Energy Department is investing billions in electricity grids, but warns it is not enough
The Energy Department on Monday $1.3 billion announced to help build three major power lines in six states, as part of a new wave of money from Washington to upgrade America’s power grids so they can handle more wind and solar energy and better tolerate extreme weather.
But officials warned that money won’t be enough. In an important report Published on the same day, the Energy Department said the nation’s vast network of transmission lines may need to expand by two-thirds or more by 2035 to meet President Biden’s goals of providing the country with clean energy.
That would help reduce carbon dioxide emitted by gas- and coal-fired power plants – the pollution that is warming the planet. But it would require hundreds of billions of dollars in investment and a frenzied pace of construction. “We need to get serious about expanding transmission,” Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said.
There is no single grid. The country’s electricity system is divided into a patchwork of regions, each overseen by different operators. But many face similar challenges.
A major problem is that there is not enough transmission capacity to transport power from remote wind and solar farms to population centers. Many regions are at risk of power outages during heat waves or powerful storms, which are expected to worsen due to climate change. The outdated infrastructure must be replaced.
The Energy Department report, the Research into national transmission needs, it looks at which places would benefit from new or expanded power lines. Customers in parts of Wisconsin and Michigan, for example, pay high prices because local grids are too busy to bring in cheaper power from elsewhere. The Mid-Atlantic power grid is vulnerable to electricity shortages during winter storms because it lacks the capacity to import power from neighboring countries.
But there are major obstacles to expanding the electricity grid. Although the study found that new transmission capacity between different regional networks would bring major benefits, Hardly any such projects have been built in recent decades because they may require approval from more than one state or jurisdiction, leading to disagreements over who should pay.
The federal government has limited authority to direct grid planning, unlike the way it oversaw the Interstate Highway System. Some regions, such as Texas and the Southeast, have resisted expanding transmission links with their neighbors. And some utilities are wary of new long-distance lines that could undermine their local monopolies.
The Biden administration wants to use the limited tools at its disposal. As part of the bipartisan infrastructure bill in 2021, Congress approved more than $20 billion to upgrade America’s power grids. The Energy Department has started sending out much of that money in recent weeks.
As part of Monday’s announcement, the agency will negotiate a commitment to purchase capacity from three proposed transmission projects: a 748 megawatt electricity line transporting sustainable energy from New Mexico to Arizona, a 1,200 megawatt line bringing Canadian hydropower to Vermont and New Hampshire and a 1,500 megawatt line Connecting Utah and Nevada.
By being its first client, the agency hopes to give developers the confidence to move forward with these projects. The government would later sell its rights to private customers and replenish its funds so it could help other network proposals.
“This is an extremely promising program,” said Rob Gramlich, chairman of the Grid Strategies advisory group. He noted that many transmission projects are plagued by a “chicken and egg” problem: Developers won’t run power lines to windy or sunny areas until customers arrive, but renewable projects won’t be built until the lines are built.
Still, Mr. Gramlich said: the agency’s $2.5 billion program to alleviate this problem can only support ‘a very small number of lines’.
Separately, the Department of Energy this month announced $3.5 billion in grants for 58 different projects to protect power lines against extreme weather, integrate batteries and electric vehicles into local networks and expand wind and solar energy capacity. That included $464 million for an effort to connect two major regional networks in the Midwest and the Great Plains.
Together, these projects could increase U.S. renewable energy capacity by 10 percent, Ms. Granholm said.
The agency has also offered $300 million to help states, tribes and local governments improve their power line permitting processes. Some recent projects, such as the SunZia line in New Mexicohave been trying to obtain permits for more than a decade.
Other, more controversial steps could be on the horizon. Congress has provided federal regulators power to override objections of states for certain electricity lines that are deemed to be in the national interest. The Biden administration has not yet exercised this power, although it said the study released Monday could help identify potential projects.
A truly massive network expansion could require further action from Congress a bill introduced by the Democrats to require greater network connectivity between regions. But some utilities and Republicans have criticized that proposal.
In the meantime, technology could help. New types of sensors and software can help utilities with this send more power over existing lines without the need for expensive upgrades, says Julia Selker, executive director of the WATT Coalition, which advocates for so-called grid-enhancing technologies. But most utilities have yet to adopt these tools.
“We will still need a major expansion in transmission, but these are technologies that can be deployed in a year or less,” Ms. Selker said. “That’s a huge help as we wait several years to build major new transmission lines.”