Merchant plants should consider MAIN, other opening markets.
More than 47,000 megawatts of new capacity has been proposed in the United States within the next few years. A few thousand megawatts are proposed in Canada.
The totals are a fraction of the more than 180,000 MW of new capacity projected to be needed in the U.S. and Canada by 2010. Some 50,000 MW of new capacity is needed by 2002.
But the problem with the proposed capacity is that its geographic distribution doesn't match forecast need. In the adjoining table of proposed and projected capacity additions, the proposed merchant plants are compared with RDI's projected cumulative capacity needs through 2002 and 2010. Almost half of the proposed capacity is in NPCC, while NPCC accounts for only 3,467 MW, or 7 percent, of the total need by 2002. The comparison is even more striking when only the NEPOOL subregion--home of most of the proposed capacity is NPCC--is considered. NEPOOL accounts for just 7,823 MW, or 4 percent of the total need by 2010.