April-June 1997 Issue


News Items, April - June 1997

On April 3-4, the Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research held its spring workshop. Topics included energy futures, forwards, and arbitrage; particulate and ozone standards; evidence concerning the location of hazardous waste dumps in relation to income and minority status; possibilities for tax reform that would include an environmental double dividend; the evolution of the European natural gas market; and problems in implementing independent system operators (ISOs) in a deregulated electricity market. Guest speakers were Mujid S. Kazimi, MIT professor of nuclear engineering and head of the Department of Nuclear Engineering, who discussed disposition of Russian weapons-grade plutonium; and Paul R. Krugman, MIT professor of economics, who made remarks about the role of ideas in public policy. The workshop was attended by about fifty people from industry, academia, and government, both national and international

On May 29, researchers from MIT and McGill University and representatives from the electric utilities, industry, and regulatory agencies attended a kick-off workshop for a new consortium entitled "Transmission Provision and Pricing Under Open Access." In the newly deregulated electric power system, all participants must have "open access" to transmission services in real time. With support from the consortium, MIT and McGill researchers are examining some of the serious questions that arise. For example, what is the best technical means of providing fair access to transmission services, given generation and demand uncertainties, potential shortages in transmission capacity, and the need to maintain system reliability? How can transmission services be priced equitably? And what incentives can be provided to encourage transmission suppliers to upgrade and expand their systems as needed? The consortium is led by Dr. Marija Ilic of MIT's Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and Dr. Francisco D. Galiana of McGill University's Department of Electrical Engineering. Current sponsors of the consortium are Allegheny Power, Edison Electric Institute, and the Electric Power Research Institute.

The proceedings of the Third International Conference on Carbon Dioxide (CO₂) Removal, hosted by the Energy Laboratory and held on the MIT campus on September 9-11, 1996, is now available. The proceedings contains 111 papers focusing on methods for capturing and disposing of power plant emissions of CO₂, a gas that is expected to be the largest single contributor to potential global warming. The first section of the proceedings contains papers from five invited speakers who provided a context for the conference. The remaining sections focus on CO₂ separation and recovery, geological storage, ocean storage, chemical utilization, biological utilization, and additional topics including economics, fuel cycle analysis, policy and implementation issues, and comparisons with other mitigation options. Guest editor of the proceedings is Howard J. Herzog, chair of the conference organizing committee and principal research engineer in the Energy Laboratory. The Energy Laboratory is selling a limited number of copies at a price below the publisher's list price. They are available on a first-come, first-served basis, with a limit of three copies per customer. The price (including shipping and handling) is $90 for North American orders and $105 for international orders. Orders should be prepaid by check or money order (made out to the MIT Energy Laboratory) and mailed to Mary Gallagher, MIT Energy Laboratory, Room E40-473, Cambridge, MA 02139-4307, USA. Questions may be sent to Ms. Gallagher at marygal@MIT.EDU or by fax to 1-617-253-8013. Information on ordering directly from the publisher can be found on the World Wide Web at <http://web.mit.edu/energylab/iccdr3/order.html>.