Power: Planning for a brighter future: Modeling and simulation, load forecasting, frequency control, stability, security, and reliability are important factors

Ever since the Mideast oil embargo of 1973-74, the electric utilities of the world's industrial nations have been confronted by the aggravating necessity of coping with unprecedented “power plays” and “power ploys” as rising costs of fossil fuels, labor, transportation, materials, and construction heralded the irreversible transition from cheap energy to increasingly expensive power production. The initial effect of this abrupt change was surprise: Plans that were projected over the course of the next decade, and beyond, had to be revised as designs went back to the drawing boards.