The National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) has passed a resolution highlighting how grid enhancing technologies (GETs) and high performance conductors (HPCs) save customers money and improve reliability, and encouraged Congress to appropriate more funding for programs that support their deployment.
“We must adapt and innovate to serve growing electricity demand while maintaining energy affordability and reliability,” said Doug Scott, Chairman of the Illinois Commerce Commission and sponsor of the resolution. “Advanced Transmission Technologies should be among the default solutions to increase grid capacity and performance at the lowest cost.”
GETs include dynamic line ratings (DLR), advanced power flow control (APFC), and topology optimization (TO). These tools are intended to find capacity for new generation or new electric demand at a lower cost than traditional upgrades. DLRs determine the true, real-time capacity of power lines. APFC allows operators to move power to lines with available capacity. TO identifies the best grid reconfigurations to reroute flow around bottlenecks. Other advanced transmission technologies include HPCs, such as composite core conductors and superconductors.
In defense of its resolution, NARUC cited several recent findings and trends in the electric industry.
In its 2023 Long-Term Reliability Assessment, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) found that growth rates of forecasted peak demand and energy have risen “significantly” since the 2022 assessment, projecting peak demand for electricity to increase by 9.19% over the next ten years. Additionally, according to market monitor data from annual market reports, transmission congestion costs across the seven organized markets in the U.S. have also risen significantly over the past eight years, more than doubling since 2016.
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory data also shows that there are over 2,000 GW of generation and storage projects waiting to connect to the grid, with queue times more than doubling from below two years in 2008 to over five years in 2022. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s National Transmission Needs study also found that the U.S. will need to expand its regional transmission capacity by 20-128%, and interregional capacity by 25-412% by 2035.
Additionally, NARUC cited DOE’s 2024 Innovative Grid Technology Liftoff Report, which found that advanced transmission technologies (ATTs) are commercially available, have been deployed internationally for years, and can provide multiple benefits to consumers, including increased utilization on new and existing transmission lines by 16% or more; reduced congestion by 50% or more; and potentially saving over $5 billion in production costs annually. DOE also found that reconductoring with HPCs could double the capacity of existing transmission lines at roughly half the cost of building a new transmission line.
In the first two rounds of funding, Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships Programs (GRIP) grants that include GETs and HPCs will benefit 29 states. The third round of funding is expected to accept proposals in 2025, and Congress could add more funding to programs like the Smart Grid Investment Grants to continue progress.
In late 2023, the White House announced the launch of the GRIP program – a $3.46 billion investment for 58 projects across 44 states to strengthen electric grid resilience and reliability, invest in microgrids, and enable more renewable energy generation across America.
Funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the GRIP program is investing $10.5 billion in communities across the country to enhance grid flexibility and improve the resilience of the power system. The first round of GRIP funding was announced in October 2023 and included $3.5 billion for 58 projects in 44 states. In August 2024, DOE announced another $2.2 billion for eight additional selections.In October 2024, DOE announced nearly $2 billion for 38 projects deployed through the GRIP program.
