21 states are joining the Biden administration to modernize the nation’s aging power grid. • Kentucky Lantern

Twenty-one states, including Kentucky, are joining the Biden administration’s effort to modernize the aging U.S. power grid, which is under pressure from rising demand, a changing power generation mix that includes large amounts of wind and solar power and severe weather .

The administration, which has set a goal of creating a zero-emission power sector by 2035, announced Tuesday that states have joined the so-called “Federal-State Initiative to Deploy a Modern Grid,” which is intended to “help rapidly adapt the grid and cost-effectively, to meet the challenges and opportunities facing the energy sector.”

In return for opportunities for federal technical and financial assistance, participating states will “prioritize efforts to support the adoption of modern grid solutions to increase grid capacity and build modern grid capabilities on both new and existing transmission and distribution lines.”

That means, in part, focusing on ways to make better use of existing transmission lines, since building new ones could take a decade or longer in some cases.

“There are technologies we can use to optimize current infrastructure,” said Verna Mandez, director of transmission at Advanced Energy United, a clean energy trade group.

These include rebuilding existing lines to handle more sap, as well as so-called grid improvement technologies, a set of tools that include sensors, power flow controls, software and hardware that can better deliver real-time weather data, among others.

In many cases, these technologies have been adopted in other countries, but their use has lagged in this country, in part because utilities are not incentivized to use them and generally do not suffer the consequences of grid congestion that costs electricity consumers billions. dollars every year.

“Most transmission utilities make more money building transmission projects,” Mandez said.

The White House said in a news note that adopting newer technologies “means that renewables and other clean energy sources can be integrated more quickly and cheaper than waiting to build a new transmission that will solve load growth problems more quickly, create good paying jobs and lowering Americans’ utility bills.”

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has also, in several regulations, urged utilities and grid operators to consider greater use of technologies to improve grid operation.

Some states are taking action on their own. Virginia, which did not join the initiative announced Tuesday, passed a bill signed by GOP Gov. Glenn Youngkin that requires utilities to include grid-improvement technologies in their plans. Last year, Montana passed legislation to increase the use of advanced reconductor. The Minnesota Legislature also voted this month to add grid-improvement technologies to the state’s transmission planning process and required some utilities to evaluate utilities for high-traffic lines.

“More tools than ever”

Experts agree that to achieve a more reliable and cleaner electricity grid, and to meet growing electricity demand that is rising for the first time in more than a decade, the United States needs a lot of new transmission capacity.

Last year, the U.S. Department of Energy said almost all regions of the country would benefit from more transmission lines, and a National Renewable Energy Laboratory study estimated that achieving 100% carbon-free electricity by 2035 could require between 2,400 and 16 100 route miles of new high-capacity transmission lines per year, starting in 2026.

That’s why the Biden administration is pushing hard to clear roadblocks to new transmission lines that could take a decade or longer to develop in some cases, and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has released a landmark new rule on regional transmission planning and cost allocation. Last month, the administration also announced a public-private partnership to upgrade 160,000 miles of transmission lines over the next five years, and the Department of Energy has identified 10 potential “national interest” electricity transmission corridors that will help accelerate projects and provide developers with access to federal funding.

“The power sector, which is responsible for a quarter of annual U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, now has more tools than ever – including unprecedented financial support, effective permitting and long-term regulatory certainty – to reduce pollution and modernize the grid to support more factories, electric vehicles and other growing sources of electricity demand,” the White House said.

States joining the effort are Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Washington and Wisconsin.