[[{“value”:”Just flagging that while YIMBY is important…it’s only part of the solution. And it’s unclear just how important it is compared to the issues below because so few projects are even proposed and most that are do in fact get built without too much NIMBY delay (though it certainly does happen and as an attorney
The post A different perspective on power grid YIMBY and NIMBY (from my email) appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.”}]]
Just flagging that while YIMBY is important…it’s only part of the solution. And it’s unclear just how important it is compared to the issues below because so few projects are even proposed and most that are do in fact get built without too much NIMBY delay (though it certainly does happen and as an attorney I’ve had clients on both sides of those fights).
A major cause of the decline in transmission miles built is that transmission owners (typically incumbent utilities often with some amount of government granted monopoly power) have chosen not to build the kind of high voltage transmission lines that bring power from generation, largely in an effort to avoid competition and construction risk. In short, they make more money building smaller projects that maintain reliability but don’t increase the transmission capacity of the system because those smaller projects are immune from planning scrutiny and competition.
FERC is currently sitting on a new rule that will attempt to improve this, though in my opinion should go much further than I suspect it will. Eg, FERC should significantly roll back the rate of return and assumption of prudence for small projects that are increasingly making up the bulk of transmission investments as well as forcing transmission planners to fully incorporate multiple benefits of projects when deciding what projects get priority (similar to what the Midcontinent Independent System Operator does for its Long Range Transmission Planning portfolios).
Hope that context is helpful. NIMBY is all the talk in transmission right now, but it is in reality not the main source of drag on development in my experience. In some ways I’d love for NIMBY to be the biggest hurdle because it would at least mean we’d be trying to build ambitious new projects.
From Anonymous.
The post A different perspective on power grid YIMBY and NIMBY (from my email) appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.
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