tem security, and quality of service. This covers the whole range of activities from INFRASTRUCTURE TO 2030: TELECOM, LAND TRANSPORT, WATER AND ELECTRICITY - ISBN 92-64-02398-4 - © OECD 2006 OUTLOOK FOR GLOBAL INVESTMENT IN ELECTRICITY INFRASTRUCTURE operational contingency planning through to security monitoring and network control. Better technology can improve the accuracy, quality and timeliness of information. It can also support the development of more accurate and dynamic system modelling, which in turn can allow for more flexible and adaptable contingency preparation and promote greater real-time situational awareness. Technology also has the potential to improve effective operator control over power flows, which would permit more flexible operation of transmission systems and more effective real-time responses to alleviate congestion, manage emergency situations, and enable timely service restoration. Electricity companies and governments are spending considerable amounts of money on developing new transmission technologies in part aimed at improving reliability. Policy makers are seeking to address concerns about the adequacy of investment by establishing a market framework that sends the right market signals to investors, so that investment is forthcoming when required. The challenge is to exploit the price signals for efficiency that effective markets produce. At the same time, regulators have to take into account cost-effectiveness, reliability concerns and the role of transmission interconnectors in enhancing competitiveness. Some countries have concluded that direct market intervention to stimulate investment in peaking and transmission capacity is unnecessary at this time. In others, measures are being taken to ensure that enough investment in peak capacity occurs SO as to guarantee adequate reserve margins. Others are seeking ways to enhance the short-term responsiveness of electricity demand to changes in price, as a means of reducing peak demand and the volatility of prices. Such measures inclu