Conclusions | Massive Renewables uptake through enhanced grids. A transatlantic perspective

Conclusions | Massive Renewables Uptake through Enhanced Grids. A Transatlantic Perspective.

June 2021

Thank you for joining us on the 1st of June for a transatlantic discussion about the Massive Renewables Uptake through Enhanced Grids.

Some takeaways of our 5th webinar to keep in mind:

Massive renewables demand on both sides of the Atlantic triggers more demand for enhancing technologies.
The Biden administration shows ambitions to support energy grid enhancement and international cooperation on sharing ideas and best practice.
The European Union has “all hands on deck” to implement renewable energy in a cross-border approach as quick as possible.
Great expectations ahead for new EU regulations entering the public on the 14th of July.
Electrical demand will increase by 2-3 times by 2050, leading to an increased demand for immense efficient energy grids.

Summary of our webinar

In this fifth webinar of the currENT series on ‘New challenges, new solutions for future proofing the power grid’ and the first common webinar of WATT and currENT we discussed the results of the Brattle report on the role of Grid Enhancing Technologies and what it means for Europe as well as related transatlantic opportunities to make the most out of our infrastructure: the heartbeat of the energy transition.

The Brattle Group’s report ́Unlocking the Queue ́ was released on February 25th 2021 by WATT, Working for Advanced Transmission Technologies, a US policy and advocacy coalition. According to the report, Grid Enhancing Technologies (GETs) can double the amount of Renewables taken into the system in the next five years. GETs – both for existing and new power grids – are valuable tools to get unlock the queue of Renewables that want to connect to the system. In the webinar we will discuss what it means for Europe and will discuss related transatlantic opportunities to make the most out of our infrastructure: the heartbeat of the energy transition.

There is a growing consensus in both EU and US that more transmission is needed. Biden’s ́build back better ́ agenda is focused on infrastructure investment. Yet, while we agree with the need for more infrastructure, we all know that delays will occur. The cost of delay is high to society: we miss carbon targets and we pay for congestion and curtailment. Therefore, waiting is not an option: Grid Enhancing Technologies buy us valuable time since they can be installed in less than a year. They can bridge the gap and provide value to customers by letting renewables connect to the system now and avoid waiting years in the queue. Meanwhile, more efforts are needed to develop new, more efficient, innovative transmission technology to connect rapidly growing renewable energy capacity.

With the Biden presidency and its priority on climate there is a new opportunity for success on the Paris agenda. The Climate summit on 22nd April in Washington, preceding the COP 26 in November in Glasgow, showed strong commitment for making this decade a decade of ambition, decision and action.

Our panel of experts:

Susanne Nies (Board chair of currENT) and Jenny Erwin (Board chair of WATT)
Jay Caspary (VP of Grid Strategies LLC)
Rob Gramlich (President of Grid Strategies LLC, Executive Director of WATT, Executive Director of Americans for the Clean Grid (ACEG))
Oliver Koch (DG ENER, European Commission)
John Fitzgerald (CEO, SuperNode)
Michael Jesberger (CTO TransnetBW)
Giles Dickson (CEO WindEurope)