The Central Role of Transmission in the Energy Transition
As electricity demand accelerates across the Americas and the global energy transition gains momentum, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has placed transmission infrastructure at the heart of its mission to promote sustainable, resilient, and inclusive development, and to connect all the renewable electricity. As Latin America is 71% renewable, this is no small task. This priority reflects a central reality documented throughout the Bank’s flagship report, Unlocking the Grid: without modern and well-planned transmission networks, no country can fully integrate its renewable resources, protect communities from climate-driven disruptions, support emerging industries, or maintain reliable service in the decades ahead. The launch of the Power Transmission Acceleration Platform (PTAP), highlighted by the COP Presidency and showcased during the Global Mutirão on Grids, is another clear example of this urgency.
A Webinar Framed by Urgency and Opportunity
This urgency animated the IDB’s recent webinar, Advanced Conductors, Smarter Grids: The Future of Power Transmission, an event that drew widespread attention from utilities, regulators, engineers, and policymakers across the region. The session explored how Advanced Conductors and smart wire technologies are helping utilities strengthen their systems at record speed – unlocking capacity, improving efficiency, and mitigating the environmental and social impacts associated with traditional transmission expansion. The message that emerged was both practical and visionary: the future of power transmission will depend not only on new lines, but on rapid upgrades to existing infrastructure that deliver big gains within the landscapes utilities already manage.
IDB Events and Real-World Applications
AEP: Rebuilding Resilience at Speed
Throughout the webinar, the presenters illustrated how these solutions are being applied in real projects. American Electric Power (AEP), one of the largest transmission operators in the United States, shared how reconductoring with high-capacity, low-sag conductors has enabled the utility to rebuild major lines far more quickly than constructing new corridors would allow following a devastating outage that left Texas citizens without electricity for days and even weeks. These projects strengthened resilience, relieved congestion, and opened the door for more renewable energy – demonstrating how modern conductors offer a fast, cost-effective response to rising load and extreme weather. The most remarkable aspect of this case study is that the entire reconductoring was completed with the line fully energized – yes, the lights stayed on throughout the process.
EPM: Designing Within Constraints
A complementary perspective came from Empresas Públicas de Medellín (EPM), Colombia’s public power utility, which recently faced the challenge of delivering transmission service to a new port on the country’s northern coast. Height restrictions imposed by the Department of Civil Aeronautics, combined with the presence of extensive agricultural lands, made conventional designs impractical. By selecting CTC Global’s ACCC® Helsinki size conductor and employing a compact monopole design with spans up to 500 meters, EPM was able to maintain safe electrical clearances while significantly reducing structure heights and easement width. The new line project – energized in 2023 – preserved more than 32 square kilometers of productive land and illustrated how Advanced Conductors help utilities design solutions that balance technical performance, environmental sensitivity, and operational reliability.
Regional Challenges and the IDB’s Perspective
Congestion, Curtailment, and Lost Opportunity
Both cases underscored themes that run through the IDB’s analysis of transmission development in Latin America and the Caribbean. Renewable resources in the region are abundant, but their full value cannot be realized unless transmission systems expand and modernize at a pace commensurate with generation growth. In 2024 alone, the region lost more than 50,000 GWh of renewable energy due to congestion, curtailment, and insufficient transfer capability – an economic and environmental loss the IDB identifies as one of the most urgent infrastructure challenges facing the region.
Growing Loads and Rising Risks
At the same time, electrification of transportation, the rise of digital infrastructure such as data centers, and increased industrial activity are putting new demands on a grid that was largely built for a different era. Extreme weather events are exposing the fragility of networks that lack redundancy or the ability to respond dynamically to sudden operational stresses. Against this backdrop, the IDB has emphasized that transmission must be seen not as a peripheral asset but as a strategic platform for national development – one that requires coherent planning, modern regulation, sustained investment, and the adoption of technologies that enhance flexibility and resilience.
Shifting Utility Culture: From Cost per Kilometer to Cost per Ampere-Kilometer
The IDB is also helping transform the culture of utilities. For years, the focus on minimizing cost per kilometer has driven the use of outdated technologies. Now, the Bank is promoting a shift toward total cost of ownership and encouraging a performance-based approach where cost per ampere-kilometer becomes the key metric.
Technologies That Deliver Now
Advanced Conductors as Immediate, Scalable Solutions
This was the core message of the webinar: that Advanced Conductors and smart grid technologies are essential tools for addressing the dual challenge of immediate capacity needs and long-term system transformation. They allow utilities to optimize existing corridors, reduce losses, improve safety margins, and accommodate new generation and load without waiting years for greenfield projects to navigate environmental permitting and land-use negotiations. These solutions do not replace the need for new transmission lines, but they buy time – often years – in which planners, regulators, and developers can align on major projects while still delivering the reliable service and renewable integration that customers and industries require.
From Aspiration to Action
For the IDB, the conversation represented more than a technical exchange. It was part of a broader effort to help the region navigate a pivotal moment in its energy future. By convening utilities such as AEP and EPM – and by grounding these discussions in the rigorous analytical framework of Unlocking the Grid – the Bank is helping countries move from aspiration to action. The webinar demonstrated that the technologies capable of transforming transmission systems are not distant or experimental. They exist now. They are being deployed successfully. And they offer a pathway for countries to strengthen their grids in ways that are faster, smarter, and more aligned with community and environmental priorities.
A Clear and Urgent Mission for the Region
As Latin America and the Caribbean accelerate their energy transition, the IDB’s mission becomes both clearer and more urgent: to support the development of transmission systems that are robust enough to withstand tomorrow’s risks, flexible enough to integrate tomorrow’s technologies, and efficient enough to power tomorrow’s economies. Advanced Conductors are one of the tools enabling that journey – but behind them lies an even more powerful driver: the shared regional commitment to building an electric future that is resilient, clean, and inclusive.
