No Transition Without Transmission: Building A Futureproof Electrical System
Smarter routing, lighter vehicles, and new digital tools can dramatically cut transport emissions. This scene highlights contrail-avoiding flight paths, advanced aircraft design enabling battery-powered aviation, high-speed rail, electric and autonomous vehicles, and lightweight urban mobility like bikes and e-bikes. Remote work and emerging telepresence technologies can also reduce the need to travel at all.
Today’s electrical system can’t keep up. The grid was built in the twentieth century as a one-way highway system, designed to move power from large, centralized plants to passive consumers. But the world has changed, and electricity has too. By 2050, the grid will need to transmit twice as much electricity as it does today. At the same time, it’s being asked to integrate renewables at scale, serve fast-growing electrified industries and data centres, support millions of distributed energy resources, and remain reliable amid more extreme weather. The result is a growing mismatch between what the grid can do and what the clean energy transition requires. Fixing this means transforming the grid from a static delivery system into a dynamic, digitally coordinated network capable of moving more power, more flexibly; operating closer to its physical limits; and coordinating generation, storage, and demand in real time. With the right solutions, it’s possible to turn the grid from a bottleneck into an enabler of a faster, cheaper, and more resilient energy transition.
Using IPCC and GCAM data, Energy Innovation projected future “greenhouse gas emissions at stake” in 2050, assuming current policies remain in place. The resulting estimates overlap because different technologies may reduce the same emissions pool.
The Path We’re On
The grid made sense for the world it was built for. That world no longer exists.
Transmission and distribution networks were built to support a centralized, predictable power system — one where large fossil-fueled plants generated electricity, demand followed stable patterns, and power mostly moved outward from big power stations to end users. For decades, incremental upgrades were enough to keep pace. But an increasingly electrified world — with far higher electricity demand alongside new sources of generation and load — has fundamentally changed the shape of the system, exposing the limits of an electricity ecosystem engineered for a very different era.
Grid 101: What is Transmission?
The grid is the vast system of power plants, wires, and substations that delivers electricity. It has two main layers:
- Transmission is the “highways” of the grid. Today, high-voltage copper or aluminum wires — typically operating between ~115 kV and 765 kV — carry electricity long distances from big power plants or wind and solar farms to substations located near cities, towns, and industrial centers. Most transmission runs on alternating current (AC), which efficiently steps voltage up and down using transformers, though high-voltage direct current (HVDC) is increasingly used for very long distances and underwater cables because of its lower losses and controllability.
- Distribution is the “local roads.” Lower-voltage lines — typically 4 kV to 35 kV — carry electricity from substations into neighborhoods, businesses, and factories. Along the way, voltage is stepped down as needed; for instance, in homes it is reduced to a standard 120/240 volts.
Together, transmission and distribution enable the constant matching of electricity supply with demand.
The most visible symptom of a lagging system is mounting congestion and delay. In the United States alone, more than 2,000 gigawatts of clean generation and storage projects are currently stuck in interconnection queues — more than twice the total installed U.S. capacity. Permitting and siting challenges make new transmission lines slow and politically difficult. These backlogs reflect both transmission bottlenecks and slow, complex interconnection processes. Similar bottlenecks are emerging globally.
Congestion shows up most clearly as renewable curtailment and large differences in electricity prices between regions — signals that power cannot move efficiently from where it’s generated to where it’s consumed. As a result, low-cost wind and solar potential is not fully realized, even as electricity demand from data centers, electrified industry, and transport continues to surge.
But transmission capacity shortfalls are only part of the problem. Much of today’s transmission system is still operated using rigid rules designed for a fossil-dominated grid. Lines built for rare peak conditions often run well below their true physical limits, while congestion arises not only from missing infrastructure, but from limited visibility, control, and coordination across the network.
As inverter-based renewables replace conventional generators, reliability increasingly depends on flexibility, real-time operation, and advanced control — not just more poles and wires. When transmission, generation, storage, and demand flexibility are coordinated, they can substitute for one another in powerful ways, reducing redundancy, lowering system costs — and ultimately reducing pressure on customer electricity rates — while improving reliability across the entire electricity ecosystem.
The electric grid was built in 150 years. To meet climate goals, we need to vastly expand and improve it in the next 15.
