SOLAR TODAY - May 2009

SOLAR TODAY
MAY 2009
VOL. 23, No. 4

Building the 21st-century grid needed to increase
efficiency, security and renewable energy supply will
require new regulatory tools and policy approaches.

By BRACKEN HENDRICKS

transformation of our outmoded electricity infrastructure around the platforms of efficiency, security, reliability and reduced carbon emissions will boost U.S. innovation and job creation in coming decades.

efficiency of the entire electricity system.
The grid has suffered from systematic
underinvestment in recent decades. Demand
has outpaced investment, and congestion
on the grid has grown. One study found
that transmission congestion
costs consumers in the eastern
United States $16.5 billion per
year in higher electricity prices
alone. A stronger power grid
also will be more reliable, reduc-
ing the staggering cost of power
outages for U.S. consumers and
businesses. The 2003 blackout in
the Northeast and Canada, for
example, caused an estimated
$7 billion to $10 billion in eco-
nomic losses. A more intercon-
nected grid is vitally important to
national security, as well, provid-
ing redundancy in the event of a
failure in any location.

At the core of our response to these challenges is the realiza-tion that the policy and regulatory structure for managing electricity transmission and distribution is not designed to meet the demands of a changing society. To take rapid and meaningful action will require not only new investment, but also more thoughtful regulatory tools and policy approaches to leverage the potential for large-scale investment into a robust 21st-century grid infrastructure that is resilient, sustainable, efficient and affordable to consumers.

Bracken Hendricks is a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, where he works on green jobs and building a low-carbon economy.

Hendricks is co-author with Congressman Jay

Inslee (Wash.) of the book, Apollo’s Fire: Igniting America’s Clean Energy Economy ( apollosfire.net).

He was co-founder of the Apollo Alliance and has served as an advisor to the Obama administration and special assistant to the Office of Vice President Al Gore. This article is adapted from his February report, “Wired for Progress: Building a National Clean-Energy Smart Grid.” Download the full report at americanprogress.org/ issues/2009/02/pdf/electricity_grid.pdf.

GRIDPOINT

If we want consumers to make smart choices about how they produce and use electricity, then they will need access to real-time information on the true costs and impacts of their energy choices. That will require deploying “smart meters” or other technology.

If a primary national goal
is to increase the use of
renewable energy to 25

This task will be daunting. As presently configured, the U.S. electric transmission and distribution system faces three major hurdles. First, the high-voltage transmission grid imposes important constraints on the deployment of renewable energy because it simply does not go where many of these resources will be developed. Second, congestion and bottlenecks hurt the reliability of the grid overall, particularly where it is needed to move large volumes of Building a Renewable new power from remote generation to major Electricity “Pipeline” loads. Third, the monitoring and control tech- Central to this effort is a keen understanding nology on both transmission and distribution of the renewable energy “pipeline” of products networks is weak. The lack of smart technology and services that a national smart grid will to provide utilities and consumers with better enable. Let’s look at what this new pipeline will information in real time hurts the security and look like, from source to point of use.