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Power plants are built according to where they CAN be built. Too many NIMBY's out there. You think people don't like railroads, try power plants..... They're psychotic. You've got transmission line access, water availability, air quality issues, coal availability (fuel), etc. I've seen natural gas-powered power plants turned down that would have been quieter and caused less polution that the warehouse they were to replace. The rail line to IPP was built specifically for IPP, it didn't exist before the plant was built. As for the usage of powerlines.... If you run 100 MW's down my line, then I can't use my line for my core business by that same 100 MW's. If you're running power down my line, then system stability is affected (or can be), reducing reliability to my customers. If you're running power down my line, who supplies VAR support for maintaining voltage or voltage stibility on my system? How abouit transient stability in case this line trips out and I have to instantaneously handle the resulting influx of power onto my system? That's how the big east coast power outage was propogated. Did anyone like that? That's also how several LARGE outages in the west have occurred. The electric transmission system simply was not designed for those large continuous power transfers. People also don't want additional powerlines built, anywhere at any time - especially the big ones. It's estimated that the US economy could save over $10 billion dollars a year (that's net) if sufficient lines and associated substations could be built. The electric utility industry has been called the most capital intensive business in the country. I'm not sure where RR's match up, but I bet they're right in the mix as well. Typical 345 kV line construction cost over bare ground is around $500,000 per mile alone. The substation (switching only) will cost about $12 million on for each end. If you need a step-down transformer plan on at least $4 million for a 750 MW unit, you'll need 3 or 4 of them. Upwards of 75% of your electric bill is for equipment. Mark in Utah
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