based on the fact that Gauteng is believed to be the centre of business in South Africa. However because, competition in the South African electricity industry did not exist, this resulted in poor service delivery. The electricity industry in South Africa is divided into three sectors namely generation, transmission and distribution. Eskom controls almost the entire electricity industry from generation to distribution with a few private players here and there. The only private player in the generation sector is the Kelvin power plant, which holds almost 30 percent of the generation sector. Privatization in the South African electricity industry still has a far way to go before a desirable level of competition is achieved. In order to recommend how increased competition can be injected, the privatization of electricity in developed, developing and transitional countries such as UK, Greece, Chile, Hungary and Argentina was explored. The thesis recommends how the government can further expand privatization by learning from these countries. / Mr. Arnold Wentzel

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1980. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH. / Includes bibliographical references. / The electric utilities in the United States have entered a period of slow growth due to a combination of increased capital costs and a staggering rise in the costs for fuel. In addition to this, the rise in peak power demand continues almost at historical levels resulting in lower plant utilization. Current rate schedules do little to improve the utilities' load factors and,in fact, encourage consumption. Time of day rate structures have been suggested as one load management device. This thesis investigates the impact of commercial cooling systems on the utilities supply picture and describes an off-peak cooling system which would enable a building operator to shift chiller operation to off-peak hours. The chillers draw heat from a water/glycol coolant, cooling it to 20°F. The coolant circulates through a series of coiled pipes inside a water filled storage tank. As heat is drawn from the water, ice forms around the pipe heat exchanger. With a cool ant temperature of 20°F the ice cylinder will form out to a diameter of 3.4" in 10 hours. Optimum pipe spacing is 3.5" on center. Polyethylene pipe is preferred to copper pipe for cost and fabrication reasons. The plastic pipes are grouped in discrete modules which allow flexibility in design. Building cooling loads are managed by circulating the remaining 32°F tank water through a heat exchanger coupled to the air handling units cooling coils. The warm water is returned to the tank where the heat is absorbed by the ice. Economic analysis using the present electric schedules indicate a favorable return on investment Time of day rates would make the system look even more desirable. / by Edward M. Quinlan. / M.S.

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Alfred P. Sloan School of Management, 1981. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND DEWEY. / Bibliography: leaves 58-59. / by Thomas J. Laslavic. / M.S.

My dissertation tells the history of the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), the U.S. electric utility industry’s collective technology organization, founded at the onset of the successive “Energy Crises” of the 1970s. The narrative tells a history of EPRI in three registers: the organization, the people, and the ideas. It tracks the internal politics of the industry’s research and development arm through each of its five sectors—nuclear generation, fossil fuel generation, environment and safety, end use, and transmission and distribution. Each sector was buffeted by EPRI’s management history, what one EPRI career project manager dubbed, “Peace, a Civil War, and the Great Depression.” Embedded in each of these sector histories is story of the incremental shift from one regulatory regime, a “natural monopoly,” to an as-of-yet unrealized regime, the “self-regulated network.” When deregulation was imminent in the mid-1990s, utility executives decided that collaboration and competition were at odds. EPRI funding plummeted by half. Instead of making it to the aspired destination at the “self-regulated electricity network,” American power got stuck in an impasse I call, with irony, the “networked grid.” The “networked grid” is a rigid grid with information and communication technology laid on top so as to achieve the illusion of economic efficiency at the cost of reliability, security, sustainability, and physical efficiency.

The research presented in this thesis aims to improve our knowledge regarding the impact of privatisation and deregulation of public service type infrastructure industries. In recent years, Australia's industry reform policies have critically relied on rapid deregulation of major utilities such as telecommunication, gas and electricity. Although several industries have been deregulated in the last two decades, our understanding regarding the impact of deregulation on residential electricity market is still developing. In order to accomplish the research, about 400 residential customers were surveyed and their electricity consumption patterns (ECP)were monitored by installing special electronic meters. The findings are discussed in detail. As an implication to policy and practice there is an urgent need for a nation-wide standard,reshaping the practices of the electricity marketing and establishing a time-dynamic ECP monitoring system. Another important implication concerns the well-founded theories in micro-economic literature. This research has established that the price of the commodities and services charged by public service type utility suppliers should not be left entirely to the market forces concerned with demand - supply equilibrium. There is an urgent need to understand the role of different socio-economic segments in contributing to the economic efficiencies of public service type assets. More efficient segments should be equitably rewarded for their contributions rather than penalised perhaps due to the lack of their bargaining power. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

The restructuring of many national and state electricity industries over the last two decades has created new sets of laws and regulations, market design and participants. Along with those changes, industry risks have also been transformed significantly. Prior to restructuring, government-owned or carefully regulated monopoly private utilities would manage most of these industry risks. With restructuring, however, both the government, through their market regulators, and industry participants need to manage a range of previous,, yet also now new, risks. While the government???s risk management strategy is focused on the industry as a whole, participants are naturally more concerned with their individual risks. The Australian National Electricity Market (NEM) is one of the many electricity markets that were formed through the restructuring process underway worldwide. It created a number of new types of market participants facing different sets of risks. The main objective of this thesis is to examine the management of market risk by these different NEM participants. The methodology used in the thesis involves developing a fundamental understanding of electricity restructuring, the NEM and the various risks faced by the different NEM participants. Data on NEM spot prices, ancillary costs and forward prices are analysed to gain a better understanding of its relationship with market activities. Different risk management strategies, both proactive and reactive, that can be taken by the participants are discussed This thesis has highlighted some of the complexities involved in managing risks in a restructured electricity industry. Risks are never static and changes in market conditions alter the risk exposure of the participants. Therefore, participants will need to constantly monitor their risk exposure and update their risk management strategies. The Cash-Flow-at-Risk methodology is introduced as a possible tool to measure risk and analyse risk management options for different NEM participants.

Thesis (M.S.)--West Virginia University, 2006. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains x, 105 p. : ill. (some col.). Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 99-105).