A recent Transmission Congestion Study published by the U.S. Department of Energy highlights the lack of adequate transmission capacity as one of the major obstacles to the development of large scale renewable energy projects.
The report, which Congress directed the EPA to write every three years since the Energy Policy Act of 2005, looks at the congestion and constraints within the Eastern and Western Interconnections. Also, this year’s report included an analysis of the significant potential sources of renewable energy that are currently constrained or not being developed.
According to the report, more transmission is needed to take advantage of renewable energy: “While some progress has been made, much more work is needed to address the challenges to new transmission projects to support a build-out of renewable energy.
The research identifies major obstacles preventing prompt build-out of transmission:
(i) Need for more systematic regional and interregional analyses and planning of future transmission requirements;
(ii) Complications relating to appropriate cost allocation for new transmission capacity;
(iii) Complications relating to permitting across multiple jurisdictions, combined with the recent judicial curtailment of FERC’s existing backstop siting authority; and
(iv) Shortcomings in the queuing processes used to interconnect renewable energy electricity generation to the electric grid and the related construction of new transmission facilities.
Read the full study