Electric utility system planners must design system capacity expansion paths that satisfy generation requirements at least cost. Historically, doing this required information regarding the system load duration curve and alternative fuel and capital costs. By putting fuel and capital costs into a...

Economists have long recognized that the cost of using an appliance or machine should incorporate both the associated energy cost and a user cost for the depreciation of capital that results. One must be careful in measuring the latter. Depending on whether the appliance or machine depreciates...

Energy economists have long recognized the fact that changes in energy prices can affect the demand for energy in several ways (e.g., see Fisher and Kaysen, 1962; Taylor, 1975). In the short run, energy users can change their utilization of a fixed appliance stock or a fixed set of capital...

A new era may be emerging for the strategists and decision makers who are responsible for reliably and economically supplying electricity to America's homes and businesses. In the last decade, fuel shortages, price hikes, record-high interest rates, and a new environmentalist awareness have led...

Electricity transmission has become the pivotal industry segment for electricity restructuring. Yet, little is known about the shape of transmission cost functions. Reasons for this can be a lack of consensus about the definition of transmission output and the complexitity of the relationship...