In May 2000, a mere two months after the order that utilities “wheel” electric power rather than make it went into force, the number of Transmission Loading Relief Procedures on the East Coast’s grid was six times what it had been a year earlier. These requests for help managing the load of particular lines are one very good way of measuring stress on the grid. Just before the act was made law, the number of these requests on the Eastern Interconnection was at right around ten per month. Six months later, in August 2000, there were almost 175 such requests, and by mid-2003, right around the
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