Episode 170 | Triple Transmission | WSP
In 1896, hydropower generated at Niagara Falls began powering street cars in Buffalo. The era of transmission lines had begun.
Last year, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory released a study that found that we would need to triple all transmission—built in the previous 125 years—in the next 12, in order to achieve 100% clean energy. That’s ambitious by any standard. How can that be done?
“Clearly these are very aspirational and aggressive targets that will be extremely difficult to achieve,” says Mike Case, SVP—Energy, for WSP. The global engineering firm has been on the front lines in this effort to upgrade our energy network for a future filled with renewable, dispersed, and diverse, energy sources.
Trotting some of the same ground as Westinghouse and Edison, WSP broke ground last year, as the owner's engineer, on an ambitious, 300-mile, high voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission line from Quebec to New York. WSP says this line, the Champlain-Hudson Power Express, will power over a million homes with clean hydropower. Other HVDC projects are underway out of Wyoming and Maine.
Mike says HVDC is not the only solution. There is more than enough work to perform on our nation’s existing transmission infrastructure. “Re-conductoring” existing towers with more efficient lines can increase capacity without carving new swaths across the countryside.
That said, triple transmission will require more paths than currently exist. “Getting critical rights of way permitted is going to be key,” says Mike. He cites national efforts like the Dept. of Energy’s National Interest Electric Transmission Corridor Designation Process as a way to expedite permitting. Transmission projects in the past have taken decades.
During our conversation, we discussed the potential for more underground transmission such as Champlain-Hudson. We also pondered the self-inflicted pain caused when transmission and renewable developers slow down the permitting process by hiring personnel processing the permitting.
Not only is electric generation becoming more distributed, Mike says we are in the mist of “the electrification of all things”—from vehicles to industrial processes.
“No matter the solution of the generation,” he says, “the transmission and distribution assets are going to need to be there to support that transition.”
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