Recognizing the Full Value of Advanced Transmission Technologies
New Research from Electric Power Engineers and Grid Strategies Highlights Opportunities to Improve Transmission Planning, Evaluate Advanced Conductors and Maximize Existing Grid Infrastructure
As electricity demand continues to grow, utilities and transmission planners across the United States face an increasingly difficult challenge. New generation resources, large data centers, expanding manufacturing facilities and changing reliability requirements are creating substantial demand for additional transmission capacity. While constructing new transmission infrastructure remains essential, the industry must also determine how to make better use of the infrastructure already in place and how to evaluate the full economic and operational benefits of available technologies.
A recent report from Electric Power Engineers (EPE) and Grid Strategies offers valuable insight into this challenge. Titled Advancing FERC Order No. 1920 Benefit Evaluation Development and Implementation – Practical Lessons Learned from Mock Long-Term Regional Transmission Planning Projects, the report examines how the seven transmission benefit categories established under FERC Order No. 1920 can be evaluated using existing planning tools and methodologies. By applying these methods to hypothetical transmission projects developed within a modified Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) network, the researchers identify important opportunities to improve how transmission investments are assessed and compared.
For companies such as CTC Global, whose ACCC® Conductor technology has been developed to increase transmission capacity, reduce electrical losses and make more effective use of existing infrastructure, the findings reinforce the importance of evaluating transmission alternatives based on their complete engineering and economic performance rather than individual equipment characteristics.
Understanding the Full Value of Transmission Investments
FERC Order No. 1920 represents an important evolution in regional transmission planning. Rather than evaluating projects primarily through individual reliability or economic criteria, the order establishes a broader framework for considering multiple benefits over a longer planning horizon. These benefits include avoided or deferred infrastructure investments, production cost savings, reduced transmission losses, improved reliability, reduced congestion and other contributions to overall system performance.
As the EPE and Grid Strategies report demonstrates, however, identifying these benefits is considerably easier than measuring them consistently. Different benefits require different analytical models, assumptions and geographic boundaries. Some benefits overlap, while others may be overlooked because existing planning tools cannot adequately represent the physical or operational characteristics of a proposed solution.
One particularly interesting example involves transmission losses. Within the modified MISO study footprint, the traditional transmission portfolio produced a negative $7.7 million result for the transmission loss benefit category. When the researchers expanded their analysis to the broader Eastern Interconnection, however, power-flow snapshots showed approximately 340 to 600 MW of reduced losses as changes in transmission capacity influenced generation dispatch and power flows across neighboring regions.
This finding illustrates an important engineering principle. Electricity does not recognize utility service territories, state boundaries or regional transmission organization boundaries. Improvements made within one portion of an interconnected grid can create substantial benefits elsewhere, even when those benefits are not fully captured within the original planning boundary.
The implication is that transmission planning methodologies must increasingly reflect the physical behavior of the interconnected grid rather than relying exclusively on administrative or regional boundaries.
Advanced Transmission Technologies Deserve Comprehensive Evaluation
The report also examines Advanced and Alternative Transmission Technologies, including Dynamic Line Ratings (DLR), High-Performance Conductors (HPC), advanced power-flow control and transmission switching. These technologies offer different opportunities to improve transmission capacity, operational flexibility and system efficiency, frequently without requiring entirely new transmission corridors.
Because of limitations in existing planning methodologies, the researchers initially considered both DLR and HPC for additional evaluation, but ultimately completed the full seven-benefit analysis only for DLR. This outcome highlights a significant challenge facing the industry: technologies capable of delivering meaningful physical improvements may not receive a complete economic evaluation when available models cannot adequately represent their characteristics.
In the particular 500-kV corridor examined in the mock study, conventional reconductoring already provided substantial congestion relief, reducing approximately 2,300 annual hours of binding congestion to fewer than 100 hours. Under those conditions, the additional capacity available from HPC offered relatively limited incremental economic value.
That conclusion is reasonable for the conditions examined. However, it also suggests an important opportunity for future research.
What happens when conventional reconductoring cannot provide sufficient capacity to satisfy projected demand?
A transmission corridor requiring 50%, 75% or even 100% additional capacity may present an entirely different set of alternatives. Conventional reconductoring might require structural reinforcement, replacement of existing towers, additional circuits or construction of an entirely new transmission corridor. An advanced conductor may be capable of meeting the same objective while retaining much of the existing infrastructure.
Under these circumstances, the relevant comparison extends well beyond conventional conductors versus advanced conductors. It becomes a broader evaluation of conventional reconductoring, advanced reconductoring, major line rebuilding and new transmission construction, including their respective capital costs, permitting requirements, construction schedules, environmental impacts, operating efficiency and ability to deliver additional capacity when it is needed.
Independent Research Supports a Broader Planning Approach
The importance of advanced reconductoring has also been demonstrated in other independent research.
