Cleaning the Transmission Process

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http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/story?id=53011

Things are adrift in places around the country. In the Northeast, for example, the states all have renewable portfolio standards while they also participate in a regional greenhouse gas initiative, all of which is meant to cleanse the air and cut global warming pollutants. The dilemma there and elsewhere is that the transmission line permitting process is tumultuous and impedes those goals.

Transmission limitations, in fact, are a major barrier to the growth of renewable energy. The process is meant to be inclusive and to elicit the views of all stakeholders. Regulators should strive for reasonable compromises. But if such deals cannot be reached, then they must seek to achieve the greatest good for the greatest number. Transmission planning requires it. And so does the federal law.

A recent U.S. Department of Energy study found that wind alone could provide 20 percent of U.S. electricity by 2030. To do so, though, significantly more investment in transmission is needed. Not only is there is competition among all types of generators to carry their electrons in the current lines but new lines are necessary to transport wind resources from the remote locations where they are most abundant.

"As renewable energy becomes more popular, the request to move these resources is growing," says John Bear, president of the Midwest Independent System Operator (ISO,) at the Edison Electric Institute's annual conference in Toronto. "There is not enough infrastructure" — a situation that denies utilities access to lower cost generation.

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