As has been well-documented in multiple posts of Colorado Energy News and other energy-focused media, an electrical transmission build-out is required to provide renewables access to markets on a broad scale. But delivering new sources of power generation to energy hungry American consumers and businesses is not the only benefit from an upgraded transmission system. How about the jobs it would create?

Posted by Ann Rascalli

A new analysis commissioned by WIRES, which stands for Working group for Investment in Reliable and Economic electric Systems, shows that annual investment in new electric transmission facilities could soon reach $12 billion to $16 billion in the United States, resulting in a whooping $30-$40 billion in annual economic activity. 

Even more important in the context of the current economy is the level of employment this investment would support: 150,000-200,000 new full-time jobs in the U.S. in each of the next 20 years and between 20,000 and 50,000 new jobs each year in Canada, according to the report.
 
To be sure a host of difficulties remain to be overcome before a full-on upgrade to our electrical grid takes place, including cost-sharing, citing and permitting issues. The NIMBY viewpoint is alive and well in several areas key to a grid build-out with teeth.

In addition, the argument for local control of energy generation, especially renewables, is gathering steam in places like the San Luis Valley. Proponents of this viewpoint point to reports suggesting the current level of infrastructure investment is outpacing demand. But that is likely to change.

The WIRES study conducted by the consulting firm The Brattle Group, emphasizes that expanding and upgrading the grid to meet identifiable economic and reliability needs, as well as state renewable energy mandates, will help drive economic recovery and set the stage for the electric economy of the 21st century.

Some economic advisors and pundits have been saying for the last couple of years that one way for the country to pull out of its current economic troubles would be to deliver on a mega national goal like rebuilding America’s infrastructure. This decade’s version of the Moon Shot. Well, in today’s wired world, there is no more important infrastructure than our electrical grid. The benefits wouldn’t just be the final product — a vastly improved transmission system delivering cleaner, cheaper energy to more markets — but a year-by-year jobs builder, as well, during a time when new avenues of broadbased employment are hard to come by.

ADDED BENEFITS

In addition to these employment and economic stimulus benefits from constructing the facilities and manufacturing equipment, strengthening of the transmission grid provides other important benefits, including:

♦ Reduced transmission losses, production cost savings, enhanced wholesale power market competition and liquidity, and associated wholesale power price reductions

♦ The economic value of increased reliability, insurance against high-cost outcomes under extreme market conditions, and increased flexibility of grid operations

♦ Generation investment cost savings and access to lower-cost renewable generation

♦ Reduced emissions and fossil fuel consumption

♦ Economic benefits from increased federal, state, and local tax income.

These operations-phase benefits of an enhanced transmission grid tend to be wide-spread geographically, diverse in their effects on individual market participants, occur over long periods of time (i.e., several decades) and more than offset the rate impacts of investment cost recovery.

This analysis differs from other studies of local employment benefits of transmission investments by assessing these benefits from a nation-wide perspective. To accomplish this, The Brattle Group first estimated the likely range of nation-wide transmission investments through 2030, starting with a detailed accounting of the near-term and likely long-term investment needs.

It then measured the total employment and economic activity stimulated by the increased spending on transmission infrastructure (i.e., manufacturing, construction, and services). This economic activity includes the impacts of transmission construction spending, manufacturing of transmission equipment, and supporting services.

Read the rest of the analysis by Downloading the WIRES report here (PDF).