Financing the Expansion of the Electrical Grid

If you have been following the topic at all, you will know that while we are full bore on a path to electrification of “everything,” especially our automobiles, the electric grid is not ready for this surge in need for power.

Sometimes the power generation exists, but is not in the location where it is needed and thus transmission lines are required to distribute the power to utilities and on to consumers.

See the link below to understand just one small portion of the grid and how “all is not well” and how competing priorities might get in the way of progress towards our future needs. It is worth following the link to the full analysis.

How to finance the Northwest’s transmission lines

MEDIA CONTACT: Emily Moore, Sightline Institute, emily@sightline.org

FULL ARTICLE: Who Will Pay for Cascadia’s Transmission Lines?

OREGON and WASHINGTON – The Pacific Northwest will need billions of dollars invested in its grid to achieve stated climate goals, but major financial disincentives are stopping transmission developers, namely investor-owned utilities and the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), from paying for new regional transmission lines. While recent discussion of barriers to transmission expansion has centered on permitting, the question of how to fund new transmission lines is equally crucial. Elected leaders can help answer it, according to new analysis from think tank Sightline Institute, with three smart financing and assurance measures:

1. The Northwest congressional delegation, including Washington senators Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray, can encourage BPA to tap more of its $17.7 billion federal borrowing authority to pay for and build transmission lines.
2. The Oregon and Washington legislatures can create state entities to partner with non-utility transmission developers.
3. Governors Jay Inslee and Tina Kotek can lead development of a multistate agreement that provides transmission developers greater assurance of recouping their investments.

“These projects are expensive, yes,” said Emily Moore, author of the article and director of Sightline Institute’s climate and energy program. “But no one living in the Northwest can deny the massive costs we’ve shouldered as a result of climate-fueled wildfires, heat waves, and dangerous air quality—costs that balloon well past those of building new transmission lines. It’s time we get serious and big about building the energy future we want.”

Read the full analysis: Who Will Pay for Cascadia’s Transmission Lines?