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Click here for Coalition Executive Director Reid Detchon's full testimony before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee or here for an executive summary.
The U.S. needs to make major investments in our electricity grid if we hope to mitigate climate change, revitalize our economy, and strengthen our national security. We have 50 year-old grid technology that is incapable of managing large-scale variable power supplies from important renewable energy sources, like wind and solar farms. The way we plan, site, and pay for grid investments has to be changed. We need a more coherent strategy that takes into account regional and national priorities, and most importantly unlocks the potential of renewable energy and energy efficiency resources available throughout the country.
We need to make the grid:
Bigger: Bolster our transmission system to bring renewable energy resources—like wind in the Great Plains and solar in the desert Southwest—to the population centers that need them.
Smarter: Broadly deploy "smart grid" technologies to make the grid more reliable, resilient, and secure, and enable much greater energy efficiency for consumers and businesses.
Better Integrated: Elevate planning, siting, and cost-allocation processes from the state and local level to a much larger regional level that includes input from all stakeholders.
Our Approach
The Energy Future Coalition has assembled a Smart Grid Working Group made up of a broad range of stakeholders. With input from this group, the Coalition is drafting a plan to develop a National Clean Energy Smart Grid to unlock our renewable potential, to make our grid more efficient and reliable, and to empower consumers to reduce their energy costs.
The plan calls for the U.S. to:
Develop New Regional Transmission Plans to Bring Renewable Power to Market. Congress should enable the grid to maximize the development of domestic renewable energy by linking resources to population centers. Congress should establish a new process within the two multi-state power systems that cover the entire country (except Texas, Alaska, and Hawaii) to plan, site, and recover the costs for transmission.
Create New Incentives for Investments in Smart Grid Technologies. Congress should increase funding for demonstration projects and provide tax breaks for smart grid investments.
Make Grid Security a Priority. Congress should ensure that new grid investments and technologies make our power system safer and more secure. A smart grid is more adaptive and self-healing and can better manage electricity flows, which helps safeguard our electric power system from attacks and natural disasters.
Smart Grid Resources
Energy Future Coalition Comments on FERC Order 890
Letter to Senate Leaders on Transmission Cost Allocation in ACELA
Energy Future Coalition Clean Energy Smart Grid Vision Statement - Executive Summary
Energy Future Coalition Clean Energy Smart Grid Vision Statement
Press Release announcing Vision Statement
Reid Detchon on Federal News Radio discussing clean energy transmission
Reid Detchon's testimony before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee
Executive Summary of testimony
Audio Transcript of Clean Energy Smart Grid Press Conference