Download Survey Results (350k PDF)

As part of CAEM’s Energy Infrastructure Forum, the Center for the Advancement of Energy Markets (CAEM) released the results of a survey of energy industry stakeholders conducted in late May to gather input on the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Transmission Grid Study (NTGS) recommendations. Over 200 industry stakeholders responded to the survey representing a broad cross section of the energy industry.

“People are definitely concerned about the lack of new investments in electric transmission capacity and believe not much leadership is being shown by the Bush Administration to deal with that growing problem,” stated Jamie Wimberly, CAEM President. “The idea that the Department of Energy is going to be able to solve the problem, as embodied in the general thrust of the NTGS recommendations, was roundly panned by almost everyone who responded, and sometimes in very sharp language. There was a lot more confidence expressed in FERC and the RTOs to do the job.”

Nat Treadway, CAEM’s Senior Research Analyst and principal author of the survey added, “The respondents were much more comfortable with the idea of DOE playing its traditional role of sponsoring R&D, particularly in regard to grid enhancing technologies and technologies/ programs geared towards voluntary load reduction. However, respondents also made it clear that DOE should limit the number of technologies that they support in order to put more resources toward accelerated deployment and commercialization.”

Survey respondents expressed the strongest support for the following recommendations (see the survey report for actual percentages):

• Entrepreneurial efforts to build merchant transmission lines that pose no financial risk to ratepayers and that provide overall system benefits should be encouraged.
• The Department of Energy (DOE) should determine how to identify and designate transmission bottlenecks that significantly impact national interests.
• The DOE should work with FERC, the states, and industry and conduct research on programs and technologies to enhance voluntary customer load reduction in response to transmission system emergencies and market price signals.
• The DOE will accelerate development and demonstration of its technologies, including high-temperature superconductivity, advanced conductors, energy storage, real-time system monitoring and control, voluntary load reduction technologies and programs, and interconnection and integration of distributed energy resources.

Survey respondents expressed the least support for the following recommendations in the National Transmission Grid Study:

• The DOE will work with industry to evaluate the costs and benefits associated with maintaining a reserve supply of transmission equipment that is funded by transmission rates.
• DOE will create an Office of Electric Transmission and Distribution.

The survey results are not scientific in a statistical sense, because the survey suffers from self-selection bias. That is, while informed energy experts and interested persons were invited to participate, no attempt was made to randomly select respondents. Persons with high interest or a particular perspective (or bias) were more likely to respond to the survey than others with lower levels of interest. While the results are not statistically valid, they are informative and can help illuminate the policy debate. It is healthy and useful to air our differences and explore each other’s points of view. Several respondents put a good deal of effort into the written comments.

In addition to the survey results, the Final Report of CAEM’s Energy Infrastructure Forum will be released in early August at no charge to the public. The report contains a full analysis of the challenges facing the nation in regard to gas pipeline and electric transmission investments and consensus-based recommendations.

For more information about the survey or the Energy Infrastructure, Investment and Incentives Forum, please contact CAEM Senior Fellow Nat Treadway (ntreadway@caem.org) or CAEM President Jamie Wimberly (jwimberly@caem.org)