Full Title: Pathways to Commercial Liftoff: Innovative Grid Deployment
Author(s): Louise White, Eshaan Agrawal, Dr. Angelena Bohman, Avi Gopstein, Charles Hua, Isabel Sepulveda, and Lucia Tian
Publisher(s): U.S. Department of Energy
Publication Date: April 24, 2024
Full Text: Download Resource
Description (excerpt):
Deploying the advanced grid solutions available today could cost effectively increase the capacity of the existing grid to support 20-100 GW of incremental peak demand when installed individually, while improving grid reliability, resilience, and affordability. The grid is becoming a bottleneck to greater economic development, decarbonization, and equity priorities. Customers are demanding more grid capacity as regional electricity demand grows substantially for the first time in decades to serve a rapid uptick in data center and manufacturing needs and broader end-use electrification.
At the same time, heightened threats and increased dependence on electricity increase the importance of reliability and resilience of existing and new grid infrastructure. The existing transmission and distribution system has untapped potential to help meet these challenges, which can be unlocked with a set of available technologies that are dramatically under-deployed relative to their potential value. These technologies can help serve as a bridge to address near-term capacity needs as critically needed new transmission, distribution, and generation is built out, while supporting grid reliability, resilience, and affordability. Grid operators and regulators should consider a new growth-oriented and proactive grid investment strategy to capture the value of these advanced technologies to meet customer needs within a changing energy future.