An ad hoc planning committee of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine will organize and host a workshop to discuss opportunities, benefits and barriers for the use of highway and rail rights of way (RoWs) for electrical transmission.
The workshop will identify policy, technical, and economic challenges along with potential solutions to these challenges, seeking to maximize benefits to the general public, transportation agencies, and electric utilities, among other considerations. This two-day event will bring together key stakeholders in the planning, operations, ownership, use, and regulation of both transmission projects and transportation rights-of-way, including environmental and community groups, state DOTs, railroads, and federal regulators, as well as private industry, and non-profit and academic experts engaged in the issue. The goal is to discuss potential actions to support the development of these projects. This workshop will address the following questions:
• What are the federal and other barriers to advancing the use of federal-aid highway rights-of-way (RoWs) for electrical transmission?
• What state-level policies can be adopted to, where appropriate, assist in and incentivize the deployment of transmission along the RoW?
• What policies and technical, analytical, and/or economic support do state utility regulators, grid infrastructure owners and operators, DOTs and other stakeholders need to advance these projects?
• What business models may offer the most potential for deploying electricity transmission in transportation rights of way?
• How can the interests of affected communities be represented in these projects?
A proceedings-in-brief will be published following the workshop.