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Every day, millions of Californians rely on our energy grid to power our modern way of life. Thanks to a network of transmission lines that carry energy from where it’s generated to where it’s used, we’re able to heat and cool our homes, keep the lights on in our schools and businesses, and even charge our vehicles. We rarely think twice about it — until the power goes out. Most of America’s transmission lines were built in the 1950s and 1960s, and were only intended to have a 50-year lifespan. We’re way overdue for an upgrade.
Improving California’s existing transmission infrastructure, building new lines, and pursuing a regional approach to transmission planning and coordination will ensure we can all enjoy reliable electricity, while also bringing thousands of new living-wage jobs to the state, lowering costs, and accelerating the clean energy transition.
Transmission Means Reliability
Keeping The Lights And AC On In Extreme Weather
Last year, California saw one of the worst heat waves in modern history, and the triple-digit temperatures in the summertime aren’t dropping anytime soon. When everyone reaches for the thermostat in these extreme conditions, our outdated power grid gets overloaded, risking dangerous outages. It doesn’t have to be this way: We can avoid the risk of blackouts when temperatures soar by upgrading our transmission infrastructure and implementing modern technologies that can improve the grid’s capacity to move energy during high demand. With a robust, 21st-century transmission system, we can keep the lights on and stay cool when it gets hot.
Transmission Means Affordability
Transmission Clears The Way For The Lowest-Cost Clean Energy
Just as roads and bridges experience gridlock during rush hour, our transmission system can get congested when energy use surges and there’s not enough capacity available to move low-cost energy where it needs to go. When extreme temperatures hit and Californians all reach for the thermostat at once, it puts tremendous pressure on our outdated transmission grid, leading to grid congestion and higher electric bills. Adding grid-enhancing technologies, or GETs, to our existing transmission grid could unlock 40% more grid capacity and reduce congestion costs in the short term. Over time, building new transmission projects will let us connect more clean wind and solar power and lower energy costs even more.
Transmission Means Cleaner Energy
Transmission Is Our Ticket To 100% Clean Energy
On a mild day in 2022, California met 100% of its energy demand with renewable sources for the first time ever. It was an exciting milestone — but on average, clean energy supplies just a quarter of California’s energy. To achieve our stated goal of 100% clean energy by 2045, we need to upgrade our transmission infrastructure. Already, the U.S. has enough clean energy projects under development to meet 80% of the nation’s total demand — we just need an improved transmission system to adequately transport that energy to where we work, live, and play. More transmission to the state’s coastal cities also means we can close old, polluting fossil plants in communities overburdened with pollution.
Transmission Means Jobs
Good-Paying Jobs For California’s Economy
The need to build and maintain transmission infrastructure means we can permanently employ Californians. By some estimates, the U.S. needs to build as many as 91,000 miles of new transmission lines in the next 13 years — which means new high-paying jobs across the country. Planning and building more interstate transmission and using it efficiently could create between 34,400 and 138,700 permanent jobs across the state within the next 10 years.
Policy Updates
- On June 17, AB2779 passed the Senate Appropriations Committee. AB2779 requires CAISO, upon approval of each transmission plan, to report to the CPUC and the legislature any new use of any GET in that plan and the cost or efficiency savings of the deployment of that GET. The bill is now on the Senate Floor and will likely be voted out in August.
- On June 25, SB1006 passed the Assembly Utilities and Energy Committee with a unanimous vote and was referred to the Appropriations Committee. After amendments taken in committee, this bill requires utilities to prepare a study of the feasibility of projects using GETs every 2 years and another study of which of its transmission lines can be reconductored with advanced conductors every 4 years. Each study would include information on how the projects could achieve increased capacity, decreased congestion, increased reliability, and reduced wildfire risk, among others. Upon completion of the studies, utilities must request CAISO to review the results as part of its transmission planning process for economic, reliability, and policy goals.
- On June 25, AB3246 passed the Senate Energy Committee with bipartisan support and was referred to the Senate Appropriations Committee. This bill requires the CPUC, on or before January 1, 2026, to streamline the permitting process for advanced reconductoring by allowing a utility to seek CPUC approval for these projects through its informal advice letter process.
- On July 3, AB3238 passed the Senate Environmental Quality Committee and was referred to the Senate Appropriations Committee with an agreement between the author and the committee Chair to narrow the bill to just the provisions in the GO 131-D settlement agreement, which seeks to streamline transmission permitting.