Press release writers love to make a splash. “Largest ever”… “first of its kind”… “game-changing technology.” The claims often come with a shred of truth and a heaping helping of hyperbole.
But once in a while, an announcement truly is remarkable. That was the case when LineVision, a provider of dynamic line rating sensors and software for transmission infrastructure, announced that the largest grid-enhancing technology deployment is now operational in the U.S.
LineVision partnered with National Grid to bring dynamic line ratings to four, 115kV transmission lines in congested Upstate New York. The region is home to a growing number of renewable energy projects critical to meeting the state’s ambitious climate goals but otherwise stuck waiting for interconnection. Using DLR technology allows National Grid to view and analyze real-time data, as opposed to manufacturing specs.
While a relatively small piece of the utility’s overall footprint in the state, the project could serve as a breakthrough moment for grid-enhancing technologies, or GETs, which have otherwise been limited to pilot hell. GETs are tools that “hold the potential of squeezing more juice – literally – out of the existing transmission grid,” as FERC Commissioner Mark Christie once put it. The suite of software and hardware solutions include power flow controllers, flexible alternating current transmission systems, topology optimization, and dynamic line ratings, the darling of the bunch.
While National Grid embarks on $4 billion upgrade to the transmission system in New York, GETs, and more specifically DLRs, present a near-term, expeditious solution to unlock additional capacity without building, or replacing, poles and wires. DLR should be seen as a supplement to other grid modernization efforts, according to LineVision CEO Hudson Gilmer, like greenfield transmission and reconductoring.
“This is the low-hanging fruit,” Gilmer said in an interview with POWERGRID International. “This is absolutely, by far, the cheapest and the fastest way to alleviate (congestion) issues.”
Watch the full interview on YouTube
New transmission infrastructure, the most expensive option, can take a decade to deploy. Reconductoring, or replacing old cables and wires with new, productive ones, can require tower upgrades that necessitate years of engineering work and additional permitting. Dynamic line rating tech can be installed in as quickly as a few months, Gilmer said.
That’s not to say new transmission and reconductoring aren’t critical pieces of the puzzle— they are. GETs are Band-Aids, whereas new infrastructure is a surgical procedure. And even if those investments are likely coming anyway, DLR boasts a payback period of less than a year, according to a report from the Department of Energy, compared to 13-15 years for traditional upgrades.
But therein lies the biggest challenges for scaling GETs, and the reason for amazement surrounding LineVision’s achievement with National Grid: the monopoly utility model incentivizes new-build infrastructure investments over optimization and efficiency. There’s a separate question surrounding who should be deploying GETs, the transmission owner as an O&M tool, or whether grid planners should incorporate the technology in their process.
National Grid, at least according to Gilmer, felt an “obligation to serve their customers” by delivering a solution that addressed congestion issues today, not a decade or more down the road. The urgency is supplemented by unprecedented load growth from economy-wide electrification efforts and the onslaught of new data centers coming online, he added.
“They don’t see this as an either/or proposition,” Gilmer said. “They may, in 5-8 years time, need to reconductor these lines because they’re seeing so much load growth on their system that the longer-term solution requires a more fundamental upgrade. But this is the right solution to alleviate those bottlenecks (now).”
Support for GETs is growing in Washington.
In March, a handful of Democrats in Congress wrote a letter urging FERC to “take action to promote the deployment of GETs,” arguing the technology has “repeatedly” proven itself to improve grid reliability, capacity, and flexibility. Last year, FERC included a requirement for grid planners to “evaluate” the use of GETs in transmission network upgrades through its interconnection ruling, Order 2023, without going as far as mandating their deployment.
Commissioner Christie, at the time, offered support for the technology, but urged stakeholders to be cautious about their role in the broader grid modernization conversation.
“Some GETs work somewhere but not everywhere; some work sometimes but not all the time; some only work under certain weather conditions; some don’t work at all, or at least not as advertised; and some are only cost-effective where the congestion costs are greater than the cost of the GET itself,” he said.
To Gilmer, there’s déjà vu littered throughout the sentiment. He likens Christie’s comments to those that pushed back on unpredictable wind and solar projects decades earlier. Demand response went through a similar experience, he said, when trying to level the playing field with generators in capacity markets.
Taking the analogy a step further, there’s a consumer benefit, too. The consultancy Grid Strategies estimated that congestion cost electric customers nearly $21 billion in 2022.
“Some people try to make this out to be that utilities are digging their heels in and saying, ‘We don’t want to do this, don’t make me do this,'” Gilmer said. “I really do believe that there’s a tipping point where it’s a win-win because utilities see the importance of adding DLR as a tool in their toolkit to keep pace with accelerating load growth on their system.”
