Many people have expressed the need to modernize and upgrade our electrical transmission system to a unified smart grid. A smart grid system would employ a nation-wide “backbone” of high voltage transmission lines that connect “smart” local electric utilities to distant power plants. As more local utility networks are upgraded to smart grids, interactions with these backbone power lines will become more coordinated. A smart grid would maximize the efficiency of our nation’s electricity use, while greatly reducing waste and loss. Hydropower from the northwest could be directed to the Dakotas if that area’s wind turbine output decreases. Solar power from Arizona would be able to supply manufacturing in Ohio, or evening wind power from the Northeast could be used to supply power peak demand during the day in Nevada. Environmentalists say a unified smart grid and renewable power sources are essential to eliminating our carbon emissions. The cost of a unified smart grid has been estimated at $400-$500 billion.

Proposed Legislation: Reintroduction of H.R.2822 - Advancing Grid Storage Act of 2021
Prospective Sponsor: Rep. Mark Takano (CA)

• I oppose reforming current smart grid policy and wish to donate resources to the campaign committee of Speaker Mike Johnson (LA).
• I support:
  Requiring the Department of Energy to establish certain research, loan, and grant programs about storing energy, such as renewable energy by:
  
  1.) Researching energy storage systems (systems or strategies that improve the ability to shift the dispatch of energy in time, across multiple timescales).
  
  2.) Carrying out a loan program for (a.) the demonstration and deployment of energy storage systems in a specific project, and (b.) programs that finance the demonstration and deployment of multiple energy storage systems through a financial assistance program.
  
  3.) Carrying out a technical assistance and grant program for (a.) disseminating information and providing technical assistance directly to nonprofit or for-profit entities so those entities can identify, evaluate, plan, and design energy storage systems; and (b.) making grants to those entities so that they may contract to obtain technical assistance to identify, evaluate, plan, and design energy storage systems.
  
  And wish to donate resources to the campaign committee of Rep. Mark Takano (CA)and/or to an advocate group currently working with this issue.