Opinion: 'Electricity highways' are needed for the future in Iowa

Iowa is known for producing some of America’s most important and popular commodities. But while our corn and soybean growers and pork producers rely on a nationally connected network of roads, rails, and bridges to bring products to market, those options aren’t available for farmers and landowners who generate income from wind energy.

Iowa’s local and regional electricity grids were never fully connected to neighboring regions with large-scale transmission lines, or electricity “highways,” the way our interstate system was developed. It's time to address this challenge for three reasons.

First, our climate is changing. Extreme weather events are becoming more frequent and severe. Keeping the lights on during those events has become difficult for electricity grid operators, given recent generation failures in extreme heat and extreme cold. Without enough capacity available in the transmission lines connecting America’s grid, states and regions are unable to import available power from their neighbors.

One recent analysis determined certain regions of the country, including parts of the upper Midwest, have dangerously low levels of interregional electricity transmission transfer capacity, making homes and businesses more susceptible to weather-induced power outages. This threat played out in December 2022 when additional interregional transmission lines could have carried available Midwestern wind generation to the Southeast and mitigated storm-induced rolling blackouts. An additional gigawatt of transmission capacity between electricity transmission system operator MISO North, which includes Iowa, and the Tennessee Valley Authority could have delivered $79 million in benefits and kept the lights on during the storm.

Second, with the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, Iowa will see the potential for new wind, solar, and battery storage projects. While that’s great news for economic development — new projects are projected to attract $24.6 billion in investment to the state by 2030 — we need new infrastructure to ship that power to market. The U.S. must more than double the pace of transmission line expansion from the last decade to carry out the legislation’s potential.

Such an undertaking will require sound federal policies, including a requirement that grid operators have the capacity to transfer a minimum amount of electricity to neighboring regions. This requirement would produce much-needed long-distance transmission lines and help ensure reliable power for Iowans and neighboring states.

Third, the U.S. has fallen behind other nations in developing these critical interregional transmission lines. Iowa State University researchers found that China and Europe are investing in national macro grids to carry power between regions while the U.S. has built a mere fraction of interregional transmission capacity in comparison. Setting a minimum interregional electricity transmission transfer capacity requirement will drive the investment needed to create an internationally competitive grid that can withstand evolving threats and demands.

Enabling additional transmission infrastructure will help keep the lights on, grow Iowa's renewable energy sector, and enable power producers to sell more electricity in new markets. It’s time for Iowa’s federal leadership to act to empower our state’s power producers and protect our energy consumers.

Libby Jacobs formerly served in the Iowa House of Representatives and as chair of the Iowa Utilities Board. She currently is president of The Jacobs Group LLC located in Des Moines. Contact: libby.s.jacobs@gmail.com.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Opinion: 'Electricity highways' are needed for the future