EPRI Collaborative Aims to Improve Efficiency of Transmission Grid

The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) launched an industry-wide transmission efficiency demonstration collaborative with a group of utilities and transmission system operators that will compile and analyze performance data from transmission lines, substations and grid operations to assess the cost, benefit and technical criteria for implementing efficiency measures.

More than 20 organizations and proposed 33 transmission demonstration projects will be providing data, and EPRI is actively recruiting more utilities and system operators to participate. The results will serve as a blueprint that will help improve the efficiency of the existing transmission system and the future bulk power network.

The collaborative is an outgrowth of efforts by EPRI, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and transmission owners and operators to implement various technical designs that can facilitate more efficiency in the transmission system.

EPRI estimates a 40% improvement in grid efficiency would result in a savings of 54 terawatt hours, enough electricity to power 4.8 million homes in the United States.

The initiative follows five meetings by key stakeholders in the United States and one in Poland in 2009 that identified the best practices and the technology improvements necessary to bolster bulk power efficiency. The international part of the collaborative will be launched 2 June in Madrid, Spain.

Resources

• Industry-wide Transmission Efficiency Initiative