As the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) ramps up clean energy efforts in the United States, the government has outlined a plan to expand transmission lines to accommodate more power.
As part of the White House’s Earth Week announcements, US President Joe Biden has announced plans to upgrade 100,000 miles of transmission lines over the next five years.
Funding is available through the Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnership (GRIP) program, which recently closed applications for up to $2.7 billion in grant funding from the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) in a second round. The plan is to fund projects that will upgrade and modernize the U.S. transmission and distribution system to increase reliability and resiliency to prepare the electric grid for extreme weather, while ensuring the delivery of affordable, clean electricity to all communities across the United States states to guarantee.
In October 2023, White House Infrastructure Implementation Coordinator Mitch Landrieu and Energy Secretary Jennifer M. Granholm announced $3.46 billion in the first round of GRIP funding. The money went to 58 projects in 44 states to strengthen the resiliency and reliability of the electric grid. Read more about the program and its recipients here.
Transmission upgrades include the deployment of modern network technologies such as high-performance conductors and dynamic line ratings that enable existing transmission lines to carry more power.
Recent research from the University of California, Berkeley and the consultancy firm GridLab have shown that large-scale reconduction can, for example, unlock renewable energy sources near existing transmission networks. The study projected that the optimal added transmission capacity by 2050, taking into account reconduction, would be approximately 110,000 GW miles with limited build-out, or approximately 210,000 GW miles with unrestricted build-out. The DoE has estimated that 54,500 GW miles of additional transmission capacity within the region are needed for a clean grid.
These efforts align with the clean energy movement as supported by the IRA and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
An example of a recently completed transmission infrastructure project is the Ten West Link transmission line, which will play a major role in transmitting electricity from the 25 GW of solar, wind and geothermal energy permitted on public lands by 2025. The line has started transporting electricity. and is expected to increase reliability and unlock more than 3.2 GW of capacity from solar projects.
US Vice President Kamala Harris attended the ceremony marking the start of construction of the transmission line and commented on its significance.
“America is at the beginning of a historic transition away from fossil fuel plants that pollute our communities and toward cleaner and safer energy sources. To create this clean energy future, we must build thousands of miles of new high-voltage transmission lines across our country, Harris said. “All of this also creates jobs – good-paying jobs, union jobs. Jobs for IBEW linemen who will build and repair these lines. Jobs for young people who want to start a career in clean energy and the clean energy economy. Jobs that will help our country finally tackle the climate crisis like the crisis it is.”
At its peak, construction of the transmission line will bring more than 350 jobs to the region, including more than 250 union construction jobs. As the Ten West Link enables new renewable energy and energy storage development in the fast-growing Desert Southwest region, it will bring the potential for countless additional jobs.
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