Indianapolis has proven to be a great show town for us in the past, so we are again wheeling the T&D World Expo into town. Yes, I know, the Indianapolis 500 is also held in May, but our conference will miss the Indy 500 by a full two weeks. Sill, I expect we will experience a little of the racing buzz as the city prepares to accommodate the 400,000 fans who are predicted to converge for the biggest race in the United States.

My interest in Indy racing peaked in the late 1970s and early 1980s when I'd follow the successes of the legendary A.J. Foyt. The 2.5-mile oval brick track has long since been covered with asphalt, and today's cars have only a remote resemblance to those raced in the early 1900s, but racing is still racing, and the winner still takes the checkered flag.

Electric utilities are also in a race to deliver reliable electric power. While this goal has not changed over the past 100 years, the tools and techniques have changed drastically. Just as the brick track is now covered with asphalt, our industry now has an information technology layer that blankets the bricks and mortar of T&D. Just like the powerful engines and transmissions revolutionized racing, transformer and breaker design innovations are changing our industry.

The editors of T&D World contacted high-energy individuals to speak at this year's conference about the basics of T&D: engineering, design construction maintenance and operations. We also added several business tracks to this year's conference. In the “Megatrends” track, you'll learn about the role of venture capital in today's T&D. Likewise, you'll get the inside scoop on why utilities are starting to embrace the “asset owner” and “asset manager” model for T&D organizations. In the “Revamping Organizational Structures” track, you'll hear how utilities are partnering to construct facilities and why some utilities have decided to outsource what was once considered core business.

I am tickled with our keynote speakers. These men will set the tone for the conference and exhibition. José Delgado is CEO of the American Transmission Co. (ATC), a Wisconsin-based transmission company formed by the pooling of transmission assets of a handful of formerly vertically integrated utilities. Delgado will discuss how ATC is putting new lines in its service territory as well as rebuilding the overloaded grid in downtown Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

I also invited Johnny Priest, vice president of Duke Energy Delivery Services, to share how he was able to take people from the regulated side of the business and create a for-profit services organization. Consultants will tell you that utility people don't have the business savvy and killer instincts to survive in a for-profit climate. Priest ignored the critics and did it anyway.

Today, regulators are increasingly under pressure to keep reliability from slipping. Their focus is no longer just competition but also service. Expect to see regulators assist utilities in obtaining rights-of-way, which is a major change.

I was in New York for the IEEE Winter Power meeting and was invited to sit in on a FERC-hosted conference. FERC wanted to discuss the adequacy (or lack thereof) of the electric infrastructure in the Northeast. FERC Chairman Pat Woods is mighty impressive. He's the first commissioner I've met in seven years who is willing to focus on the details of the problems. He actually convened a meeting to identify the barriers that are keeping us from building and maintaining a sound power-delivery infrastructure. Woods challenged the many regulators (some incredibly smart, some totally clueless) in attendance to get on the stick and solve transmission-capacity problems on a regional basis. Still, I have my doubts if he can cajole the majority of the states to allow lines to be built through their territory if the primary beneficiaries of the power are several states away, at least not without some kind of inducement, say a big federal stick.

So, the state commissioners and the FERC are finally focusing on reliability and infrastructure. While they haven't given up on the concept of competition, they have accepted the premise that we must first have a robust grid over which to trade this power.

Now that utilities are focusing again on reliability and maintenance, we've focused on these topics in our technical tracks. In the “Overhead and Underground Transmission” track, utilities are looking for ways to get extra capacity out of existing overhead rights-of-way, either by uprating or upgrading. Reliability is now “in” with utilities spending on the basics including tree trimming and preventive maintenance.

The conference's distribution track will address topics such as mobile field computing, distribution automation, estimating customer loads and reducing restoration times. For the digital guys wired for the new economy, there is the “Information Technology” track, a “Metering & DSM” track and a “Systems Integration” track. And for an update on all the innovations popping up in the substation arena, including on-line transformer monitoring, power flow controllers and solid-state current limiters, to name a few, you'll want to make a point to attend the “Substation Strategies & Innovations” track.

Of course, the exhibitors on the show floor will provide you with the latest in hardware, line equipment, materials and engineering software. You'll also find engineering firms, line contractors and training-services companies that can keep you abreast of the latest trends.

This year, we also put together a series of pre-show workshops that focus on maintaining what you've got, as well as helping you get a little extra out of your system. We invited only industry guru types, so the training should be excellent. Maybe you can justify a trip to Indianapolis using your training dollars.

T&D World Expo has a lot to offer, and the show section in this issue will give a preview of what to expect. If you like what you see, drive on over to Indianapolis and check out what is happening in our industry in 2002. It's time to kick the tires, get behind the wheel and take the car out for a spin. Let's get our industry rolling again.