US renewables industry welcomes legislative initiative for more stable power grids

The American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE) has commended a bill introduced by two Democratic Party politicians to modernize the country’s largely inadequate power grid. The core objective of the »BIG WIRES« Act (Building Integrated Grids With Inter-Regional Energy Supply) is to improve the interconnection of regional subgrids by expanding supraregional lines.
The two initiators, Representative Scott Peters (California) and Senator John Hickenlooper (Oregon), cite the greater stability in the event of natural disasters and the lower maintenance costs, i.e. lower electricity prices, as the main reasons. But equally, they said, there is a need to upgrade the grids to transport large amounts of electricity from one part of the country to another, and thus to better integrate renewable energy.
ACORE, in a statement, found the bill takes a »straightforward, commonsense approach«. The bill represented »a crucial step toward the 21st century Macro Grid we need to keep pace with global competition.«
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