A New Way Forward
Better transmission for a faster transition
Today’s electricity ecosystem reflects a growing mismatch between what the electricity system was built to do and what the clean energy transition now requires. Solving it will demand more than simply adding new lines. It will require improving how the grid ecosystem functions as a whole. The imperatives that follow highlight the highest-impact ways to modernize the grid for a clean, electrified economy.
Innovation Imperatives
Develop and deploy new transmission cables for higher capacity, lower losses, and expanded voltage ranges
As we generate and consume more electricity, many existing transmission lines are reaching their limits. Building new corridors and towers is slow, expensive, and often politically fraught — frequently taking a decade or more. This imperative focuses on a powerful alternative: upgrading the wires themselves to move far more clean energy through infrastructure that already exists. Next-generation conductors — including advanced aluminum composite and carbon-core cables — can carry significantly more electricity with lower losses and improved thermal performance, enabling rapid capacity expansion through reconductoring. Emerging high-temperature superconducting cables, which conduct electricity with near-zero resistance when cooled, could further increase power density in space-constrained or underground settings. Scaling these technologies allows utilities to unlock substantially more capacity from existing corridors, accelerating grid expansion without waiting years for new lines.
Deploy technologies to move more power through existing power lines
Today's grids are often operated with static limits, leaving vast amounts of latent capacity unused and leading to unnecessary congestion. Transmission lines are typically rated for conservative “worst-case” conditions — such as hot, still weather that limits cooling and increases sag — even though real-world conditions often allow them to safely carry more power. This imperative centers on deploying dynamic line rating systems, advanced flow controllers, and topology optimization software to increase visibility and control across the network. Advanced equipment monitoring sensors can detect and prevent failures before outages occur. DERMS platforms can coordinate distributed energy resources in real time, while transmission-sited battery and long-duration storage systems relieve congestion and defer infrastructure upgrades. By intelligently managing power flows, these systems can safely push far more energy through existing infrastructure, unlocking substantial new capacity without having to build new lines.
Deploy power electronics and grid stabilization technologies to integrate renewables
The shift from fossil fuel plants to renewable energy is reshaping the grid’s core requirements, while climate-driven weather extremes add further strain. Traditional grids relied on the stabilizing inertia of large spinning generators, but as these are replaced by distributed solar, wind, and batteries connected through inverters, the system loses its natural shock absorbers and faces greater supply–demand variability — raising the risk of instability and blackouts. Advanced power electronics and control systems can restore and even improve stability by enabling seamless integration of intermittent resources. Technologies such as grid-forming inverters, smart transformers, solid-state transformers, advanced fault current limiters, and wildfire prevention tools — including covered conductors and fast-trip protection systems — can make the grid more robust. Automated fault detection, self-healing networks, and microgrids that operate independently during outages further strengthen resilience, ensuring reliable power during emergencies and faster recovery from disruptions.
Speed up grid connections with automation and advanced modeling
Thousands of gigawatts of clean energy are currently stranded in long interconnection queues all over the world, often held back by slow, outdated, and manually intensive approval and engagement processes. This imperative is focused on developing and deploying advanced software, AI, and data analytics platforms to automate grid impact studies, streamline permitting workflows, and accelerate interconnection wherever possible. By cutting through procedural gridlock, these tools can unlock the backlog of solar and wind projects, bringing clean power online faster and clearing the path for a quicker energy transition.
Bypass grid bottlenecks with dedicated, co-located generation
The rapid growth of electricity-intensive loads — including data centers, advanced manufacturing, and industrial electrification — is straining already-congested transmission networks and delaying new projects for years. This imperative focuses on deploying clean, modular power systems co-located with large, flexible loads, particularly in industrial parks where generation, storage, and demand can be planned together. In these grid-interactive systems, on-site renewables and storage primarily serve local needs, while flexible operations adjust in response to grid conditions — ramping up when clean power is abundant and reducing demand or exporting power and reliability services when the grid is constrained. By coupling on-site clean power with storage and demand flexibility, these solutions relieve near-term transmission congestion — allowing critical loads to grow without waiting years for new grid capacity, and freeing up shared infrastructure for others.
