It is widely understood that CO2 and other GHG greenhouse gas emissions are contributing to global warming and climate change. In just the last few decades the world is seeing a substantial increase in the frequency and severity of major storm events, wildfires, floods, high temperatures and drought conditions, among others.
Initially, only a handful of scientists understood this phenomenon. Industrialist, many utilities, and other entities didn’t initially agree. However, in the wake of a number of major climate events that damaged or destroyed homes, businesses and the electric grid, the reality has become much more obvious, and many countries and corporations have established policies, programs and incentives or penalties to reduce emissions.
In the U.S., approximately 25 percent of GHG and carbon emissions are attributed to the generation and delivery of electricity with 27 percent attributed to transportation, 24 percent to industry, and the balance to a mix of agriculture, residential and commercial business totaling 4.7 billion metric tons per year.
Globally, over 1 billion metric tons of CO2 and ‘equivalents’ are attributed to electric energy lost during the transmission and distribution of power as it travels from generation facilities to end users. This is a huge number and reflects not only the problem but also the opportunity.
In the past, many power companies invested in technologies that helped improve the efficiency of generation assets to help reduce fuel consumption and operating costs. Later, as the siting of new generation assets became more difficult, many utilities (and regulators) provided incentives for customers that purchased more efficient demand side appliances and equipment to reduce the need to build more (expensive) generation assets. Efforts to introduce technologies to improve the efficiency of the grid itself have been widely overlooked.
In 2003, when CTC Global introduced the high-capacity, low-sag ACCC® Conductor, the primary goal was to help improve grid reliability. Over time, it became apparent that the ACCC® Conductor’s lighter weight composite core - that enabled the use of ~30 percent more aluminum without an overall weight penalty - also reduces electrical resistance which reduces line losses by ~30 percent compared to other conventional conductors of the same size.
Reduced line losses offer a number of advantages. 1) It reduces fuel consumption and associated emissions; 2) It can free-up generation capacity otherwise wasted – which can help improve the economic viability of renewable generation assets, and; 3) It can save clean filtered and pumped water used by conventional thermal power plants.
A very noteworthy additional point is that, because the ACCC® Conductor carries twice the current of a conventional conductor, it can be used to increase the capacity and efficiency of existing transmission and distribution lines without the need to modify or replace existing structures.
To date (10/2022), the ACCC® Conductor installed worldwide:
- Saves 6,856,599 MWh Every Year (Enough Electricity to Power 639,907 U.S. Homes or Recharge 1,804,368 Electric Cars)
- Reduces CO2 Emission by 4,268,264 Metric Tons (The Equivalent of Removing 927,884 Cars (@4.6 MT/car/year))
- Replaces 3,300 MW of Wind Generation (40% capacity factor)
- Saves 82 Billion Gallons of Water (used at thermal power plants @12k gallon/MWh)
To learn more, please download and review the SCS Global Certification Report that can be found at: https://ctcglobal.com/scs-certification/ or contact: [email protected]