Are Corporate Interests Holding Back US Electrical Grid Expansion?

Long-time Slashdot reader BishopBerkeley writes: Though it does not come as much of a surprise, a new study highlighted in IEEE Spectrum delves into how corporate profit motives are preventing the upgrading and the expansion of the U.S. electrical grid. The full report can be downloaded here from the source [the nonprofit economic research group NBER].

Besides opening up the market to competition, utilities don't want to lose control over regional infrastructure, writes IEEE Spectrum. '[I]nterregional lines threaten utility companies' dominance over the nation's power supply. In the power industry, asset ownership provides control over rules that govern energy markets and transmission service and expansion. When upstart entities build power plants and transmission lines, they may be able to dilute utility companies' control over power-industry rules and prevent utilities from dictating decisions about transmission expansion.'

The article begins by noting that 'The United States is not building enough transmission lines to connect regional power networks. The deficit is driving up electricity prices, reducing grid reliability, and hobbling renewable-energy deployment. '

Utilities can stall transmission expansion because out-of-date laws sanction these companies' sweeping control over transmission development...
One of the main values of connecting regional networks is that it enablesâ'and is in fact critical forâ'incorporating renewable energy... Plus, adding interregional transmission for renewables can significantly reduce costs for consumers. Such connections allow excess wind and solar power to flow to neighboring regions when weather conditions are favorable and allow the import of energy from elsewhere when renewables are less productive.

Even without renewables, better integrated networks generally lower costs for consumers because they reduce the amount of generation capacity needed overall and decrease energy market prices. Interregional transmission also enhances reliability,particularly during extreme weather...

Addressing the transmission shortage is on the agenda in Washington, but utility companies are lobbying against reforms.

The article points out that now investors and entrepreneurs 'are developing long-distance direct-current lines, which are more efficient at moving large amounts of energy over long distances, compared with AC,' and also 'sidestep the utility-dominated transmission-expansion planning processes.'

They're already in use in China, and are also becoming Europe's preferred choice...

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