Update Regional Transmission Planning
Linda Apsey is president and chief executive officer of ITC Holdings Corp., the largest independent electricity transmission company in the United States. ITC is a subsidiary of Fortis Inc., a leader in the North American regulated electric and gas utility industry.
As states, utilities, and companies large and small pursue increasingly ambitious clean energy objectives, those of us in the energy sector are compelled to consider what policies and approaches are necessary to ensure that the road to a better energy future leads to cleaner, cheaper, more reliable power.
As an independent owner and operator of electric transmission infrastructure, our company has seen first-hand how smart, careful, and timely investment in the transmission system can help bring about fundamental changes in the power system.
A truly regional transmission grid supports the ability of new generation resources to interconnect where these resources are cheapest. By building the right infrastructure today, we can access our abundant wind and solar resources and reduce emissions dramatically, while also ensuring and enhancing the resilience of the power system. Most important to most people, we can actually reduce electricity costs to customers as we achieve these goals.
Supporting Renewables, Enhancing Resilience
As we strive to reduce emissions from the power sector, expansion of electric grid infrastructure must be an essential consideration. New regional and inter-regional grid infrastructure is necessary to accelerate the deployment of cost-effective wind and solar generation resources.