A safe and reliable power supply is the bedrock behind the economy of the Pacific Northwest. Yet since the onset of deregulation most transmission-owning utilities have not invested much in construction and maintenance. Although many generators have been proposed, few have been built. High voltage lines are becoming more heavily loaded. Excess capacity is near zero.
Planners fear growing reliability problems.
And the Northwest faces an estimated 3,000-megawatt shortfall in electricity. Meanwhile, entrepreneurs and mainline industries have found success in cutting-edge distributed resources, including renewables. Who Should Attend Public and investor-owned utilities, industries, federal agencies, businesses interested in using new technologies to solve reliability and power quality issues, legislators, regulators, environmental and public interest groups. Overview Speakers and exhibitors will share the latest in renewables and new energy technologies, with practical advice on how these can solve potential problems in transmission and distribution reliability, generation sufficiency, and how to turn technologies into business opportunities. Regulators and legislators will talk about what they are doing face these issues and how they are giving developers the right signals for siting new energy resources.