GRID

ACORE’s Macro Grid Initiative seeks to expand and upgrade the nation’s transmission network to deliver job growth and economic development, a cleaner environment, and lower costs for consumers. Through a transmission Macro Grid, we can connect centers of high renewable resources with centers of high electric demand, enhance grid resiliency and dramatically reduce carbon emissions. ACORE and its partners advocate for a fully planned and integrated national transmission system, promote a new FERC transmission planning rule, and enlist state leaders to advance the next round of regional and interregional transmission planning.

ACORE promotes increased investment in transmission infrastructure for greater access to, and delivery of, renewable resources. Through transmission expansion, we can unlock tens of gigawatts of wind and solar stuck in interconnection queues. Upgrading America’s transmission system is a cost-effective way to alleviate transmission congestion and allow the integration of new renewable energy, which is expanding rapidly due to competitive prices, corporate procurement goals and state renewable energy standards. Through legislative and regulatory action, ACORE works to match transmission planning rules with the reality of renewable growth and ensure that these capital-intensive, high-return projects can be financed in cost-effective ways.

ACORE promotes enhanced wholesale power market design to better value the economic, reliability and climate contributions of renewable energy, energy storage, distributed generation and other enabling grid technologies. Expansion of regional power markets that balance supply and demand for electricity creates new opportunities for renewable growth while increasing the economic efficiency of the bulk power system. ACORE also works to preserve market access for renewable energy in the capacity submarkets and ensure proper valuation in the ancillary services submarkets. Through the RTO Collaborative, ACORE and its partners coordinate to synchronize work streams and allocate resources across the nation’s regional transmission organizations (RTOs). ACORE’s Grid Forum and Power Markets webinars serve as platforms for members to interact with regulatory officials, senior executives from wholesale markets and other power market experts.

Integrating energy storage, hybrid resources (e.g. storage-plus-solar, storage-plus-wind and solar-plus-wind) and other advanced grid technologies is vital to unlocking the potential of our future grid. Enabling market access for these resources has the potential to transform the power system and fundamentally change the way we think about energy. The technologies’ value lies in their ability to improve grid flexibility and shift electricity supply to times of peak load, as well as provide a wide range of services that enhance reliability and resilience while enabling greater renewable energy integration. ACORE promotes the growth of grid-enabling technologies through policy advocacy and financing innovation.