Despite the slowdown, utilities spent more than $25 billion on transmission last year, mainly on lower-voltage projects, up from about $20 billion in 2013, according to Grid Strategies.

Utilities and other transmission developers brought 55 miles of high-voltage transmission lines into service in 2023, according to a report released Tuesday by Grid Strategies.

Through May this year, one project — the 125-mile, 500-kV Delaney-to-Colorado line between Arizona and California — has started operating, Grid Strategies said, citing the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

High-voltage transmission construction — 345-kV or greater — has fallen since the early 2010s when about 1,700 miles was added each year on average, according to the report. High-voltage additions fell to 925 miles on average from 2015 to 2019, and 350 miles a year from 2020 to 2023, Grid Strategies said.

Despite the decline in building high-voltage power lines, utility spending on transmission infrastructure increased to more than $25 billion last year, up from about $20 billion in 2013, according to the consulting firm.

More than 90% of the spending is on lower voltage, reliability-driven transmission projects that are often built outside of regional transmission planning processes without consideration for broader benefits that transmission can provide, according to the report.

“Multi-value projects would maximize benefits to ratepayers while also helping achieve state policy goals or unlocking other economic benefits such as lower cost generation,” Grid Strategies said.

The Edison Electric Institute, a trade group representing investor-owned utilities, expects its members will spend about $30 billion a year on transmission over three years starting this year, Grid Strategies said in the report, which was drafted with support from Americans for a Clean Energy Grid.

A transmission buildout in the 2010s shows that comprehensive transmission planning can facilitate new power lines that increase net-benefits to ratepayers compared to “reactive, siloed, ‘local’ planning processes that focus almost solely on ‘just-in-time’ piecemeal additions,” Grid Strategies said.

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