CERAWEEK: US power grid needs modernization to achieve decarbonization goals

The US electric grid needs to be modernized like other aspects of the economy have been in order to shift to the swell of clean energy waiting to come online to help meet net-zero goals, industry experts said March 10.

The US grid is stuck in the 1940s and hasn't changed much since it was created, leaving grid operator interconnection queues stacked with renewable projects waiting to come to fruition, panelists said during a session focused on connecting renewables to the power grid at the CERAWeek by S&P Global energy conference in Houston.

"We've modernized so much of our economy, but we haven't really done that to the grid," Caroll said about needing to make that shift in order to meet decarbonization goals.

A mindset shift is needed to expand the transmission system, said Jason Stanek, chairman and co-chair of Joint Federal-State Task Force on Electric Transmission with the Maryland Public Service Commission. The areas that have the renewables get constrained waiting for the transmission to show up.

"We need to build more lines and conductors if we are going to make net zero for 2050," Stanek said.

The majority of US states have adopted clean energy targets.

There is federal regulation to address pipelines across state lines and there needs to something similar for transmission lines, ENGIE Chief Renewables Officer David Carroll said.

"Wall Street and investors are waiting on the sidelines for some of these regulations to happen," Stanek said.

Meeting decarbonization goals

Over the next two years, the industry needs to clear up what transmission policy is and then clear up the interconnection queues, Stanek said.

There should be a mindset to connect 100 GW a year by 2030, which is far enough away but also close enough, and then work backward on what is needed to make that happen, Chris Shelton

senior vice president, chief product officer and president at AES Next, said about focusing on decarbonization goals.

Permitting is what is holding back many projects, panelists said about the process taking twice as long as in years past.

"Everybody wants to go faster and the technology is here that everybody has been for for so long," Shelton said. "We have a huge chunk of the solutions. It's just the pace that's holding projects back."

Battery storage

Batteries are the first technology that is not transmission but that can replace transmission, Shelton said.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has essentially said "storage is as storage does," Shelton said, meaning it can act as transmission or generation depending on the situation.

"The challenge is it's not allowed to do both," Shelton said.

If the Build Back Better Plan does not address the ITC extension as well as hydrogen, transmission is going to become a "white hot" issue, Shelton said. Hydrogen be used to transport energy, but it would be very ineffective if its just used for electricity.

"It's not just funding," Shelton said. "We need to think how the resources are designed. ... We need the ITC that's in the Build Back Better plan. We all need to work collectively to sole this issue."