A view from "the operating room"

This article presents restructuring of electrical industry that aimed at reducing prices without impacting reliability. Based on the operational aspects of the California Energy Crisis of 2000-2001, a simple methodology has been established by analyzing the conditions that led to the California blackout and various case studies have been discussed on load shedding. So a business environment, with introduction of market based scheduling, commitment of resources and incentive based behavior, has increased emphasis on real time system operations with much stress on security and reliability tools must be considered.