Reconductoring: A Faster, Cheaper Way to Boost the Midwestern Electric Grid? [Webinar]

Demand for electricity is growing as electricity generation is shifting to renewable sources, a combination that is straining the Midwest’s existing electricity grid. While the process of planning, permitting and building new transmission lines is long (sometimes measured in decades), another approach seems to offer a shorter-term solution that can be applied to existing transmission lines.

A new report from GridLab touts reconductoring – the rewiring of transmission lines with newer, more efficient wires – as a quicker way to boost capacity and efficiency, reduce wire “sag” (therefore reducing the chances for both short circuits and wildfires), and to essentially buy time for new transmission lines to be built.

GridLab’s senior program manager Casey Baker and technical education director Cassady Craighill delineated the policy considerations and technical details state legislators should know as they look at reconductoring in their states and provinces.

This free webinar was hosted by The Council of State Governments’ Midwestern Legislative Conference’s Energy & Environment Committee.

GridLab’s presentation is available here.