Economies of scale in transmission refurbishment and maintenance

In the ever-changing landscape of transmission, whether the option is an RTO or the world of a private transmission company, the rules are always changing and the challenge to make the right decision is harder everyday. We live in a world were decision should be made on facts and numbers but the truth is the facts and numbers cannot dry on the paper before the next wave of change comes into play. One area that is always being discussed and strategies being formulated revolves around capital refurbishment´s and maintenance activities to maintain an acceptable level of reliability to the transmission grid. The efforts are to balance the two. Take out of the picture today who is going to pay for improvements to the system and a discussion will start to revolve around out-sourcing vs. in-sourcing of the work that needs to be performed. These discussion will lead you down the road of just how big can the RTO be and capture the economies of scale when it comes to labor and equipment. The real discussions will begin when you start talking about out-sourcing the work to an outside contractor and what kinds of flexibility that will bring to the transmission entity. This, like other views on RTOs and ISO, will bring as many opinions out as there are people in the discussion