RELIABILITY

The energy landscape is changing, imposing new demands on the electric grid. At the same time, vital transmission infrastructure across the country is aging—the result of decades of under-investment. This leaves the electric grid vulnerable to severe weather as well as physical and cyber-attacks.  The right investments in the grid not only mitigate these vulnerabilities but offer huge potential to tap the country’s diverse energy resources—ultimately making power more reliable and affordable for customers and supporting economic growth.

OUR NATION’S ELECTRIC GRID FACES THREE PRIMARY CHALLENGES:

CONGESTION

Each year, congestion causes more than 184 million megawatts to never reach customers – this wasted energy would power 16.7 million homes annually.

INEFFICIENCY AND UNRELIABILITY

Over time our system has become less efficient. According to the Department of Energy, in 1970 transmission and distribution losses were about 5 percent. Today, they have increased 90 percent. In total, outages and power quality disturbances cost the American economy $100 billion annually.

INABILITY TO MEET GROWING DEMAND

Americans are consuming more electricity than ever before. We need to build more transmission now to meet growing demand that is predicted to increase by 25% by 2030.

Top-Tier Reliability Performance of ITC’s Transmission Systems

  • The transmission systems ITC acquired beginning in 2003 now routinely perform in the top tier of utilities nationally for service reliability. This performance stems from ITC upgrading or replacing aging electric infrastructure to improve the reliability and safety of the grid, thereby steadily reducing the number of outages in its service territories.
  • ITC has reduced the average number of outages by 50% at ITCTransmission, 25% at METC, and 63% at ITC Midwest based on data through 2019.

ITC Great Plains is a story of success from the ground up.  This greenfield transmission-only utility ITC pioneered in 2006 has completed four projects to date in Kansas and Oklahoma totaling 470 circuit miles.  Operating in the Southwest Power Pool (SPP) region, ITC Great Plains reflects the heritage of operational excellence, economic impact and renewable energy integration of its ITC affiliate companies.

ITC Comments to MPSC on Electric Supply Reliability Plans

Each year, the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC) requires Michigan-regulated utilities to file an assessment of the utility’s ability to meet its customers’ expected electrical requirements for the next five years. Regional transmission organizations and transmission owners, including ITCTransmission and METC, were requested to submit comments on the issues that they believe are most relevant to this analysis. READ ITC’S COMMENTS SUBMITTED TO THE MPSC.