National Transmission Planning Study from Grid Deployment Office

[jaagu]

Improving and expanding electric transmission infrastructure in the U.S. is critical to ensuring consumers across the country have access to reliable, affordable power when and where they need it and to enable us to integrate new, clean sources of energy generation into the grid. To understand the transformation needed to ensure the U.S. electric transmission system continues to reliably serve the nation’s electricity customers as the power sector evolves and transitions to cleaner resources, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Grid Deployment Office led the multiyear National Transmission Planning Study (NTP Study) in partnership with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL).

Full Report

Each chapter of the final report for the National Transmission Planning Study is available to download as a separate PDF.

• Executive Summary describes the high-level findings from across all six chapters and next steps for how to build on the analysis.
• Chapter 1: Introduction provides background and context about the technical design of the study and modeling framework, introduces the scenario framework, and acknowledges those who contributed to the study.
• Chapter 2: Long-Term U.S. Transmission Planning Scenarios discusses the methods for capacity expansion and resource adequacy, key findings from the scenario analysis and economic analysis, and High Opportunity Transmission interface analysis.
• Chapter 3: Transmission Portfolios and Operations for 2035 Scenarios summarizes the methods for translating zonal scenarios to nodal-network-level models, network transmission plans for a subset of the scenarios, and key findings from transmission planning and production cost modeling for the contiguous United States.
• Chapter 4: AC Power Flow Analysis for 2035 Scenarios identifies the methods for translating from zonal and nodal production cost models to alternating current (AC) power flow models and describes contingency analysis for a subset of scenarios.
• Chapter 5: Stress Analysis for 2035 Scenarios outlines how the future transmission expansions perform under stress tests.
• Chapter 6: Conclusions describes the high-level findings and study limitations across the six chapters.

https://www.energy.gov/gdo/national-transmission-planning-study

Glad to see the Department of Energy coming up with lots of money for grid upgrades and a roadmap for the next 10 years.

[DrBob2]

@jaagu

Glad to see the Department of Energy coming up with lots of money for grid upgrades…

Since it was a planning study it didn’t come up with lots of money.

I couldn’t even find in the Executive Summary a cost estimate of what a grid overhaul would need.

DB2

[jaagu]

@DrBob2

Since it was a planning study it didn’t come up with lots of money.

For months I have been reporting on the government allocating $ billions for grid upgrades. Just yesterday I posted about $1.5 billion government money on the Energy & Utilities board for upgrading 4 major transmission lines.

[Leap1]

This comes off a White House fact sheet. I won’t link it but you can google for it.

That’s why President Biden’s Investing in America agenda, a key pillar of Bidenomics, is delivering the largest electric grid infrastructure investment in history – more than $30 billion from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act.Oct 30, 2023

[pauleckler]

Note these are laws another party plans to cancel to save money if they come to power.

This is an issue in the election.

[jerryab2]

@pauleckler

another party plans to cancel to save money

That party will be hung out to dry when power is available but cannot be delivered to customers due to a lack of transmission capability.

[steve203]

@jerryab2

That party will be hung out to dry when power is available but cannot be delivered to customers due to a lack of transmission capability.

I would suspect that pols that cancel the programs in question are figuring they will have pocketed their “protected free speech”, and be gone, before a major problem is discovered, much as Welchist CEOs gut a company’s customer service, QC, and engineering, to fluff up short term profits, at the expense of the company’s long term viability.

Steve

[jaagu]

@pauleckler

Note these are laws another party plans to cancel to save money if they come to power.

It is hard to cancel laws that benefit the people. The ACA law has been a target of cancellation for years without success.

[Leap1]

@pauleckler

cancel

TFG would be a lameduck.

I am on a cellphone things get chopped

[pauleckler]

@jaagu

It is hard to cancel laws that benefit the people.

Opposition party had no trouble impairing ACD to make sure it would not achieve its goals. Happens all the time. Not difficult.

[jaagu]

@pauleckler

Opposition party had no trouble impairing ACD to make sure it would not achieve its goals. Happens all the time. Not difficult.

You mean ACA. But ACA did achieve most of its goals. Pre–existing conditions were wiped out and millions of people have gotten insurance.

[pauleckler]

Yes, ACA. Supplemental for Medicaid blocked in many states. Tax on Cadillac insurance blocked. Expensive high deductable policies discourage young healthy from insuring. No penalty for failure to insure.

The list is long.

[jerryab2]

@pauleckler

No penalty for failure to insure.

There is a penalty for failing to insure. The bills are all yours.

ACA coverage wouldn’t start until the next year–unless you had a “qualifying event” that permitted you to get it earlier. But it still does NOT cover medical bills you already incurred (before being insured).

[pauleckler]

Health insurance always depends on getting healthy people to pay premiums. That is the reason employers policy is often cheapest. Workers are healthy and have few claims.

Individual health insurance is much more expensive because sick people are most likely to insure.

ACA might succeed if it got young healthy to insure but those requirements were mostly removed.

ACA was our best shot at universal health care but politicians crippled it for political reasons. Certainly not for the benefit of the people.