Using scenario analysis to help utilities map out their strategies.
Doug Buresh is vice president – Strategy Analysis at Global Energy Advisors. Contact him at dburesh@globalenergy.com. Gary L. Hunt is president at Global Energy Advisors. Contact him at ghunt@global- energy.com
If you were a utility executive today would you consider building a new nuclear power plant?
What if the United States decided to implement the emission reductions called for in the Kyoto Protocol without adopting it?
How might your business be affected by another 9/11-scale terrorist attack on a U.S. target?
What would be the impact of growing reliability problems in key U.S. power markets?
Some utility executives are asking themselves just such questions. Energy is a volatile and highly uncertain business. The list of factors that impact the North American power and gas markets is long and growing: glutted power generation, growing gas demand and rising prices, war and terrorism, increasing dependence on imports, potential (inevitable?) regulation of hydrocarbons, regulatory uncertainty regarding market organization, and the impact of new technology.