Power and energy: Computers bring dramatic improvements in power management, permitting an increase in the wheeling of power and spurring the development of HVDC systems

The year 1985 was a dramatic increase in wheeling, the transfer of power by one utility to another across its own or other utility networks. Paralleling the computerization of dispatch centers is the `communication-ization´ of the transmission and distribution network. To facilitate real-time energy transactions between neighboring utilities, and for better monitoring and control of real-time conditions along the grid to predict trouble, utilities are erecting complex communications systems. The controversy engendered in the US by increases in the importation of electrical equipment is discussed. The advances made in atmospheric fluidized-bed combustion and coal liquefaction as ways to burn high-sulfur coal and reduce pollution are also described.