Building a Better Grid Infrastructure Upgrades Require Ingenuity, Innovation, and Investment
Firm capacity refers to the extent to which the estimated capacity increase can be considered reliably available across operating conditions. https://ativanx.com/2023/10/26/homegrid-forum-congratulates-member-oledcomm-on-the-first-lifi-g-hn-launch-into-space/ These mechanisms help ensure that scarce capacity is allocated efficiently, prioritising the highest‑value and most deliverable projects while reallocating capacity from projects unlikely to proceed. This is especially relevant, as grids are built to serve peak demand, but often have substantial unused capacity during non‑peak periods. At the same time, prices for key grid components have nearly doubled over the past five years.
Overall, this conversation should be less about ‘private companies taking over management’ of infrastructure such as T&D, and more about how the government, utilities, and the private sector can work together toward shared ends.” In these cases, while the operation and maintenance of the assets are carried out by the utility owner, the system operation is managed by a discrete organization, which could be owned by a private investor.” As we grow the grid networks, it is important that upgrades are carefully considered to ensure that the solutions are sufficiently future-proofed while mitigating the cost impact for the end consumer.” “While utilities may pass some costs to customers, the rise of private infrastructure investment in T&D can provide capital and accelerate project completion. Department of Energy (DOE) detailed what the U.S. power grid needs to support increased electricity demand over the next few years. Andrews told POWER, “The most critical upgrades are needed to transmission lines, substations, transformers and switchgears, monitoring components, and energy storage capacity.
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- It is impossible to get straight answers from the bodies overseeing the massive spending programme, which may continue at an even greater scale into the 2030s.
- Together, these efforts will make over 23 gigawatts of additional electricity capacity available.
- Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) also are impacting grid operations, and offer their own upgrades for electricity T&D.
Dynamic line rating (DLR) enables utilities to unlock up to 40% additional capacity from existing http://green-dom.info/page/48/?p-2917 infrastructure, allowing grid operators to rapidly increase energy throughput. This will also support overall grid reliability to reduce voltage fluctuations, brownouts, and blackouts.” “Addressing the challenges of aging infrastructure is critical and requires a combination of technological innovation, policy support, investment in infrastructure upgrades, and collaboration among stakeholders in the energy sector.
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Upgrades to the nation’s electricity grid are necessary to accommodate increasing amounts of renewable energy generation but need to accelerate to avoid rising costs being passed on to consumers, a new report from the NAO finds. These trends are new and have increased the percentage of overall grid investments related to the load interconnection process. Large load interconnections increasingly require material or transformational transmission investments rather than incremental upgrades, underscoring the need for different planning processes that consider long-term, system-wide impacts. In Virginia, a 111 MW load required a material substation upgrade costing $28 million, while a smaller 77 MW project triggered a transformational upgrade — including two high-voltage substations and new transmission lines — costing $140 million. These projects must enhance the efficiency, reliability, and operational flexibility of the electric grid through smart grid technologies that enable real-time monitoring, control, and optimization of grid assets. These projects must expand the transfer capacity of existing transmission or sub-transmission, improve system flexibility, and reduce the likelihood and consequences of disruptive events.
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We must establish a valuation framework and operating model for these resources to ensure they are integrated effectively into the energy market. “To realize the automation and control required for grid autonomy, there is a need to digitize the entire network by installing as many sensors as possible—at the edge, in the substation, and along the lines. And then, of course, when you put a new transformer onto the network, all the equipment that goes around it needs to be upgraded, too. Through a combination of monitoring and modeling, software can also accurately predict when and where the most critical physical upgrades will be needed.” That would be too costly, and the current supply chain wouldn’t be able to support it.” The second program will feature United Illuminating, a subsidiary of Avangrid operating in Connecticut, deploying a pilot program that includes Tantalus’ TRUSense Gateway and TRUSync solution.
- We’re talking about the capital to get new infrastructure built, who owns it once it’s built, and who manages and operates it and keeps it in good working order.
- These sensors need to be connected via a fast, deterministic, and reliable communication infrastructure to computing technology that can run sophisticated automation algorithms and AI/ML technology to maintain reliability and resilience of the grid when disruptions occur,” said Cosoreanu.
- A similar pattern is observed in MISO, the operator of the grid across 15 US states in the Midwest and South, where load interconnection accounted for nearly 30% of transmission spending in 2025.
