As the country pushes ahead with renewable energy goals, the challenges facing the grid are substantial, but not insurmountable, according to energy experts.
Keeping the lights on through a tangle of transmission lines and substations with fluctuating demands has always been a complex task. Add to that the relatively unpredictable ups and downs of solar or wind energy generation, depending on the weather.
New York state, as well as other regions across the United States, will have to ensure reserve energy is ready for when the sun isn’t shining or the wind isn’t blowing. It will have to make sure the grid’s infrastructure, including transmission lines, is ready to deliver the energy from the solar arrays or wind farms to the customers.
Reserve capacity and transmission, “are age-old issues that aren’t new in the energy space,” said New York Department of Public Services Manager of Strategic Engagement Peter Olmsted. But, he said, renewable energy planning gives us an opportunity to view them in a new light. It brings new challenges, but also new solutions.
Transmission Infrastructure: ‘Not in my backyard’
In September, New York state wrapped up three years of negotiations with communities around Rochester over the controversial plan to build a substation and 23 miles of transmission lines across active farmland.
The infrastructure, needed to maintain the stability of the local grid, has now been moved to unused farmland and natural land, with mitigation measures in place to lessen the environmental impacts.
These are the kinds of disputes inherent in building infrastructure for power transmission.
The New York Independent System Operator (NYISO), responsible for managing the flow of power across the state, has said plans for wind and solar projects upstate may require some 1,000 miles of new transmission lines to deliver the power to the metropolitan regions of southeastern New York.
