A New Era of Transmission Expansion Begins: Supporting the IRA-Accelerated Energy Transition
The IRA promises to turbo-boost the clean energy transition, creating a staggering need - and opportunity - for new transmission development and investment. Multiple studies suggest that the U.S. high-voltage transmission system needs to increase its annual growth rate to 250% of the rate over the last decade in order to meet the Inflation Reduction Act's greenhouse gas emissions reduction potential let alone tackle the challenges of growing demand from electric vehicles, heat pumps, and other electrification. Grid operators must also streamline processes to interconnect the new renewable resources joining queues at an unprecedented pace. This suggests the need for a total projected increase of 91,000 miles of new transmission lines in the U.S. within the next 13 years in comparison with the 193 miles of 230-kV and larger transmission lines that started operating last year.
While the transmission asset market is poised for epochal growth, many challenges remain given long transmission project and approval times, in incorporating advanced technologies to existing networks, and in utilizing new approaches to interconnecting renewable projects far more rapidly to the grid. Only those understanding how these massive changes will play out will be able to position themselves to profit optimally under this new regime, whether as a transmission investor or power system stakeholder.
Transmission & Interconnection Summit 2023 will bring together the leading policymakers, senior executives and leading experts working to reimagine interconnection and transmission planning processes to meet the needs of the clean energy transition. They will address the potential solutions to generation interconnection procedure reforms, optimizing planning processes and more holistically allocating costs based on benefits yielded for both system loads and new generation, including:
- Will establishing processes to identify geographic zones having the potential for large amounts of renewable generation development, and plan transmission to facilitate the integration of these resources, accelerate the massive needed transmission buildout?
- Are reforms needed to improve the coordination between the regional transmission planning and cost allocation and generator interconnection processes?
- What impacts are cluster studies and multi-benefit planning having on identifying and justifying tens of billions of dollars in transmission to enhance reliability, enable the addition of vast amounts of clean energy assets, and reduce congestion and fuel costs
- What are the most effective ways to incorporate extreme weather resilience, offshore wind, grid-enhancing technologies and battery storage in transmission planning and operations?
Attend Transmission & Interconnection Summit 2023 after over 20 years still the only event focusing on the business and business environment of transmission asset investment and development and get the answers you need to fully participate in the remarkable investment opportunities of the new era. Review our carefully researched agenda and remarkable faculty and reserve your place today!
