Document: NUREG-1555
Document ID: 5071ad4a-5acf-4db6-95f2-6add6fdf98d4
Document Type: esrp
Title: ALTERNATIVES NOT REQUIRING NEW GENERATING CAPACITY
Source: NUREG-1555
Source URL: https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/nuregs/staff/sr1555/initial/
Revision Date: 2007-10
Chapter: 9
Section ID: 9.2.1
CFR Part: 
CFR Title: 

Content:
w the relevant regional (e.g., power pool, power marketing area, major utility service area) inventory of the available generating plants, the reviewer should do the following: (1) Identify plants now deactivated but potentially operable. (2) Identify plants scheduled for retirement during the period extending from the date of application through the 6th year of commercial operation of the proposed project. In considering alternatives, the reviewer should be guided by FERC practice to define relevant markets as those utilities directly interconnected to the applicant (first-tier markets). For each first-tier market, FERC considers all utilities interconnected to the first-tier utility and all utilities interconnected to the applicant as competitors in that relevant market. Thus, the competitors usually are assumed to include the second-tier utilities that can reach the market by virtue of the applicant’s open-access transmission tariff. FERC admits that the open-access rule may lead to consideration of an area broader in scope than the first-tier and second-tier markets currently considered. However, evidence of transmission constraints may circumscribe the scope of the relevant market. FERC permits applicants and intervenors to argue that the market is broader or narrower than that offered by second-tier utilities. The argument must be more than open access and involves transmission constraints and cumulative transmission costs. (a) The reviewer may want to consider the plant-availability factor at this point. The expected availability factors through the 6th year of commercial operation of the proposed project should be used for this analysis. NUREG-1555 9.2.1-6 October 1999 When sufficient capacity is identified to warrant further analysis,(a) the reviewer should review the estimate of the environmental and operating costs associated with the use of these plants. Factors to be considered in preparing these cost estimates should include the ` capital costs