The cheapest way to supercharge America’s power grid
1 min read
Summary
The US requires a rapid increase in investment in its power grid and expansion of its network of wires connecting power plants to the grid in order to meet rising electricity demand.
The bottleneck to achieving this is securing permits for new transmission lines, which is expensive and time consuming.
Investment in advanced transmission technologies (ATTs) has the potential to resolve this bottleneck and bring online a significant portion of the 2,600 GW of backed-up energy awaiting connection to the grid.
The four main types of ATT are dynamic line ratings, high-performance conductors, topology optimization and advanced power flow control devices.
Dynamic line ratings increase transmission line capacity when conditions allow by safely combining local weather forecasts and measurements on or near the transmission line; high-performance conductors carry more electricity than traditional steel-core conductors through the use of carbon fibre, composite cores or superconducting materials; topology optimization uses software to model fluctuating grid conditions and identify the most efficient routes; and advanced power flow control devices redistribute electricity to lines with available capacity.