Track: Electric Power Systems:
---------- Engineering, Economics, and Policy
Minitrack: Engineering and Economics Interactions:
--------------- Alternatives to Conventional Fossil Generation

The main objective of this mini-track is to present innovative market mechanisms for increasing the penetration of new types of central and distributed energy resources into the electrical supply system. These sources should be alternatives to conventional coal and natural gas generators and can include renewables and other non-fossil sources, load response and end-use efficiency, combined heat and power, IGCC and storage. A key feature of the papers should consider the quality as well as the quantity of production from these sources and show how these sources can contribute to improving the overall reliability of supply if appropriate mechanisms for compensation are implemented.

Session 1: Markets and the Reliability of Distributed Resources
Important questions for the future of electricity supply in the USA are 1) how much can distributed resources contribute to the total supply of electricity, and 2) why has the use of promising improvements to energy efficiency, such as combined heat and power, been relatively modest compared to the situation in Europe? A major focus of recent federal legislation has been to establish "transmission corridors" to reduce the institutional and political barriers to building new high-voltage transmission lines and increase the capacity of the grid to transfer power from distant sources into congested regions. However, an alternative and complementary strategy is to increase our dependence on local, distributed resources and improved end-use efficiency. Policies at both the state and federal level have, to varying degrees, hampered growth of these resources. When the nation adopts an energy policy that recognizes the need to adapt to a more carbon constrained future, it is likely that new organizations for managing distributed resources, such as load aggregators, will play an increasingly important role in the supply of electricity. The focus of this session is on the barriers to making these types of changes happen, and in particular, on how to compensate suppliers for providing ancillary services.

Session 2: Markets and the Reliability of Bulk-Power Supply
The electric sector, worldwide, has evolved a myriad of complex market structures to deal with issues of short run scheduling of generation through long term capacity adequacy. In addition, markets for physical transmission and financial transmission rights are available through highly structured System Operator auctions as well as through a limited number of long-term physical auctions of individual controllable transmission paths. The advent of markets in NOx, SOx and increasing expectation of sophisticated CO2 markets has focused the attention of the financial as well as energy communities. The objective of this session is provide a forum for papers that focus attention on the operation of alternative market structures that provide for efficiency, reliability and security of supply as well as sustainability. The focus of the session will be upon the electric power sector with specific attention to evolution of electricity markets in Europe, North and Latin America and the Asia Pacific region (Australia, New Zealand and Singapore).

Minitrack Chair:
Timothy Mount
Applied Economics and Management
Cornell University
Phone: +1-607-255-4512
Email: tdm2@cornell.edu

Session Organizers and Co-chairs:
Markets and the Reliability of Distributed Resources
Timothy Mount
Applied Economics and Management
Cornell University
Phone: +1-607-255-4512
Email: tdm2@cornell.edu

Seth Blumsack
Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering
The Pennsylvania State University
University Park PA 16802, USA
Phone: +1-814-863-7597
Fax: +1-814-865-3248
Email: blumsack@psu.edu

Markets and the Reliability of Bulk-Power Supply
Richard Tabors
CRA International
50 Church Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
Email: rtabors@crai.com

Judy Cardell
Picker Engineering Program
Smith College
51 College Lane, Northampton, MA 01063, USA
Phone: +1-413-585-4222
Email: jcardell@smith.edu