Create low-cost, high-performance underground power lines
Building new overhead transmission lines is often stalled for years by permitting challenges and local opposition, while the lines themselves pose a growing wildfire ignition risk in increasingly hot and dry regions. But it’s possible to drive down costs and improve transmission performance through innovations in cable materials, thermal management, and less disruptive installation techniques. Lower-cost undergrounding could revolutionize grid expansion and hardening, enabling the construction of high-capacity power corridors that bypass siting conflicts and eliminate a critical fire threat to communities.
Build cross-border transmission systems to share clean power at continental scale
Regional supergrids — high-capacity transmission networks spanning multiple states or countries — can balance renewable energy by moving electricity from where wind and solar are abundant to where demand is highest. By pooling resources across larger geographies, these systems can smooth variability, reduce curtailment, and lower the need for redundant storage and backup generation. Advancing regional supergrids will require innovations in long-distance high-voltage transmission, coordinated planning across jurisdictions, and grid operations capable of maintaining reliability in systems dominated by inverter-based resources. High-voltage direct current (HVDC) technology — including multi-terminal DC networks — will be central to enabling efficient long-distance power transfer. As a secondary benefit, stronger regional interconnection can improve resilience during extreme weather events and reduce total system costs by sharing flexible resources over wider areas.
Moonshots
Implement electricity transmission to connect the grid globally
What if we could build an electrical grid for the entire planet, ensuring the sun never sets on our power supply? That’s the audacious goal of a global grid: an interconnected network designed to share clean energy across continents and hemispheres. Using ultra-long-distance transmission — whether through subsea cables, the atmosphere, or even space — we could send solar power from a daylit continent to one in darkness. This could be the ultimate solution to renewable intermittency, creating a perfectly balanced system where clean power is always available, everywhere.
Turn clean electricity into a transportable physical commodity
This moonshot aims to "bottle lightning" by transforming electricity from an instantaneous flow into a transportable physical commodity. The goal is to use clean energy to create high-density energy carriers, like metals, that can be stored and shipped anywhere in the world by rail, truck, or sea. That energy could then be released by reversing the process, completely bypassing traditional long-distance transmission infrastructure (and its many bottlenecks). Unlocking this opportunity would revolutionize global energy trade, making clean power a storable physical good.
Discover and deploy superconducting materials that operate at ambient temperature and pressure
Today’s high-temperature superconductors still require costly cryogenic cooling, limiting their use to niche applications. A true breakthrough would be the discovery of materials that conduct electricity with zero resistance at room temperature and standard pressure — eliminating the need for complex cooling systems. Such a discovery would fundamentally rewrite the physics of power transmission, enabling ultra-high-capacity lines with negligible losses and transforming how electricity moves across continents.
Implement long-distance wireless electricity transmission
Imagine cutting the cord on our energy system, literally liberating electricity from the confines of physical wires. This is the vision of wireless power: efficiently beaming clean energy from where it’s generated to where it’s needed — through the air. Achieving this would render some of today’s greatest grid challenges — like decades-long permitting battles, land-use conflicts, and weather vulnerabilities of physical power lines — obsolete.
The most viable solutions will:
The most viable solutions will help keep the grid stable when power supply and demand change, ensuring reliable electricity even as fossil fuel plants retire and extreme weather puts the system under stress.
Utilities generally earn returns by building infrastructure, not by avoiding it. As a result, grid-enhancing technologies that increase capacity and reliability without new construction often face structural barriers to adoption. Scalable solutions must either work within existing incentives or be paired with regulations that reward performance over capital spending.
Viable solutions must account for the practical barriers that shape grid development, including long permitting timelines, local opposition, and climate-driven risks like wildfire. Approaches that leverage existing corridors, minimize land-use conflicts, or accelerate deployment timelines will have a significant advantage.
Success will depend as much on operational intelligence as physical infrastructure. The most viable technologies will enable real-time visibility, adaptive control, and coordination across transmission, distribution, generation, storage, and load — allowing the system to operate closer to its true physical limits while maintaining reliability.
Transmission is one function of an integrated system. High-impact solutions will recognize the substitutability between wires, storage, and demand flexibility — enabling these resources to work together to reduce congestion, smooth variability, and lower system-wide costs. Technologies that assume siloed planning or one-way power flows will struggle to scale.
