Mission of Power Utilities

What is the mission of the power utilities?

If you are in utility, you would answer “stable supply”. Sorry to say, this expression is a little abstract. What exactly does it mean?

There are three factors necessary to realize “stable supply”.

First is the procurement of energy resources. Uranium, natural gas, coal, crude oil to secure electric demand.
Secondly, it is securing adequate power generation facilities. It is necessary to have power generation facilities to prepare for peak demand and to avoid supply and demand tightening (planned blackout at the time of the Great East Japan Great Earthquake has become an actual example in which such a crisis became obvious).
Third is the maintenance of the transmission and distribution network health. It is necessary to transmit and distribute from a sound system through frequency / voltage maintenance.

Among these three factors, what are the elements that the electric power company should take in the future? Let’s think again.
It is fantasy to think that power utilities is responsible for ensuring resources abroad. When a situation like the oil crisis occurs, the they can hardly play a role. I think securing resources is an issue related to national security and I think that it is not an area entrusted to them.
How about securing adequate power generation facilities? Due to the liberalization of electric power, investment collection of power generation equipment is no longer guaranteed. Since the era of judging power supply construction according to economic rationality has arrived, it will be impossible to ask the power utilities to construct power supply to avoid supply and demand tightness.

Maintaining the soundness of the transmission and distribution network will continue to be an important role for power utilities. Electric power utilities themselves deeply understand that they are responsible for protection functions such as frequency and voltage maintenance, equipment protection, public human disaster prevention, and other sources of trust in the region.
In this way, it is clear that the term “stable supply” is limited to the role of “maintaining the soundness of transmission and distribution networks” for power utilities under the liberalization of electricity.

Securing raw materials for power generation is absolutely the role of state. It is clear that they can not do power supply construction to avoid supply and demand tightness as far as emphasis is placed on economic efficiency. For re-departure of power utilities, it is necessary to redefine the mission of the industry.