Faced with an ever-increasing demand for electricity, U.S. utilities are driven to undertake electric grid modernization initiatives to upgrade and reinforce an aging system in order to reliably deliver energy to end users.

Today’s electricity providers are challenged to meet the energy needs of a proliferation of computing data centers and energy-intensive technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud computing, as well as the need to efficiently transmit the electricity produced by renewable energy sources that are often located a considerable distance away from large population centers. In addition, frequent extreme weather events are increasingly testing the grid’s physical resilience and technical performance.

These factors and others demand a re-imagining of the way the grid is structured. GAI is advancing this mission by deploying multidiscipline teams to help clients incorporate innovative solutions to optimize their part of the interconnected generation facilities, substations, and transmission and distribution lines that make up America’s electric grid.

Helping the Grid Weather the Weather

The growing regularity of extreme weather-related events like hurricanes, flooding, and even wildfires have had negative impacts on electric grid components and their performance to a point where these effects have become increasingly pervasive in the everyday lives of utility customers. According to a Climate Central analysis of utility-provided outage reporting, some 80% of outages between 2000 and 2023 were attributed to weather events.

GAI’s Florida service area, for instance, generally sees a number of major storms make landfall during hurricane season, which usually results in some sort of power outage. Many utilities have spent a lot of time and effort seeking ways to make the grid more resilient, particularly at the distribution level that feeds homes and businesses.

Tellingly, the Climate Central analysis reveals a significant increase in weather-related outages in recent years, with approximately twice as many such outages taking place during the last 10 years of the study period (2014-2023) compared to the first 10 years (2000-2009), making electric grid improvements ever more important for enhancing dependable electricity delivery into the future.

To help clients fortify distribution grids to better withstand weather damage, GAI professionals have designed solutions utilizing hardening strategies that include undergrounding distribution lines and reinforcing overhead poles to reduce outages from fallen trees and high winds, as well as incorporating smart grid devices that communicate system conditions, isolate trouble spots to help avoid widespread outages, and work in concert to regulate how power is allocated on the distribution grid. For clients requiring improved substation resilience, GAI professionals have designed gas-insulated substations (GIS), a growing approach that can improve electric grid performance while fitting tight urban or industrial spaces, allow for increased grid capacity, can be sited in coastal areas and elevated to accommodate flood constraints, and can be designed to complement surrounding aesthetics.

Delivering Electricity Where It’s Needed

With the Electric Power Research Institute’s (EPRI) recent projection that data center electricity use could account for as much as 9% of the U.S. electricity-consumption total by 2030, there is an increasing need to bring more energy to the market in order to reliably power these facilities while maintaining needed energy for households and conventional business and industry.

Advancing a U.S. government goal of realizing a net-zero power sector by 2035, renewable energy generation from solar sources has increased in 2023 to more than eight times the amount generated in 2014, while renewable energy generation from wind sources in 2023 has more than doubled 2014 levels. The challenge now is to reliably transmit the renewable energy from the often-decentralized locations where it is generated to the communities, businesses, and, increasingly, to the computing data centers where it is needed.

In May 2024, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) identified 10 electric transmission corridors across the U.S. as targeted locations for facilitated federal financing and permitting for grid-expansion initiatives. In August 2024, the DOE awarded $2.2B to fund eight transmission projects estimated to expand grid capacity by 13 GW. Among these are the Power Up New England project, which adds 4.8 GW of offshore wind power to the grid through upgraded transmission points of interconnection in Massachusetts and southeast Connecticut; the Clean Path New York project, which includes 20 renewable energy generation projects and an approximately 175-mile underground transmission line–generating 3.8 GW of new wind and solar power and delivering approximately 8 million MWh of energy; and the Data Center Flexibility as a Grid Enhancing Technology project, which will implement battery energy-storage systems at the Iron Mountain data center in Virginia and deploy a combination of turbine, solar, and battery-storage technologies in South Carolina.

To help clients deliver more energy to the market while controlling costs, GAI-designed solutions can include dynamic line rating (DLR) technology that evaluates power flow and weather parameters and allows for nominal increases in line capacity to meet project demands, which can help clients reduce the need for expensive transmission tower replacement. GAI solutions can also employ technology such as Synchronous Condensers and STATCOM’s that can help defer costly replacement efforts by improving transmission line power quality.

GAI Powers Holistic Electric Grid Modernization

Comprehensive electric grid modernization projects bring together a broad range of engineering disciplines to achieve a single goal. In one such project for a large utility client, GAI is deploying experienced specialists from an array of practice areas to design and implement a sustainable solution to better serve the energy needs of the utility’s customers and help meet its grid modernization targets.

Acting as the client’s advisor and staffed by a deep talent pool, GAI is assisting in hundreds of separate projects or initiatives for the utility across its multistate service area. These include efforts as varied as siting and permitting 100+ miles of transmission line rebuild, civil design and geotechnical evaluations for new substations, design for replacement of 500 kV substations and replacement of protective relays, and assistance with system-wide initiatives including reliability improvements to over 1,700 distribution projects. GAI is also providing staff augmentation for a variety of disciplines, environmental compliance monitoring, extra-high voltage (EHV) interconnector studies, various professional services associated with complex 500/230 kV upgrades directed by the Regional Transmission Organization (RTO), and much more.

In this ambitious ongoing program, GAI provides a single source for expertise in power-delivery engineering, environmental services, cultural resources, surveying and mapping, routing/siting, permitting, geotechnical, and more, as well as conducting public outreach to engage the community and keep it informed about the electric grid modernization effort as it moves forward.

Partnering for a Sustainable Energy Future

Re-imagining the grid to adequately serve our nation’s growing energy needs requires a cooperative, collaborative, and sustained commitment on the part of utilities, businesses, and government. Creative, adaptive approaches to this effort are necessary to help meet the challenges that may lie ahead. With experienced professionals that bring forward-thinking solutions to meet the many engineering considerations involved in electric grid modernization projects, GAI is positioned to guide and support these vital initiatives and help our clients secure America’s sustainable energy future.

For more information about GAI’s comprehensive engineering, environmental, and cultural resources support for a range of power and energy projects, contact:

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In his role leading GAI’s Power & Energy business, ⁠Richard Kodera, PE, PEng leverages over 20 years of experience to serve the complex needs of the firm’s valued clients, help attract new business opportunities, and reinforce long-standing client relationships. With deep, practiced insight into a comprehensive scope of power and energy initiatives large and small, he heads an integrated team of professionals committed to providing sustainable engineering and design solutions for a range of high-priority projects.