Executive Summary
Electric power grids in the United States are in a period of rapid transformation, driven by a confluence of factors such as an increase in electricity demand, retirement of certain baseload power generation, an increase in distributed generation, lengthy interconnection queues and new “grid-edge” technologies being brought online. Layered into this evolution are new state and national decarbonization objectives, heightened awareness of the magnitude and frequency of threats that could compromise reliable power delivery, and unprecedented federal investment through legislation like the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) and the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). With these transformative trends in process, Governors are eager to support deployment of technology solutions to facilitate their policy objectives and meet increased loads – and doing so while maintaining or even improving grid reliability, resilience and affordability.
This paper is part of a series published by the National Governors Association (NGA) to identify actions Governors can take to guide their states and territories through intentional and effective power sector transformations. While other papers explore regulatory structures, regional markets and power transmission, this paper provides a deeper dive into actions Governors can take to modernize the grid through the deployment of grid technologies. While careful planning, stakeholder engagement and robust technical analysis is needed to optimize technology investment, an understanding of the range of technologies currently available can help Governors determine how best to initiate or improve those processes in their states and territories.
Often a combination of technologies will best allow states and grid operators to meet their objectives. While by no means exhaustive, this paper will focus on several of the grid modernizing technologies that are commercially available and being deployed:
Advanced Transmission Technologies:
- Grid Enhancing Technologies
- Dynamic Line Ratings
- Ambient Adjusted Line Ratings
- Topology Optimization Software
- Power Flow Controllers
- High Performance Conductors
- Carbon/Composite Core Conductors
- Superconductors
Distributed Generation Systems to Enhance Grid Resilience:
- Virtual Power Plants
- Microgrids Coupling On-site Generation and Storage
Utility-to-User Technologies:
- Smart Meters
- Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI)
- Digital Communication Networks
- Bidirectional and Managed Vehicle Charging
Energy Storage Systems:
- Grid Scale Storage
- Behind-the-meter Storage
Underpinning modernization of the electric grid are regulatory structures and robust planning processes that work to meet specific objectives, such as resilience, reliability, affordability or decarbonization. Strengthening these structures and approaching grid modernization from a comprehensive planning perspective will create an environment for sustained innovation within the electrical sector.
Governors’ strategies to guide the deployment of grid modernizing technologies addressed in this paper include:
- Setting and pursuing clear energy policy goals and priorities:
- Establishing clear energy policy and grid modernization goals
- Initiating processes to develop or update state energy plans
- Championing policies, programs or legislation that support grid modernization
- Pursuing federal funding opportunities for grid modernization
- Including grid modernization policies and programs in Governors’ Budget Requests
- Convening key stakeholders to examine, test and identify needs for grid modernization technologies:
- Appointing or convening interagency working groups on grid modernization and technology adoption
- Directing state agencies to assess the role and deployment of technologies in state and regional planning processes
- Directing or requiring the testing or piloting of grid modernizing technologies to consider larger-scale deployment
- Encouraging updated threat-based risk assessments and electricity demand forecasting models to help inform decision making in energy planning
- Participating in regional and inter-regional grid modernization efforts.
- Ensuring state public utility commissioners have the staffing and technical resources necessary to appropriately consider grid technologies as needed and engage in regional transmission planning.