1985 EPRI Survey of Electric Utilities

Abstract

The annual EPRI survey of the nation's electric utilities shows a significant increase in the expectations for future growth of electricity from geothermal resources. The installed capacity of geothermal power plants continues to grow at a mean rate of 14.8% per annum. The nine years of survey data were evaluated by regression analysis and expectation values were calculated for three times and at three levels of confidences. the expectation values are compared to regression values for the actual growth rate over the past nine years and to the forecasts made by the utilities in the North American Electric Reliability Council. The data indicated that the installed capacity should be 1800 +/- 100 MWe by 1990, and possibly 8600 +/- MWe by the year 2000. Data for the western provinces of Canada are included in these totals. In addition, Mexico's major electric utility estimates a possible installed geothermal capacity of 1065 MWe for 1990 and 1720 MWe for 2000.