The electric utility industry is on the verge of radical transformation. Historically, this industry has been subjected to price regulation, proactive oversight of resource acquisition, and diversion of revenues to public purpose programs such as the development of renewable energy and promotion of energy conservation. Recent rulemaking by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and restructuring proposals made by state utility commissions, most notably in California, suggest that regulators are willing to increase reliance on market forces to encourage efficiency and lower prices for consumers. / This dissertation has two objectives. The first is to analyze the history of deregulation in other industries, the recent history of the electric utility industry, the problems facing the industry that have convinced industry observers that traditional regulation has failed, and the political process that will shape the structure of a deregulated industry. The second objective is to develop a model that can simulate the outcome of competitive markets for wholesale electric power. The results of this model are a forecast of wholesale power prices, power production, and construction of new power plants over a twenty year period. / The problems associated with predicting the market-clearing price of electricity over long time horizons are numerous. They include the variability of electricity demand, the long-run and short-run response of electricity demand to price, the tradeoff between the capital cost of power plants and their efficiency, and the characterization of electrical power flows in alternating current networks. The model is an adaptation of the spot pricing models of Bohn et al (1984) with a feedback mechanism that accounts for the impact of price on demand growth and power plant construction. / The model is applied to a hypothetical power supply network serving the western United States. Data from the Department of Energy, the Edison Electric Institute, and the Electric Power Research Institute are used to develop baseline assumptions about power supply and demand. Eleven scenarios are presented. These scenarios illustrate the impact of differential growth in demand across market sectors and geographic regions, the impact of constraints on capacity construction, and the incidence of network access charges. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 57-04, Section: A, page: 1745. / Major Professor: Philip E. Sorensen. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1996.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_77689 |
| Contributors | Bogenrieder, Paul Richard., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 194 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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