CONSUMER, EMPLOYMENT, AND ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFITS OF ELECTRICITY TRANSMISSION EXPANSION IN THE EASTERN UNITED STATES

The present study finds that by the entire Eastern Interconnection (EIC) decarbonizing by 95% by 2050 (and 65% by 2035) over 6 million new jobs could be created and $100 billion could be saved. This saving amounts to about $300 per residential customer per year. To achieve the low-emission electricity system, transmission must be expanded across the EIC to efficiently share the over 80% of wind and solar generation by 2050.

The study finds that wind, solar, storage and transmission can be complements to each other to help reduce the cost to decarbonize the electricity system. Transmission provides spatial diversity, storage provides temporal diversity, and the wind and solar provide the low-cost, emission-free generation.