Recent extreme weather events have made it clear that America’s existing energy infrastructure is not prepared to endure the continuing impacts of snow, heat, ice, or hurricanes resulting from climate change.
January 12, 2024
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Extreme weather events like the storm systems that hit this week and lead to huge snowfalls in some areas, catastrophic winds in Florida and the Southeast, torrential rain/flooding elsewhere have made it clear that America’s existing energy infrastructure is not prepared to endure the continuing impacts of snow, heat, ice, or hurricanes resulting from climate change. Aging technology and systems are being challenged by more frequent and more intense events alongside changing grid demands. Solar and wind farms stand ready to support the grid with clean power, but interconnection queue waiting times continue to increase as the availability of renewable electricity accelerates faster than ever.
Investing in our critical electric infrastructure can ensure we have the transmission necessary to unlock a clean energy future and maintain reliable and affordable access to electricity where it is needed most. It can help us more fully leverage renewable energy and storage projects, while improving resiliency and lowering costs for households and businesses. But a successful 21st century transmission system requires deliberate planning— and a new and different approach.
On January 12, 2022, the Department of Energy (DOE) launched the Building a Better Grid Initiative to catalyze the nationwide development of new and upgraded transmission lines and support investments to expand and modernize the transmission system to create a more resilient and flexible electric grid. The initiative, enabled by President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) and Inflation Reduction Action (IRA), brings together state and Federal government agencies, industry, academia, communities, and tribal entities to identify national transmission needs and support the buildout of transmission systems that are critical to reaching President Biden’s goal of 100% clean electricity by 2035 and a zero-emissions economy by 2050.
Two years into this initiative, the Grid Deployment Office is leveraging the historic investments from BIL and IRA through a multi-faceted approach—using many tools in the toolbox—to improve and expand national transmission infrastructure. Here’s what that looks like.
Ensuring Collaborative Planning
GDO is committed to deploying a grid that is fair and equitable and supports all Americans, with a special emphasis on disadvantaged communities and those most severely and most often impacted by power outages. Many of our activities, like our National Transmission Needs Study, are focused on identifying the highest priority national transmission needs and ensuring those are the areas focused on first. This may mean building new transmission lines, or it may mean hardening the grid that’s already there. (Spoiler alert: A modern grid involves both.) These planning efforts are rooted in engagement. By collaborating with communities early and often, we can make sure electricity is getting to where it is urgently needed.
Improving Siting and Permitting
Siting and permitting transmission lines can sometimes take up to 10 years and involve many different federal agencies, as well as states agencies, and local governments. GDO’s siting and permitting efforts, specifically the Coordinated Interagency Transmission Authorizations and Permits (CITAP) Program, are focused on streamlining federal transmission permitting processes to reduce this timeline to under two years. This means faster deployment of critically needed transmission lines.
Across its work to build a better grid, GDO strives to make the U.S. power grid more resilient to the impacts of climate change, increase access to affordable and reliable clean energy, and make a difference to consumers in daily life. It means reducing outages in total and working to ensure that when they happen, they are closer to five minutes and less likely to be a life-threatening five hours or five days. It means ensuring communities and businesses can cool their spaces in intense summer heat or heat them during chilling cold spells. It means that when you flip the switch, the light goes on and stays on as long as you need it.
Two years in, we have made a lot of progress, and this year promises increased momentum and even more impact.
To stay on top of our efforts to Build a Better Grid, sign up for GDO’s transmission mailing list and receive updates as they happen all year long.