NE governors push feds on grid modernization

By Colin A. Young

STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE

BOSTON — A bipartisan group of 18 governors, including Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker, is proposing that the federal government take a serious look at stitching together the three main United States power grids, comparing the importance of grid modernization to the creation of the interstate highway system 60 years ago.

The idea the governors are pushing is that by improving connections at the seams between the eastern, western and Texas-based grids to energy to be shared between grids would make the nation’s overall electrical power system “more resilient, efficient, reliable, competitive, and less vulnerable to cyber-attack.”

In a letter last week, the Governors’ Wind & Solar Energy Coalition urged the head of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to begin a discussion with states, regional transmission organizations, Congress and businesses around unifying the nation’s power grids.

“Modernizing the nation’s electrical transmission and distribution system is as important to our states’ economic development today as creating the nation’s interstate highway system was 60 years ago,” the governors wrote. “It is nearly impossible to transmit electricity among the nation’s three major grids — Eastern Interconnection, Western Interconnection, and Electric Reliability Council of Texas. As a result, very little electricity moves among these regions, further weakening the reliability of the nation’s overall transmission system.”

The coalition of governors is keying off a National Renewable Energy Laboratory study, presented at a conference in July, that concluded that a single American electric grid would make energy delivery significantly cheaper and could extend the reach of cleaner electricity sources, like wind and solar.

One scenario the study contemplates would see three large high-voltage direct-current (HVDC) lines built from the West Coast to the Mississippi River — stitching together the “seam” between grids that roughly follows the Rocky Mountains — with a spur running south into Florida. Many of the long-haul transmission lines could run along existing interstate highway corridors.

This east-west overlay would allow electric power to be directed from the most efficient and affordable generation sites to population centers. Solar power generated in the deserts of the southwest or wind power generated in the plains could be sent to other parts of the country for consumption and power from East Coast offshore wind farms could be transferred across the country when the sun and demand for power go down in the east, according to the study.

“Energy policy makers in Washington and across the country should pay attention,” former FERC Chairman Jim Hoecker, who serves as counsel to a group that lobbies for electric grid expansion, said in a statement in August. “This so-called ‘Seams Study’ is a roadmap for tying together our disconnected and isolated electricity markets and domestic energy resources with high voltage transmission. It shines a bright light on this critical but often-ignored aspect of our national infrastructure.”

A tagalong study conducted by an Iowa State University economist found that the east-west HVDC overlay transmission would, over 15 years, result in more than 280,000 megawatts of new wind capacity, more than 121,000 megawatts of new solar capacity, almost 27,000 megawatts of new natural gas-fueled capacity and more than $40 billion in investment to the transmission system.

The same study concluded that linking the nation’s grids would also result in the retirement of almost 209,000 megawatts of generation capacity by 2040. After taking into account the economic impacts of the elimination of 209,000 megawatts of generation capacity, the study concluded that a full east-west HVDC overlay would result in a $183 million increase in annual labor income and a net increase of 1,320 jobs nationally.

In their letter to the FERC last week, the governors’ coalition noted that China is working on a plan to invest $315 billion by 2020 to build “ultra-high voltage power lines” that will carry energy from where it is generated to where it is most needed via a single national transmission grid.

The governors suggested that FERC “consider convening a series of meetings in partnership with the states, regional transmission organizations, members of Congress, and the private sector to discuss the Interconnection Seams Study and to identify the nation’s transmission needs, including integration of the nation’s major grids, as well as multi-state and inter-regional transmission challenges.”

The coalition is chaired by Montana Gov. Steve Bullock, and its vice chairman is Gov. John Carney of Delaware. Baker is a member of the coalition, along with Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, California Gov. Jerry Brown, Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, Hawaii Gov. David Ige, Illinois Gov. Brice Rauner, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, Kansas Gov. Jeff Colyer, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf, South Dakota Gov. Dennis Daugaard, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam and Washington Gov. Jay Inslee.

“While our states differ in many respects, they all recognize that enhanced transmission is essential to the nation’s energy future,” the governors wrote.