The US power grid is not ready for the future. For starters, there is no national grid. Instead, the western, eastern and Texas grids operate largely independent of one another. The system is diffuse, often absent or lacking where it is needed most, and showing its age. The US Department of Energy (DOE) says 70% of the US’s transmission lines and power transformers are more than 25 years old.
The Biden administration is aware of these failings. “We know that supporting our increasing demand while meeting our clean energy goals will require expanding the existing grid,” says Michelle Manary, acting deputy assistant secretary at DOE’s Office of Electricity. Manary is the point person for the administration’s Building a Better Grid Initiative.
This is a fraught and protracted undertaking. It can take ten years – or longer – to complete new transmission lines in the US. In conversation with Energy Monitor, Manary describes how the Biden administration, backed by new funding from Congress, plans to make it easier to upgrade and expand the US power grid.
You joined DOE from the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA). The BPA has integrated more than 5,000MW of wind energy into its system. Can DOE learn from that example as it looks to add more renewables to the grid and expand transmission nationwide?
I spent nearly two-and-a-half decades at BPA and learned a lot of valuable lessons. I saw the benefits of expanding grid capacity with a forward-looking planning approach. BPA built several 500-kilovolt (kV) wind hubs as well as several 500kV lines and transmission reinforcements to integrate wind into its system.
Because wind is a variable resource, balancing is an operational challenge. Having dispatchable, flexible resources such as hydropower is an important part of reliably integrating wind. BPA’s oversupply management protocol was an important operational procedure developed to address the variability of wind and balance it with the need to operate the [Columbia] River for other interests like fish passage, flood control, irrigation, recreation and navigation. Voltage control is another challenge. BPA developed innovative voltage control schemes to maintain reliability while integrating a large amount of wind.
Synchrophasors help identify both system-wide as well as individual wind plant issues. BPA’s advanced network of synchrophasors has played a critical role in identifying and addressing the operational challenges of integrating a large amount of wind. We developed control room applications and operating procedures to use the visibility provided by synchrophasors to improve grid reliability.
Is upgrading or modernising ageing lines as much of a priority as building new transmission capacity?
We must focus on the existing grid while we plan for new lines. The first priority, however, is getting the most out of our existing grid through new technology, better operational visibility and communications equipment. We’re focusing on a shift from static line ratings to dynamic line ratings, from static networks to dynamic topology optimisation, and from passive equipment to advanced power electronics.
We’re looking into improved software and modelling solutions. We want to maximise the capacity of existing transmission lines and lean on our existing rights-of-way to limit any community impacts. We want to leverage reconductoring [installing new conductor wires on existing towers to boost the capacity of a transmission line] as much as possible, build new towers if we need to. We’ll need to provide demonstration projects to increase utility confidence and enhance workforce development to support the technologies moving forward.
How will DOE decide…
Read More: Here is Joe Biden’s plan to build a 21st-century power grid