Jon Wellinghoff continues to clarify and elaborate on what he said two weeks ago that created quite the conversation-starter: There may never be a need for more coal and nuclear plants and baseload generation may be an artifact of the past. As some people said, "this from the chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission!"
Today Wellinghoff explained himself some more. At a Washington news breakfast sponsored by Access Intelligence and the Compete Coalition, he said he believes electricity markets will decide the future of new coal and nuclear power generation.
During a press conference in Washington April 22, Wellinghoff said he believes renewable energy resources coupled with demand-side management and energy efficiency might well eliminate the need for new conventional power plants.
"Ultimately, I was talking about a scenario" involving demand response and other technologies "where there may be a point where it would be feasible to utilize what are thought of as variable resources to really meet peak loads in a very reliable way," Wellinghoff said today. "Reliability is the key."
"But ultimately that was a scenario," he continued. "What is the future role of coal and nuclear in this country? The markets will decide."
The markets might respond that indeed they hope to decide, but there are an awful lot of people wanting to define the decision-making factors. Climate change bill-writers, state plant-siting authorities, utility rate regulators, and FERC, whose rate and industry structure policies make a lot of difference in how things work. Some might say Wellinghoff's strong leaning to renewables and demand-side measures could create confusion about whether markets really rule. Others might say markets, especially in the power sector, are always seriously hamstrung by the structural issues that are significantly determined by regulatory decisions.
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