How do you double or triple your existing power transmission capacity when costs are rising and you face local opposition to the disruption? Zach Winn at MIT describes a new innovation that uses superconductors designed to transport five to 10 times the amount of power of conventional transmission lines, using essentially the same footprint and voltage level, carried on otherwise standard overhead lines. The superconducting cables (with much of … [Read more...]
The U.S. needs a plan to transfer electricity long distance between regions, like Europe and China
In the U.S. several hundred thousand miles of power lines connect thousands of electric generators. But whereas Europe and China, at a similar scale, have continental-scale grid development plans, the U.S. does not. Its grid is highly fragmented and consists of not one, but three separate power grids that are almost completely isolated from one another. It has twelve different transmission planning regions that must coordinate much better to cope … [Read more...]
U.S. FERC proposal for grid planning has serious flaws around benefits and beneficiaries
The U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is in the midst of a key rulemaking on planning and building an electric grid. But the plan has serious flaws, says Mike Jacobs at UCS, rooted in the lack of coordination and control at the federal level. FERC wants the states to work with the utilities to define the sharing of benefits and costs from transmission, describe resource areas (like wind, solar, geothermal) where transmission is … [Read more...]
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