HVDC Transmission: A National Security and Energy Resilience Imperative

The U.S. electric transmission system is not equipped to mitigate the national security risks facing the country, according to a report from Converge Strategies and Invenergy. The report, HVDC Transmission: A National Security and Energy Resilience Imperative, found that current transmission planning practices do not offer the resilience needed to support U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) installations, the nation’s largest ratepayer. Such facilities require uninterrupted electricity service, yet increasingly frequent and severe weather events pose serious threats to DoD’s readiness and operations as well as the citizens the military seeks to protect.

High voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission lines provide a wide variety of benefits that can help deliver the flexibility needed to meet DoD’s evolving needs as well as the communities supporting the bases. HVDC lines can help ensure reliable power for national security operations, as well as act as a jumper cable to quickly bring power back online in an outage.