“We’re focusing on squeezing every amp that we possibly can out of the existing lines that we have,” Dominion Energy’s Matthew Gardner said at a White House forum.

Twenty-one states will work with the federal government to expand the use of grid-enhancing technologies, called GETs, and advanced conductors in an effort to get more throughput out of the existing transmission system under an initiative launched Tuesday.

As part of the effort, the parties pledged to increase state and federal cooperation on intraregional and interregional transmission planning, according to the Federal-State Modern Grid Deployment Initiative.

Participants also plan to consider innovative partnership models, pool resources and jointly plan transmission and distribution infrastructure development.

The states committed to explore ways to spur the use of GETs and high-performance conductors, which could include considering the technologies in grid planning and offering utilities financial incentives to use them, according to the initiative.

The states in the initiative are Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawai‘i, Illinois, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Washington, and Wisconsin. They are all led by Democratic governors and are members of the U.S. Climate Alliance.

GETs are the lowest hanging fruit for adding capacity to the grid at the least cost, according to Jennifer Granholm, secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy. “So there’s no reason not to love grid-enhancing technologies, unless you’re a transmission developer,” Granholm said Tuesday at a White House summit on grid modernization.

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For more news related to and affecting the utility industry, check out some of our posts on the Supreme Court’s Chevron case, the US DoD partnering with Duke, and new reactor construction.