- “The overarching problem is that instrumenting and managing a dynamic distribution grid requires secure, reliable, and abundant communications, but at a scale 10 times that of transmission,” or roughly 6 million miles, said Caruso.
- Project recipients are expected to reconductor or rebuild more than 1,500 miles of transmission lines and deploy Grid-Enhancing Technologies (GETs) across nearly 21,000 miles.
The political danger for the government is that, sometime around 2028, the delays and cost inflation will become impossible to ignore. Or it should take up the excellent idea from EDF, one of the big generators and retail suppliers, for “a live, publicly accessible tracker” to “radically increase transparency on cost and ongoing construction progress” and allow a strategic review. Ofgem should publish medium-term forecasts for electricity bills, as this column has regularly argued, because the “network costs” element – what we’re talking about in this context – is capable of being forecast.
Caruso said one technology solution could be Gridmetrics’ Power Event Notification System (PENS). An immediate need is to provide high-fidelity, time-synchronized visibility of the distribution grid behaviors to transmission.” Lack of visibility results in lack of granularity and speed of control, which in turn results in significant impact when events happen.” The challenge is exacerbated by the fact that there is not enough visibility into the grid to ensure the right control and automation is in place to keep it running uninterrupted. “On the supply side, the rise of distributed and renewable energy sources, which are variable and intermittent by nature, has introduced an element of uncertainty. On the demand side, rapid electrification is increasingly straining an already aging grid that was never built to withstand modern energy demands,” said Sean Moser, senior vice president of Digital Product Management for GE Vernova’s Grid Software business.
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These sensors need to be connected via a fast, deterministic, and reliable communication infrastructure to computing technology that can run sophisticated automation algorithms and AI/ML technology to maintain reliability and resilience of the grid when disruptions occur,” said Cosoreanu. “Transformers are probably at the top of that list of important equipment, which is why we’re seeing increased demand and supply shortages. “We continue to witness an increasing number of utilities that are harnessing the power of data to accelerate their grid modernization efforts. Officials said as much as $1 billion could be invested through the program, which would allow PG&E to accelerate work on its electric system to improve safety, reliability, capacity, and infrastructure health, the groups said. “The overarching problem is that instrumenting and managing a dynamic distribution grid requires secure, reliable, and abundant communications, but at a scale 10 times that of transmission,” or roughly 6 million miles, said Caruso. “While transmission and distribution networks could be managed independently of one another in the past, the changes in distribution are now impacting transmission, and to ensure availability, reliability, and resiliency, the networks must be interoperable,” said Moser.
There has been growth in both the number of load interconnection requests and the scale of the https://www.daegu2011.org/author/daegu2011/page/3/ network upgrades they trigger. When large loads, such as data centers, want to connect to the electric grid, the grid operator must evaluate the impact the new load will have on the transmission system and determine if upgrades will be necessary to ensure system reliability. DOE prioritized projects that could be implemented quickly to deliver durable physical upgrades and dynamic operation gains that together increase the value, performance, security, resilience, affordability, and reliability of the nation’s electric grid. “There is a layer of cybersecurity technology that needs to be added across the network to ensure that system safety and security is not impacted while we realize the grid of the future.”
Energy Technology Perspectives 2026
Third, using large load interconnection to build material and transformational transmission infrastructure also risks allocating costs unfairly. Given the piecemeal nature of the interconnection process, the best option for streamlined regulatory oversight is to focus on grid investment through system-wide planning, not network upgrades. However, with the substantial portion of total transmission investment that large load interconnection is driving today, regulatory oversight must be included to protect ratepayers. Second, the large load interconnection proceeds through local transmission planning processes that do not include significant regulatory oversight. Load interconnection was never intended as a way to plan transformational upgrades that fundamentally change power flows across the regional grid or influence regional grid planning. Load-related investment (incremental, material, and transformational) is a growing share of total transmission in recent years for both PJM and MISO.
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The technology leverages distributed acoustic sensing; it facilitated real-time monitoring of a transmission line in the rugged terrain of the Catskill Mountains over 24 months. Prisma Photonics collaborated with the New York Power Authority (NYPA) to elevate T&D systems through the company’s PrismaPower Hyper-Scan technology. “This capability allows us to effectively monitor power lines and pipelines over extensive distances, ensuring smooth and safe operations.” Each territory and client has distinct priorities, whether it’s resilience, addressing capacity shortages, or combating vandalism. We can achieve the same capacity expansion end results for far less cost by instead upgrading existing rights-of-way through reconductoring projects where possible,” said Huang.
