The renewable energy supply chain problem: A new geography of power supply and new species of electricity transmission

The United States faces an increasingly pressing renewable electricity supply chain problem. The problem is manifestly geographical—the best, low-cost, renewable generation sites (in the county’s interior) are inconveniently located far from the population load centers. Transiting such a route means that renewable power often must cross state lines and various organized regional wholesale power markets—a trip that existing US transmission networks (designed first for reliability and second for low-cost regional wholesale power markets) were not designed to accommodate. Overcoming such geographical entry barriers through competitive transmission investment is challenging—but not a new kind of problem for Congress or the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). The FERC is indeed the world’s expert in such difficult issues relating to the continental geography of competitive energy supply—overcoming such entry barriers with stunning success in US natural gas markets. This paper looks at how Congress and the FERC have motivated competitive interstate pipeline transmission and where/how those lessons can help with the investment and siting problems facing the new geography in renewable generation.