Search for excellence: a progress report from the Electric Power Research Institute

The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), now 12 years old, was formed by the electric utility industry in response to the threat of federal legislation to create a government agency, funded by a tax on utility gross revenue, to undertake utility research and development. EPRI is a nonprofit organization established to manage a coordinated national R and D program of the electric power industry. EPRI is supported through the cost of electricity and represents a novel form of institutional intermediary between the consuming public, the utilities, and the researchers. EPRI selects and funds research projects designed to develop or improve technologies that will help the utility industry meet present and future electric energy needs in environmentally and economically acceptable ways. EPRI's activities are coordinated with those of government agencies, individual utilities, manufacturers and vendors, and comparable organizations in many other countries. As EPRI has evolved, its program emphasis has broadened from chiefly long-term projects to include those aimed at achieving relatively near-term results