National Grid Company

The author is indebted to Professor D. C. Bassett, Dr D. Patel, Dr S. M. Moody and BICC, Dr G. C. Stevens and National Power, Ms J. C. Cooper and the National Grid Company, Mr S. J. Sutton, Mr P. Butler and Mr A. Forgham for providing the material without which this chapter could not have been produced. 

The power required for electrochemical processes motor drives, lighting, and general use, may be generated on site, but will more usually be purchased from the local supply company (the national grid system in the UK). The economics of power generation on site are discussed by Caudle (1975). 

Teollisuuden Voima Oy (TVO) is a Finnish power company owned mainly by industry. The company was founded in 1969 primarily to satisfy the electrical power needs of the forest industry. The company aims at developing and operating large-scale power plants and producing electricity for its shareholders at cost price. TVO s first nuclear power plant unit, Olkiluoto 1, was connected to the national grid in September 1978, and the second unit, Olkiluoto 2, in February 1980. TVO s output of nuclear power covers about one fifth of the total national production in Finland. 

Itaipu began producing electric power for sale in May 1985. Electric power generated by EBl from the Itaipu Dam was to be sold to the national power companies of each country and would feed into the separate national grids. ANDE, the state-owned electric company in Paraguay, and Eletrobras, the state-owned electric company in Brazil, were thus EBI s major shareholders and also its major customers. The formula for the price at which this sale would take place was set forth in Annex C to the 1973 Treaty, which stipulates that EBFs total annual income had to equal the cost of service for that year. 

Hydropower provides an essential contribution to the national power grid its capability to respond in seconds to large and rapidly varying loads, which other baseload plants with steam systems powered by combustion or nuclear processes cannot accommodate. Also, ownership is spread over a broad base. The owners comprise federal and state agencies, cities, metropolitan water districts, irrigation companies, and public and independent utilities. Individual persons also own small plants at remote sites for their own eneigy needs and for sale to utilities... 

Many different ways of tabulating the necessary information have been proposed by scientists working in various international agencies, national laboratories, universities and companies. The system adopted for GRID is based on the methods of the Protein Data Bank (PDB). Their nomenclature was agreed after extensive international discussions between workers in many fields, and it divides atoms into two distinct categories ATOM and HETATM . 

Traditionally, most countries have produced their electricity in centralized power stations coupled to a common grid. In some nations, generation and transmission are undertaken by a single state-owned industry. In others, a number of independent companies either operate as regional monopolies or compete in an open market to sell their product. Many generators and governments now have to face up to a number of difficult decisions concerning the sustainability of future electricity supplies. Some of the important questions to be addressed are as follows. 

Some electrically-intensive industries may be located in regions inconvenient to the national electrical grids and/or may find it to their strategic advantage to control their own power supplies. The ownership and operation of hydroelectric facilities by American and Canadian aluminium companies is an example. The energy requirements for an industrial park can match the output of one or more smaller nuclear reactors located nearby, while a conveniently located hydroelectric project is rarely feasible. 

The PBMR was first analyzed from the perspective of its value to the nation of South Africa, and later it was recognized that the economic advantages of the PBMR would not be limited to the South African grid alone. In 2000, the PBMR (Pty) Ltd. company was formed with international investment partners to build and market PBMR-based power plants. The long term marketing approach taken by the partners of PBMR (Pty) Ltd is to sell plants comprised of multiple of modules. This has led the PBMR partners to develop early relationships with strategic suppliers for key equipment, see Annex XIV. 

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