The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has announced an investment of $1.5 billion in four transmission projects to improve grid reliability and resilience, relieve costly transmission congestion, and open access to affordable energy to millions of Americans across the country.
The selected projects for the Transmission Facilitation Program, which are supported by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and administered through DOE’s Grid Deployment Office (GDO), will develop nearly 1,000 miles of transmission and 7,100 MW of new capacity throughout Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas as well as create nearly 9,000 jobs.
Additionally, DOE has released the final National Transmission Planning (NTP) Study, a set of long-term planning tools and analyses examining a wide range of potential future scenarios through 2050 to identify pathways to maintain grid reliability, increase resilience, and reduce costs, while meeting local, regional, interregional, and national interests and supporting the changing energy landscape.
The NTP Study was developed in partnership with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) to be used as a long-term planning tool.
The study found that the U.S. will need to approximately double to triple the 2020 transmission capacity by 2050 to meet demand growth and reliability requirements, and cost savings will be achieved through substantial transmission expansion and interregional planning.
The investments will improve critical interregional grid connections, bring diverse clean energy resources to more customers, bolster resilience to extreme weather, and deliver direct and indirect community benefits. They advance the Biden-Harris Administration’s Justice40 Initiative, which aims for 40% of the overall benefits of certain federal climate, clean energy, and other investments are alloted to disadvantaged communities.
The four projects will enter capacity contract negotiations with DOE:
- Aroostook Renewable Project will construct a new substation in Haynesville, Maine and a 111-mile transmission line with a capacity of 1,200 MW to connect the new substation to the Independent System Operator-New England (ISO-NE) system at a substation in Pittsfield, Maine. The project will provide New England with access to low-cost clean energy generated in northern Maine, while creating more than 4,200 construction jobs and 30 permanent operations jobs. (up to $425 million potential contract value)
- Cimarron Link is a 400-mile HVDC transmission line from Texas County, Oklahoma to Tulsa, Oklahoma. The line will transmit 1,900 MW of firm, point-to-point capacity to deliver low-cost wind and solar energy to growing load centers in eastern Oklahoma and elsewhere in the Southwest Power Pool, while creating more than 3,600 construction jobs and 20 permanent operations jobs. (up to $306 million potential contract value)
- Southern Spirit will construct a new 320-mile HVDC line connecting the ERCOT grid for the first time with electric grids in the southeastern U.S. power markets, including MISO-S and Southern Company (SOCO), which will enhance reliability and prevent outages during extreme weather events, like Winter Storm Uri that hit Texas in 2022. This line across Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi will provide 3,000 MW of bidirectional capacity and create 850 construction jobs and 305 permanent operations jobs. (up to $360 million potential contract value)
- Southline will construct a new 108-mile transmission line that will deliver 1,000 MW of new, bidirectional capacity between Hidalgo County, New Mexico and Las Cruces, New Mexico, creating at least 150 new construction jobs and helping meet energy needs of industries investing in the region, including semiconductor, battery manufacturing, and data center facilities. (up to $352 million potential contract value). The new selection is for Phase 2 of the Southline Project, following the prior selection of Southline Phase 1, a 175-mile line from Hidalgo County, New Mexico to Pima County, Arizona in the first round of the Transmission Facilitation Program.
Key features of the NTP study include:
- A substantial expansion of the transmission system throughout the entire contiguous U.S. will deliver benefits and lead to national electric system cost savings of $270 billion–$490 billion through 2050.
- Significant return on investment, with every dollar spent on transmission meaning approximately $1.60 to $1.80 in system costs is saved.
- When transmission regions coordinate to achieve resource adequacy, system costs through 2050 are lowered by $170 billion–$380 billion.
The study did not replace industry planning or identified a set of transmission lines to be built, but looked for potential opportunities for industry planners to consider projects, which will benefit customers under future scenarios.
The study development included the expansion and creation of transmission planning tools like open-source software, new modeling capabilities, and free research licenses, which DOE is providing to planning entities, regional transmission operators/independent system operators, utilities, and states to help advance planning of interregional transmission across the nation.
