If you’ve been following energy news throughout the past year, it’s likely you’ve seen headlines about unprecedented, surging electricity load growth. If all the prognosticators are correct and the era of flat load growth is well and truly over, we need to ensure the electric grid is capable of meeting the demands of our 21^st-century, electricity-dependent economy with modern tools. The challenge is clear, yet many of the most advanced grid solutions for reliably integrating affordable new generation are stuck on the sidelines.

Grid-enhancing technologies (GETs) and advanced conductors, together referred to as alternative transmission technologies (ATTs), offer near-term opportunities to expand grid capacity at a bargain compared with other options (see Exhibit 1). The track record from a growing number of pilot projects shows ATTs are proving their value to an aging grid by expanding transmission capacity and mitigating costly congestion.

Exhibit 1

Given the lengthy development timelines for new long-range transmission projects, one might assume that these fast and affordable solutions would be in high demand; however, significant hurdles remain to scaling these cost-effective solutions. Two barriers to deploying at scale include fully integrating ATTs into relevant grid planning processes and fostering coordination between utilities to support larger deployments. Companies with near-term energy needs to power their growing footprints can play an important role in surmounting these challenges.

Successful pilots indicate ATTs are ready for prime time

A wave of GETs pilots have been deployed across the United States in recent years. Dozens of GETs projects have been installed in at least half of US states, yielding increased grid capacity and increased reliability while providing value for ratepayers. Large-scale dynamic line rating (DLR) pilot projects across the Midwest have unlocked 40 percent more capacity on existing transmission lines during the winter months. Notable projects include 52 sensors installed in Great River Energy’s service territory across Minnesota and Wisconsin and 42 sensors added on AES lines in Ohio and Indiana. Advanced power flow control (APFC) pilot projects have shown similar success: an APFC deployment in upstate New York freed up 185 MW of grid capacity, enough to enable congestion-limited, lower-cost resources to serve an additional 130,000 homes, bringing down costs for all ratepayers.

Meanwhile, advanced conductors have been utilized in small-scale deployments in the United States for more than 20 years. One of the larger deployments occurred in 2015 when AEP utilized ACCC conductors to double capacity on 240 miles of transmission lines. The project was estimated to reduce line losses by 30 percent while keeping the lines energized, eliminating any potential service disruptions.

These recent successes would suggest a case for wider adoption across a range of utilities and regions, but ATT uptake continues to lag despite the evident promise. Ensuring their deployment lives up to the potential is critical for meeting today’s rapidly rising demand for electricity while ensuring affordable rates for customers.

Challenges to scaled deployments are stifling the potential of ATTs

The barriers to ATT adoption are well documented, including grid operators’ risk aversion and utilities’ financial disincentives. While ATTs have established track records both in the United States and internationally, many utilities, regulators, and grid operators still lack experience with these tools, and are thus reluctant to implement them. Even for utilities that have worked through these initial hurdles, ongoing challenges are preventing widespread ATT deployment beyond initial pilots.

The RMI team held a series of conversations with leading utilities that piloted ATTs recently to better understand the barriers to scale. These utilities overcame the initial roadblocks and several of them are considered leaders on ATT adoption. From those conversations, the RMI team identified two additional issues blocking further deployments and benefits: utilizing ATTs primarily to reduce operational risks and not to increase capacity for planning purposes, and lack of cross-utility coordination for jointly owned transmission corridors.

The full value of ATT investment is lost if ATTs aren’t incorporated into the relevant planning processes. Utilities that deployed initial ATT pilots often reflected the value of solutions like DLR in operations. They highlighted DLR’s ability to unbottle constraints, reduce curtailment, and enhance reliability. The primary purpose of their ATT deployment was to enhance operations rather than to increase transmission capacity and meet load growth challenges. Bringing these technologies into the planning paradigm is a critical next step for the industry to take to save ratepayers money and help meet today’s transmission challenges. Only by proactive planning can the full set of potential ATTs use cases and benefits be adequately understood, compared to alternatives, and pursued at a systems level.

Additionally, without robust cross-utility coordination, the industry won’t have the ability to maximize some potential benefits of ATT investments. The transmission system is characterized by patchwork ownership, challenging larger deployments. With DLR for instance, the efficiency gain of an installation might be artificially limited if a line crosses into another utility territory that maintains its static rating. Similarly, with APFCs it is much easier to divert power around congestion if utilities are coordinated with neighboring territories where there might be less congestion. Currently, the advanced capabilities of ATTs are limited to the infrastructure within a single service territory, which lowers the potential benefits of the investment.

Exhibit 2:

At times power must go through less congesting lines in a neighboring territory to divert around congestion

Exhibit 3:

The capacity gain from installing dynamic line ratings could still be limited by a neighboring utility’s rating of the same line. If service area #1 has a 40 percent increase in the thermal rating and the line goes through another service area, the full benefits of DLR are only realized if the other service area also increases their line rating.

Two solutions for corporate buyers

While large energy users may be seen as contributing to the challenges around load growth by driving significant new demand on the system, they can also help facilitate solutions. These large load customers are powerful stakeholders in the electricity sector, and can act as proponents of scaling ATTs through stakeholder engagement and policy advocacy as well as facilitating utility collaboration.

Policy action on ATTs can include engagements at the federal, state, utility, and regional transmission organization (RTO) level. The goal of this approach could include persuading more states to require the evaluation of ATTs in transmission planning and integrated resource planning (IRP) proceedings, to ensure ATTs are fully considered. Last year, Minnesota and California passed legislation that will accelerate ATT adoption by requiring their consideration in certain contexts. In addition, companies can engage in utility or RTO proceedings to urge grid operators to utilize ATTs in their planning processes. For example, last year several companies including Akamai and HASI provided comments to the North Carolina Utilities Commission recommending the use of ATTs.  In September, the large load customer settlement with Indiana Michigan Power included a requirement to study GETs and incorporate the results into the next IRP process. Lastly, companies can play a role by engaging state legislators and governor’s offices on the benefits of ATT policy and regulation for affordable, reliable electricity and to meet state economic and emissions goals.

Companies, especially large energy users, are in a unique position to help address the challenge of cross-utility coordination. Few other entities have the breadth of influence to engage utilities across service territories and jurisdictions. Partnerships are challenging, and currently there are few drivers, if any, for multiple utilities to collaborate on an ATTs project. A vocal customer or group of customers could help catalyze this novel collaboration. When organizations have many competing priorities, powerful external partners can be a driving force for the necessary collaboration to implement solutions that prioritize affordability, reliability, and timely interconnection of new load or generation.

Don’t ignore the low-hanging fruit

In an era when all kinds of transmission solutions are needed, it can be easy to deprioritize smaller, near-term solutions to the challenges the grid is facing. But this would do the American companies and households who depend on affordable energy a great disservice. Energy customers can work to ensure their utilities realize the potential of ATT deployments and the benefits they could unlock by supporting effective policy drivers and convening necessary cross-service territory collaborations. Getting the most out of the grid we’ve got and effectively responding to load growth requires active stakeholder participation to ensure that affordable, shovel-ready solutions are prioritized going forward.