Emily Mercer of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory reports that the nation’s electric grid will have to grow even larger to enable an affordable, sustainable, and reliable energy future. Mercer writes:
The U.S. power grid has been called one of the greatest—and largest—engineering marvels of the 20th century. Made up of more than half a million miles of transmission lines, it delivers power to 160 million customers every day.
But now, the nation’s electric grid will have to grow even larger to enable an affordable, sustainable, and reliable energy future.
“Our power system is evolving rapidly,” said David Palchak, principal investigator of the National Transmission Planning Study (NTP Study). “The most cost-effective solutions to accommodate this change involve a significant expansion of the transmission system—potentially doubling in size or more by 2050.” […]
The Rising Importance of Transmission in the Clean Energy Era
Over the past decade, the rate of adding new transmission lines to the U.S. grid has dramatically slowed. In contrast, electricity demand is steadily increasing as data-center energy demand rises and the nation ramps up efforts to decarbonize the energy sector by powering electric vehicles, heat pumps, and more with renewable resources.
Unlike fossil power plants that are typically located near areas with a lot of electricity demand, the nation’s most abundant, low-cost renewable energy resources are far from the highest energy demand—calling for more long-distance transmission lines.
On top of that, recent extreme weather events have highlighted the importance of strong power grid connections with neighboring regions. […]
A First-of-Its-Kind Study To Energize Transmission Planning
The multiyear NTP Study was led by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Grid Deployment Office in partnership with DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. The study identifies transmission solutions that can help planners and developers revamp the U.S. power grid to support the next generation of transmission needs and provide broadscale benefits to electric customers. […]
The NTP Study found the contiguous U.S. transmission system will need to at least double in size by 2050 to maintain reliability at the lowest cost to consumers. In scenarios with higher demand or higher decarbonization, the expansion of the transmission system is even greater. […]
A companion study to the NTP Study explored the economics of long-distance, high-voltage transmission lines linked to interregional renewable energy zones (IREZs), or areas with abundant, low-cost renewable potential. The IREZ analysis can help local grid planners and decision makers tackle regulatory questions and advance interregional lines.
Indeed, the scale of transmission expansion modeled in this work is unprecedented, but insights from the NTP Study can set the nation on the path to an affordable, sustainable, and reliable future grid.
Read more here.
