Full Title: Advanced Conductors on Existing Transmission Corridors to Accelerate Low Cost Decarbonization
Author(s): Jay Caspary, Jesse Schneider
Publisher(s): Grid Strategies LLC
Publication Date: March 16, 2022
Full Text: Download Resource
Description (excerpt):
The U.S. transmission network needs to meet 21st century challenges with 21st century solutions. Decarbonization and clean energy procurement targets set by states, utilities, and corporations for the not-so-distant future will require high levels of new renewable energy capacity to be quickly and efficiently integrated onto the power grid. The large influx of generation will require an increase in overall system transmission capacity to manage its integration and to alleviate congestion and reliability issues that might arise. While new, large-scale transmission infrastructure will be key to enabling the clean energy transition, regulatory and planning obstacles often delay their construction for years or make the lines entirely impossible to build.
Reconductoring and rebuilding existing transmission pathways using Advanced Conductors can help accelerate the decarbonization of the power grid by creating a significant amount of new transmission capacity more quickly and more cost-effectively than new, large-scale
transmission. Advanced Conductor deployment can also offset some of the upfront total costs associated with infrastructure replacement through the more efficient transfer of electricity compared to traditional conductors. Despite the benefits that Advanced Conductors offer, they are not widely deployed due to outdated transmission planning practices and outmoded economic incentives, among other barriers.