Power delivery reliability initiative bears fruit

The industry-wide Power Delivery Reliability Initiative, which the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) launched in February 2000, is addressing reliability issues that accompany the industry's transition to an open energy marketplace. The initiative has developed tools to identify weak points in an interconnected transmission system, applying a practical probabilistic process for assessing grid reliability under deregulation. The initiative introduced near-term operational tools that have helped system operators better handle the summer of 2000, and will be of great aid in the summer of 2001 as well.