Keep grid modernization a national priority

By Peggy Welsh, Energetics Inc.

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As the possibility of national climate change legislation increases on Capitol Hill and captures the attention of the electric power community, I am concerned that regulators, legislators, and utility executives will forget the urgency of modernizing the U.S. electricity delivery infrastructure. On the surface, the issues of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and upgrading and expanding transmission grids seem to have nothing in common. That is certainly not the case.

Electricity planners are now deciding where, how much, and what kind of new capacity to build to meet future demand. More of that new capacity—wind farms, solar power arrays, and clean-coal facilities—will emit a lot less CO₂ than power plants of the past. New transmission lines also will be needed to bring the output of those new plants to market because all three technologies work best in remote areas, far from load centers.

Current debate

I recently had the privilege of managing the 2007 National Electricity Delivery Forum. Attendees included CEOs and senior executives from government, industry, trade associations, and academia. What I found most interesting about public and private conversations at the forum was the overwhelming consensus that electricity delivery infrastructure must be built now, regardless of political industry drivers—such as the possibility of mandatory carbon caps.

For most forum attendees, the question was no longer whether new infrastructure is needed, but rather how to expand and strengthen the existing nationwide system to make it better able to serve growing U.S. demand. I was glad to note this sea change, and I hope that the enthusiasm for investment in transmission will not be overshadowed by calls for action on climate change.

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