ABSTRACT

During summer 1996 portions of the vast interconnected electric grid in the western United States experienced major disturbances. Occurring as they did at a critical point in the transformation of the electric utility business from a regulated monopoly, franchise territory industry to a competitive electricity marketplace, the blackouts drew the attention of legislators, regulators and policy makers.

These events were a jolting reminder that unlike other types of delivery systems the nation's extensive transmission networks are subject to sudden, widespread and uncontrolled disruptions when events conspire to stress the networks beyond their design capabilities.

Please join us on December 5th for a discussion of what caused these multi-state disturbances which impacted millions of consumers, drew the personal ire of President Clinton, and moved reliability from back bench to center stage in the ongoing debate on industry restructuring.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Jim Hebson is Managing Consultant in the Electric Transmission Department at PSE&G Co. in Newark, NJ. Mr. Hebson received the BSEE from Brown University in 1967 and MS Degree in Electric Power System Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1969. Mr. Hebson also received a JD degree from Seton Hall University School of Law in 1977. He is a Licensed Professional Engineer and Attorney at Law. Mr. Hebson is a Senior member of the IEEE and a member of the Power Engineering Society.

During his 28 years with PSE&G, Mr. Hebson has held engineering and management positions related to the analysis and planning of the PSE&G and regional high voltage transmission grids, power pooling, regional reliability, institutional arrangements such as interconnection agreements and transmission service agreements, regulatory and legal matters, and advanced transmission technologies.

Mr. Hebson has served on the Planning and Engineering Committee of the Pennsylvania-New Jersey-Maryland Interconnection, the Area Coordinating Council of the Mid-Atlantic Area Council, the Reliability Assessment Subcommittee of the North American Electric Reliability Council, the Power System Planning and Operations Committee of the Electric Power Research Institute, and on the Administrative Committees of the Extra High Voltage, Lower Delaware Valley and Susquehanna-Eastern jointly owned 500 kv transmission projects.