There’s so much wind and solar energy being proposed in the U.S. that there’s not enough power lines to get that energy where it needs to go. Building out that new transmission is expensive — it’s one of the things causing Indiana utilities to raise customers’ electric bills right now.
Senate Bill 422, which aims to help, passed unanimously out of a House committee on Tuesday.
The bill requires utilities to consider “advanced transmission technologies” in their long-term plans. That’s technology that can be added to things like power lines to make them more efficient and reduce congestion.
“Which can hopefully lead to fewer increased costs to customers, including the older Hoosiers who are already struggling to afford the utility bills on top of higher costs such as food and medicine," said Jason Tomcsi of AARP Indiana.
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Sam Carpenter, executive director of the Hoosier Environmental Council, said advanced transmission technologies can also reduce how often cheaper, cleaner sources like wind and solar get “curtailed.” That’s when grid operators restrict an oversupply of energy flowing to the grid to prevent blackouts.
“Grid enhancing technologies really is the most effective and the fastest and the cheapest way to get more capacity out of our existing grid," Carpenter said.
Carpenter said utilities will still have to build more power lines in the next decade, but the bill could prevent some electric rate increases in the short term.
Audubon Great Lakes said building fewer new power lines would also reduce bird deaths.
The bill now moves to the full House for consideration.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this story misattributed a reduction in bird deaths from new power lines to the Indiana Audubon Society. That was incorrect. It was Audubon Great Lakes.
Rebecca is our energy and environment reporter. Contact her at rthiele@iu.edu or follow her on Twitter at @beckythiele.