The cheapest way to supercharge America’s power grid

So why are we not seeing an explosion in ATT investment and deployment in the US? Because despite their potential to unlock 21st-century technology, the 20th-century structure of the nation’s electricity markets discourages adoption of these solutions. For one thing, under the current regulatory system, utilities generally make money by passing the cost of big new developments along to customers (earning a fixed annual return on their investment). That comes in the form of higher electricity rates, which local public utility commissions often approve after power companies propose such projects. That means utilities have financial incentives to make large and expensive investments, but not to save consumers money. When ATTs are installed in place of building new transmission capacity, the smaller capital costs mean that utilities make lower profits. For example, utilities might earn $600,000 per year after building a new mile of transmission, compared with about $4,500 per mile annual ... Read full article.