The path to sustainability begins with the Macro Grid
By Jamie Zhao, Energy Correspondent
The best plan to reduce carbon emissions in the United States is an energy plan you’ve probably never head of — ACORE’s Macro Grid Initiative. We sat down with a discussion with the Macro Grid Initiative Director, Tracy Warren, to learn about the path to sustainability and electrification in the United States.
What is the Macro Grid?
The United States’ current electric grid is divided into three independent regions — the Eastern Interconnection, the Western Interconnection, and Texas. This division becomes an obstacle for 21st-century innovation. In June 2020, the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE), Americans for a Clean Energy Grid (ACEG), the Advanced Power Alliance (APA), and the Clean Grid Alliance (CGA) released the Macro Grid Initiative. As the name suggests, this initiative proposed to upgrade and connect the country’s energy transmissions network.
Benefits of the Macro Grid
The Macro Grid provides consumers with cheaper and more reliable power. The Southwest Power Pool (SPP), a grid operator for Kansas, Oklahoma, and Nebraska, researched the benefits of its
new transmission infrastructure. The SPP found that the transmission upgrade it installed between 2012 and 2014 will create approximately $12 billion in net profits for consumers over the next 40 years. The cost of transmission upgrades is around 12% of consumers’ electric bills. However, transmission
investments pay for themselves in reducing the electricity generation cost. Upgraded transmission infrastructure allows consumers to access electricity from where it is cost-effectively produced. This concept is similar to buying products for a lower price where it has the most supply.
“Electrification depends on greening up the grid.”
— Tracy Warren, Macro Grid Initiative Director, ACORE
Besides the SPP study, other grid operators such as MISO (MidContinent grid operator) analyzed the cost and benefits of grid upgrades in 2017. MISO found that the new transmission will provide $12 to $53 billion in net gains over the next two to four decades. In other words, each person currently using the service provided by MISO can save between $250 to $1000.
Robust transmission helps facilitate competition in the electricity market. Historically, Texas has some of the strongest pro-transmission policies because its officials understood a stable grid is essential to its free market. A competitive market incentivizes power plant owners to strengthen their transmission networks.
Strengthening America’s power grid will help to keep the power on, especially when disasters and unforeseen events strike. Transmission expansion limits the potential impact of intentional attacks, whether caused by cyber-attacks or small/large scale physical damages. Furthermore, electricity is not just
a luxury for many Americans; instead, it is essential to power equipment such as kidney dialysis machines and ventilators. Water and communication networks rely on electricity, refrigerators preserve food and
medical supplies, and first responders need electricity to do their jobs.
MISO (MidContinent grid operator) evaluated the impact of its transmission investment on jobs, economic development, and tax revenue over the 2002–2015 period.
MISO found over 114,000 jobs-years were created and provided $5 to $8 billion of labor income. Economic activity spurred by the investment
totaled to $6.7 to $11.3 billion. The project also generated $457 to $765 million of state and local tax revenue. Renewable energy makes a large interconnected grid more valuable. America’s lowest cost-energy sources are distant from population centers. The fundamental value of the macro grid is to harness our renewable energies from where it is most effectively produced, thereby saving money and power to deliver electricity.
ScottMadden and WIRES found that when using future estimated costs for wind and solar energy, carbon dioxide emissions from the US electricity sector can be reduced by up to 80% compared to 1990 levels. All without an increase in the cost of electricity. Also, replacing fossil fuels with renewable
energy means decreasing the amount of pollution such as soot, nitrous oxide, and mercury. States like Minnesota and New Jersey conducted studies to determine the optimal ways they can meet decarbonizing goals in the future. According to Minnesota’s Smarter Grid research, for the state to
decarbonize by 80% by 2050, it will need an interstate system. Similarly, New Jersey will need to increase its current transmissions capacity with more interconnections to be 100% carbon neutral by 2050.
Looking into the future
The Macro Grid Initiative is not the first to propose increasing regional transmission rates. In 2011, FERC Order 1000 declares its goal to increase interregional transmission development by eliminating monopolies and creating competition for cost-effective projects.
Yet, little has changed in almost a decade. The Macro Grid Initiative is an effort to bring awareness to the twin needs of transporting power to where it is needed and the ability to build interregional transmission networks. We cannot meet our clean energy goals unless we connect our grid. In an interview with Tracy Warren, director of the Macro Grid Initiative she articulated, “Electrification depends on greening up the grid.” It is time for us to reimagine our grid and make history.
