Power gridlock in every direction
The U.S. electric grid is outdated and fragmented — that’s a problem.
Imagine a system of water pipes. The circumference and length of the pipes determine how much water can flow through them at once, and how quickly. A power grid is like that, but instead of moving water from a reservoir, wires of different sizes are moving electrons from power plants to consumers of electricity. The U.S. electricity transmission grid is akin to the biggest water pipes: it moves electricity over thousands of miles, quickly, at a very high voltage.
Interestingly, the transmission grid isn’t just one connected network of power lines, but a patchwork of regional electricity markets. Ideally, this patchwork would function like one giant organism, seamlessly transferring power between regions depending on where it’s generated and where it’s needed. The more electricity we are able to transfer between regions, the more we can lower costs and increase reliability. We call this the interregional transmission of electricity.
Interregional transmission not only strengthens the grid and brings down costs—it’s also absolutely essential for big, utility-scale renewable energy projects to operate efficiently. Wind energy isn’t distributed equally across the entire country, and solar energy is only generated during daylight hours. This kind of variability means that often we produce more wind or solar than a region of consumers demand, and other times we produce less than they demand.
Batteries and other forms of energy storage help offset this effect. But they haven’t scaled to the degree they would need to if a large percentage of U.S. electricity is going to be powered by renewables. With better interregional transmission, we could efficiently send solar power from Arizona over to Arkansas, where demand peaks first due to its earlier time zone. This would reduce the need for Arkansas to turn on its polluting “peaker” plants, the natural gas plants designed to help meet high demand.
Enter electrification. ⚡️
We don’t just need to move electricity more frequently and efficiently among regions; we need total grid capacity to go up. That means more power lines, more transformers, and more sources of generation connected to the grid. We love decarbonization, but it’s a huge contributor to increased electricity load. Why? Electrifying buildings, transportation, and some industrial processes that previously relied directly on fossil fuels means relying more on electricity. Americans will be plugging in a lot more, which is essential for the planet but makes current grid operators break out into a sweat.
Here’s a frustrating fact: there is already more clean energy waiting to connect to the U.S. power grid than the total generation capacity of existing power plants, but it’s stuck in interconnection queues. Some of that bottleneck is due to regulatory burden and public pushback, but the truth is that the current grid simply cannot handle most of the excess power generation.
So what can we do about it?
A few things.
Congress—who, last time we checked, works for us—can pass laws that help build more transmission infrastructure, faster. Those reforms can put new requirements on grid operators, forcing them to improve their ability to transmit electricity between regions.
State utility regulators, or public utilities commissions, can incentivize utility companies to move electricity more efficiently by setting new performance standards and rewards for hitting transmission goals.
And state legislators can cheer on state regulators on our behalf, because—surprise!—our reps also work for us.
Get in on the action.
Urge policymakers to make it easier to build new transmission lines and improve existing grid efficiency. It’s a powerful, important policy ask and your voice will have an outsized impact because this is a topic where the public rarely weighs in. Climate Changemakers makes this simple! If you carve out the time (an hour or less!) we’ll equip you to use that time productively. Two options: show up to any Hour of Action event (on Zoom or IRL) where the facilitator will have everything you need to accomplish one meaningful action within the hour. Get it done then get on with your week! 2) Can’t add another meeting your calendar? All good. The step-by-step resources are all online, and all free, all the time. Start on the 5-step Action Plan here!
Featured photo by Fré Sonneveld on Unsplash