A widely discussed study from the University of California, Berkeley and GridLab, Accelerating Transmission Capacity Expansion by Using Advanced Conductors in Existing Right-of-Way, examined the potential for advanced composite-core conductors to increase transmission capacity throughout the United States. The researchers concluded that large-scale advanced reconductoring could cost-effectively double transmission capacity within existing rights-of-way and, under scenarios involving constrained new transmission development, provide more than 80% of the additional interzonal transmission capacity required in their modeled 2035 clean-electricity scenario.
The study also estimated approximately $180 billion in cumulative system cost savings through 2050, demonstrating the potential economic significance of making more effective use of existing transmission corridors.
Similarly, a 2025 report prepared by The Brattle Group, Grid Strategies and the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE), Incorporating GETs and HPCs into Transmission Planning Under FERC Order 1920, reviewed 25 real-world case studies involving advanced transmission technologies. The authors concluded that Grid-Enhancing Technologies (GETs) and High-Performance Conductors can contribute to all seven benefit categories established under Order No. 1920.
Together, these studies support an increasingly important planning principle: utilities should evaluate opportunities to optimize existing infrastructure, increase the capacity of existing transmission corridors and construct new transmission facilities where necessary. These approaches are complementary rather than mutually exclusive, and their relative value depends on the specific requirements and characteristics of each project.
Advanced Conductors Offer More Than Increased Thermal Capacity
One important opportunity for improving transmission planning involves how advanced conductors are represented within analytical models.
An advanced conductor should not be evaluated simply by substituting a higher ampacity rating into an existing transmission model. Electrical resistance, operating temperature, thermal expansion, sag, mechanical strength, conductor weight and structural requirements can all influence the technical and economic performance of a transmission project.
CTC Global’s ACCC® Conductor illustrates the importance of these interconnected characteristics. Its hybrid carbon-fiber composite core offers high tensile strength, low thermal expansion and substantially lower weight than a conventional steel core. The conductor’s compact trapezoidal aluminum strands provide additional conductive aluminum within a comparable conductor diameter, enabling increased capacity while also reducing electrical resistance and associated line losses.
These characteristics can provide several benefits simultaneously. Increased capacity can help relieve congestion and accommodate growing demand, while reduced electrical resistance can lower transmission losses. Low thermal expansion can reduce high-temperature sag, potentially allowing utilities to increase capacity without extensive structural modifications. In appropriate applications, these combined advantages can also reduce construction costs, accelerate project schedules and limit the need for new rights-of-way.
The challenge for transmission planners is ensuring that these benefits are represented accurately and consistently within the analytical framework.
The EPE and Grid Strategies report identifies related limitations in current modeling tools. Resource adequacy and capacity expansion models frequently use zonal representations that may not capture localized transmission constraints, while certain operational benefits occur over timescales that conventional planning studies cannot fully represent.
These limitations are not unique to advanced conductors. They affect the evaluation of several emerging technologies and reinforce the need for continued development of planning tools capable of recognizing their complete physical and economic contributions.
Better Modeling Can Lead to Better Transmission Decisions
The objective of transmission planning should not be to demonstrate that any particular technology is appropriate for every application. Instead, planning methodologies should identify the most effective combination of available solutions based on system requirements, long-term economics, reliability, environmental considerations and implementation schedules.
In some cases, constructing a new high-voltage transmission line will provide the greatest long-term value. In others, Dynamic Line Ratings, advanced power-flow control or conventional reconductoring may adequately address the identified need. Where substantially greater capacity is required within an existing corridor, advanced reconductoring using technologies such as ACCC Conductor may offer significant advantages.
Recognizing these differences requires models that can compare alternatives on an equivalent basis and account for the full range of engineering characteristics that influence project performance.
One particularly valuable next step would be to expand the EPE and Grid Strategies methodology to include transmission corridors where conventional reconductoring cannot fully resolve the identified constraint. Comparing conventional reconductoring, advanced reconductoring, major line rebuilding and new transmission construction within the same seven-benefit framework could provide important additional insight into the value of advanced transmission technologies.
Such an evaluation could also help establish more consistent methods for quantifying the economic benefits associated with reduced line losses, avoided structural modifications, accelerated construction schedules and increased use of existing rights-of-way.
From Regulatory Compliance to More Effective Grid Modernization
CTC Global commends Electric Power Engineers and Grid Strategies for their work in translating the requirements of FERC Order No. 1920 into practical transmission planning methodologies. Their research provides useful insight into both the capabilities and limitations of existing analytical tools while identifying opportunities for further improvement.
As utilities continue responding to growing electricity demand, the industry will need to pursue new transmission construction while also extracting greater value from existing infrastructure. Advanced conductors, Grid-Enhancing Technologies and improved planning methodologies can all play important roles in achieving these objectives.
The opportunity presented by Order No. 1920 extends beyond regulatory compliance. It provides a framework for developing a more comprehensive understanding of transmission value, one that considers the full physical, economic and operational contributions of available technologies.
By continuing to improve planning models, engineering assumptions and benefit evaluation methods, the industry can make more informed investment decisions, reduce unnecessary costs and accelerate the delivery of additional transmission capacity.
Ultimately, better modeling can lead to better planning, more efficient investments and a stronger, more capable electric grid.
