Strategic planning and greenhouse effect

During former years of high load growth in New South Wales and elsewhere, the challenge for generation planners was to develop power station sites and associated transmission infrasture at a rage rapid enough to meet escalating community requirements for electricity. This challenge was met. The planners of today face a situation of far less certainty - load growth is fragile and at a lower level while the community expects that measures adopted will maintain accepted standards of reliability, be at a minimum level of financial risk and increasingly be environmentally benign. One particular environmental challenge is that posed by the greenhouse effect for which there is a further need to develop a much wider range of strategies. This involves better performance for existing plant, looking at different types of generating systems but also looking to the other side of the energy equation, demand site energy efficiency programs. These issues are briefly discussed