Consumer, Employment, and Environmental Benefits of Electricity Transmission Expansion in the Eastern U.S.

In Consumer, Employment, and Environmental Benefits of Electricity Transmission Expansion in the Eastern U.S., firms Vibrant Clean Energy (VCE) and Grid Strategies show that transmission investments in the eastern United States can cost-effectively reduce electric sector CO2 emissions 95% by allowing the region to obtain over 80% of its electricity from wind and solar by 2050. The report shows that increased access to low-cost renewables brings average electric bill rates down by 3 cents/kWh, translating to more than $300 in annual household savings. Further, the study shows investments in transmission infrastructure will create 6 million net new jobs, increasing electric sector employment nearly 5-fold to more than 7.6 million over the next several decades.

The study evaluated four scenarios, with varying degrees of CO2 emission reductions and relative shares of wind and solar deployment. Many of the same transmission upgrades were built across all four scenarios, indicating these investments will be needed regardless of future wind and solar cost trends. The cost of transmission was less than half a cent per kWh in all scenarios, yet yielded savings many times greater than that. The model also used battery storage to increase the utilization of transmission lines, demonstrating that storage is a transmission complement, and not a substitute, as similar studies have found.

Consumer, Employment, and Environmental Benefits of Electricity Transmission Expansion in the Eastern U.S.