As utilities work to get more of their electricity from renewable projects, transmission is becoming a major barrier. The grid is aging and, in the U.S., many lines are reaching the end of their design life. California alone will need seven new transmission lines if its investor-owned utilities are to reach the state’s goal of getting 33 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020, according to the California Public Utilities Commission. As transformers and other pieces are replaced — and new transmission lines are added — the transition provides opportunities for smarter electronics and software, as well as technologies that make it cheaper or easier to install new transmission, to win a piece of the market.
Most renewable projects — especially solar projects — tend to be smaller than most conventional power plants and more spread out. That means more transmission is needed. Not only that, innovation is required to keep the grid reliable as more renewable energy sources are added. While conventional forms of electricity, such as coal-, oil- and natural-gas-fired power plants, are reliable — they produce a known amount of power at a time and in a quantity that can be controlled by the generator — solar and wind power are intermittent; the sun doesn’t always shine, the wind doesn’t always blow and the timing of those circumstances can’t be controlled. That makes it harder for balancing authorities to maintain the grid’s frequency at a steady 60 hertz (cycles per second), the sweet spot for use by equipment in homes and offices.
Maintaining the grid’s health is a major task; even with mainly conventional electricity, grid fluctuations and outages cost an estimated $119-188 billion yearly, according to a 2005 report from research firm Primen, now part of EPRI Solutions. For renewables to make up, say, 20 percent of the energy mix or more, significant changes to the electrical grid need to be made to accommodate them, says Michael Liebreich, CEO of London-based research firm New Energy Finance. “It’s the system problems that can be real deal killers,” he notes.
