The White House launched the Federal-State Modern Grid Deployment Initiative today in an effort to bring together states, Federal agencies, and power sector stakeholders to strengthen the U.S. electric grid.
The initiative has initial commitments from 21 states, which will support the adoption of modern grid solutions to expand capacity of the electric grid.
“Historically, expanding the capacity of the U.S. power grid has typically relied on building new transmission lines with technologies that have not changed since the mid-twentieth century,” according to a White House fact sheet on the initiative.
“Today, a new generation of modern grid technologies provides a significant opportunity to achieve power system capacity expansion, including through high-performance conductors that have the benefit of being able to carry double or more of the amount of power of conventional transmission wires, as well as grid enhancing technologies that maximize electricity transmission across the existing system through a family of technologies that includes sensors, power flow control devices, and analytical tools,” the fact sheet says.
The electric grid is essentially comprised of generators that supply the power, the transmission system that carries the power from the generating centers to the load centers, and the distribution system that delivers the electricity to consumers.
The Federal-State Modern Grid Deployment Initiative is focused on accelerating improvements to the electric transmission and distribution network. Modern grid technologies can be useful to both new and existing transmission and distribution projects.
For instance, modern grid technologies – such as high-performance conductors and grid-enhancing technologies – can help get new generation and loads interconnected faster and with less disruption.
The White House said they can also help existing infrastructure by significantly reducing deployment costs, permitting times, and build times.
As part of today’s announcement, the U.S. Climate Alliance announced it will offer policy, technical, and analytical assistance to the initiative’s participating members. The Department of Energy will also elevate its technical assistance programs to provide additional support for participants.
As for the 21 participating states, they will focus on deploying innovative grid technologies, maximizing existing transmission infrastructure, and increasing grid resilience.
Additionally, the states will focus on “meeting the shared challenges and opportunities of increased load growth, a rapidly changing energy landscape, aging infrastructure, and new grid-enhancing technologies – while delivering reliable, clean, and affordable energy to consumers,” the fact sheet says.
The Biden-Harris administration said it is bringing together stakeholders from across the country – including governors, regulators, and industry – at the White House today to discuss innovative policy solutions to support modern grid technologies.
“Fundamentally, the Biden-Harris administration recognizes that more modern, more dynamic approaches to power system management are needed to keep pace with the scale of changes happening across the country,” a document on the initiative says. “The initiative reaffirms President Biden’s commitment to ensuring the United States has the electric grid it needs to continue outperforming other countries and to help local communities thrive.”
