Power System Planning Techniques Current United States Practices

In the United States, as in many other world areas, the availability of a reliable, high-quality supply of electric energy is taken for granted. Today, the customer expects to connect his alarm clock, his computer or his industrial plant and obtain a continuous supply of electrical energy at standard voltage and frequency. Living up to these standards Is the major challenge for the modern electric utility. With today's mammoth interconnections composed of individual utilities, power pools, super-pools or regional interconnections interlacing over thousands of miles it is essential to resort to the assistance of large-scale computer programmes for system planning purposes. Studies typically undertaken with the aid of computers include load prediction, generation expansion, production costing, transmission expansion, load flow and stability studies.