IP: re: HDTV, spectrum allocation, AND deregulation.

[David Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

To: farber () cis upenn edu
From: "Willis H. Ware" <willis () rand org>




Just to enlarge on the incident reported by Charles Brownstein and extend
the discussion.
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Ah, so, indeed -- common points of failure again!  As things - among others,
utilities -- become more and more deregulated, it will get increasingly
harder to worry about continuity of service, responsibility for emergency
problems, FEMA-type obligations, contingency planning, etc.


California is going deregulated on its 60 Hz power offerings.  Some
company will own and run the wire distribution systems; suppliers will
"rent" service over the wire grid to deliver power to consumers.  There's
currently a whole fleet of carpetbagger salesmen with glitzy brochures
trying to persuade big users to desert their traditional regulated utility
source and go with an alternate supplier.


Since it's a bit difficult to tell one 60Hz cycle from another -- no
notion of taggants in the power business -- who knows where one's power
really comes from.  For us out here, it could be the Columbia River power
complex; it could be the TVA if it has surplus electricity to peddle; it
could even be the huge power complex in Quebec.  While some of these
machinations are exchanges of power generating capacity here for some there
(i.e., paper transactions in an accounting system), much of it will be real
with power flowing all around over extensive intertie lines.


And who, I wonder, is pondering the overall system behavior of such a
lashup, and who is wondering about continuity of service to critical
consumers, and who is addressing the legal obligations and fiscal
responsibilities (to the end-user) of all the players?  Certainly not the
politicians; they settle for simply making a policy that says "we will have
electrical power deregulation."


It remains to be seen whether such broad reaching issues can be adequately
handled by an industry on its own vs. an unavoidable requirement for the USG
to intervene and play some regulatory role.  It won't be the 50 states; the
electrical power industry has become an interstate affair through
deregulation.


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Willis H. Ware                        |   The RAND Corp.
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