Transmission

Ten Commissioners from varied parts of the nation answered these questions: What are the most important needs for electric power infrastructure? What are your greatest concerns about infrastructure? How should utility regulation adjust to these needs and concerns, if at all? How different will electric power infrastructure be in the year 2040?

FERC Order 881 was the subject of discussion at a recent IEEE Power & Energy Society T&D Conference, which was attended by POWER Engineers’ Lisa Deppa. She explains here the latest on Order 881 and why it is important to the decarbonization journey.

In part three, we consider institutional consequences if indifference to ratepayer impacts takes root in FERC and federal agencies or in state legislatures and with regulators. How these play out could affect policy sustainability and effectiveness as net-zero goals for 2050 grow nearer.

By increasing the reach of these programs, utilities get greater insight into customer behavior and the ability to tackle distribution-level issues more effectively.

How much is enough? That’s so often the central question for those considering investments in our national defense. Along with secondary questions of nearly equal importance, such as, should we invest in this particular defense program? Or that one instead?

“Undergrounding is one of our key mitigations to make a safe and reliable electrical system, and it’s a very important permanent risk reduction measure for us.”

“Advanced conductors make it possible to deploy big upgrades within existing rights of way, even reusing existing towers for reconductoring projects that can be accomplished with relative lightning speed and for lower total costs that make ratepayers, consumer advocates, and public utility commissions happy.”

“The depth of the canyon in PJM is projected to be around seventy gigawatts in 2035. Which is equal to the total peak load of New England. And the average hourly ramp rate is projected to be over ten gigawatts per hour.”

“VEIR is building a new generation of high-capacity transmission lines that can go over long distances, giving five to ten times more power in the same right-of-way space used with a conventional conductor.”

“The average wait for renewable farms, such as solar or wind farms to connect to the grid is 3.5 years. We can instantly change that just by swapping out the old conductors one-for-one with the TS conductor, as you can easily double, triple the capacity in the grid.”