push is on to build a more competitive national macro grid network

A move to both upgrade and expand the nation’s electricity transmission system is being promoted by two industry groups pushing for the construction of a modern macro grid network.

The American Council on Renewable Energy, working in a partnership with the group Americans for a Clean Energy Grid, says the move to upgrade the country’s transmission system could help utility companies to significantly meet “carbon and clean energy goals by affordably and reliably integrating low-cost renewable resources.”

In a press release launching the Macro Grid Initiative, Gregory Wetstone, chief executive officer of the American Council on Renewable Energy, said it was essential that efforts be taken to “improve America’s outdated and balkanized electricity transmission system both to compete effectively in the 21st century economy and to properly tackle the climate crisis.”

According to a mission statement released by the Macro Grid Initiative campaign, centers of high renewable resources in the country need to be better connected with areas where the demand for electricity is the most great.

The group additionally notes that some fifteen states between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountain line represent roughly 88 percent of the nation’s entire wind technical potential as well as 56 percent of the solar technical potential.

But at the same time this same area remains largely untapped in terms of its ability to serve larger population pools.
​
Proponents of expanding and building out the grid say one of their first tasks is to advocate for “new policies at the federal, regional and state levels that recognize the substantial nationwide benefits of an inter-regionally connected transmission network.”

​By Garry Boulard

---