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Advanced Transmission Enabling Renewables

More Information:

The Opportunity

Solar and wind are increasingly the lowest cost electricity generation solution.

The Challenge

The vast majority of the interstate transmission system was built in the 1950s and 1960s and designed to connect load to conventional generators, typically located near water or fossil fuel sources. Today, the Great Plains states are the source for lowest cost wind generation, just as the West and Southwest have the best solar resources. Soon offshore wind along the Atlantic will be cost competitive. However, transmission built for a fossil generation fleet is creating constraints, delaying generation projects in long interconnection queues, and increasing costs – from greater curtailment and higher interconnection costs.

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Advanced Transmission

Solutions

A significant focus has been placed on the need to build new transmission - in the form of large and expensive ‘poles and wires’ projects that are becoming increasingly difficult to build due to increases in cost, challenges to siting , and environmental concerns. The fact that much of the country is already covered by a mesh of transmission lines designed for only one peak hour of the year, however, is often overlooked. Current advanced transmission technologies (e.g. energy storage, power flow control, and even distributed resources) can be leveraged to eliminate many constraints, dramatically increase the efficiency of the existing grid, and allow faster, lower cost interconnection of more wind and solar generation. Examples of applying these advanced transmission technologies include:

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