Electricity Today T&D Magazine

To support decarbonization mandates in the U.S., many utilities and transco's have proposed new transmission lines to link load centers with new renewable generation assets and move power from one region to another over vast distances. While the U.S. government continues to struggle to find ways to streamline the interstate permitting process, many U.S. utilities are busy increasing the capacity and efficiency of existing transmission and sub-transmission lines using advanced conductors.
With a near term mandate to decrease carbon emissions by 57% from 2019 levels by 2030 – less than eight years from now – utilities are scrambling. The U.S. DOE projects that the grid will need to accommodate 60% more capacity by 2030 and as much as 300% more capacity by 2050. These challenges are not insignificant, and many transmission planners, engineers and policy makers are realizing that we can no longer use dated / legacy technology to accomplish...