A new S&P Global Energy study makes a compelling economic and national-security case for transmission investment - and reinforces why the technology selected to deliver that capacity matters.
The new S&P Global Energy report, Powering Growth and Affordability: The Role of Transmission in Economic and National Security, arrives at an important moment. Electricity demand in the United States is beginning to grow at a pace the industry has not experienced in decades, driven by data centers, advanced manufacturing, industrial expansion, electrification and other large new loads. At the same time, utilities must maintain affordability, improve reliability and resilience, support domestic economic growth, and strengthen the energy infrastructure on which national security increasingly depends. The report does an excellent job of bringing these issues together and showing that transmission is not simply another infrastructure expense. Properly planned, it is a productive investment that can create value across the electric system and the broader economy.
The authors deserve substantial credit for the breadth and discipline of this work. Project Director Christopher Wilfong, Project Manager Sai Nizampatnam, Core Project Team members Bashar Anwar, Iván Montenegro and Andrés Sánchez, Senior Advisor Barclay Gibbs, Communications Lead Jeff Marn, and the supporting S&P Global Energy team have produced an analysis that is both technically serious and accessible to a much broader audience. The study was supported by the Electricity Customer Alliance and National Grid, while S&P Global Energy retained responsibility for its analysis, content and conclusions, except for the national-security and defense analysis led by Converge Strategies. That combination of economic modeling, power-system analysis and national-security perspective makes the report especially useful.
Its central findings are difficult to ignore. In the Base Demand case, commercial and industrial expansion and electrification are projected to add 374 terawatt-hours of energy demand and more than 45 gigawatts of peak load by 2035. The transmission expansions examined by the study deliver positive net value in every modeled scenario. Over a 40-year economic life, the Base Demand scenarios produce systemwide net-present value of approximately $4 billion to $12.4 billion and benefit-cost ratios ranging from 1.42 to 1.77. In the High Demand case, the modeled benefits increase further. The message is straightforward: when transmission allows lower-cost resources to reach customers, relieves congestion, enables resource sharing and reduces the need for more expensive local generation, the investment can return substantially more than it costs.
The report also expands the transmission conversation beyond traditional production-cost savings. It connects grid capacity with customer affordability, extreme-weather resilience, the needs of military installations and defense communities, and the strength of the domestic defense industrial base. Modern manufacturing, robotics, data processing and other electricity-intensive activities cannot grow on aspiration alone; they require dependable electric capacity at the locations where investment and production are occurring. Transmission planning is therefore becoming inseparable from economic development and national readiness.
One section should be of particular interest to utilities evaluating near-term capacity solutions. The report identifies Advanced Transmission Technologies, or ATTs, as technologies that increase usable transfer capability without requiring an equivalent amount of conventional new AC transmission construction. It includes Grid Enhancing Technologies such as dynamic line rating and advanced power-flow control, as well as high-performance conductors. The study notes potential capacity increases of approximately two times for advanced conductors and recognizes that deploying these technologies on existing corridors can defer or eliminate parallel transmission construction. It further concludes that the benefits of ATTs will likely offset their higher initial costs and may improve project benefit-cost ratios.
There is an especially important detail in that analysis. S&P Global Energy cites a 30% to 40% reduction in I²R line losses from advanced conductors, but its zonal model assumes zero transmission losses. The authors explicitly acknowledge that reduced losses are therefore not captured in the economic model and represent additional real-world upside. This is not a flaw in the report; it is a transparent modeling boundary and a useful reminder of the difference between regional planning analysis and project-level engineering. The study makes a persuasive case for the value of added transfer capability even before a major category of conductor-related benefits is counted.
That distinction matters because all added capacity is not delivered in the same way. Once a utility advances from a regional model to the design of an actual line, conductor resistance, aluminum content, operating temperature, thermal sag, structural loading, clearances, installation practices, hardware systems and lifecycle performance all become consequential. A conductor can achieve a higher thermal rating by operating at a much higher temperature, but that does not necessarily produce the same efficiency, sag performance or asset utilization as a solution designed to carry more current with lower resistance. The objective should not be to add nameplate ampacity alone. It should be to deliver useful, reliable and efficient capacity over the life of the asset.
This is precisely the challenge CTC Global has been working to address for more than two decades. ACCC® Conductor was developed to help utilities increase capacity on existing transmission and distribution corridors while reducing electrical resistance and thermal sag. Its lightweight, low-coefficient-of-thermal-expansion composite core enables the use of substantially more conductive aluminum without imposing a corresponding weight penalty, while its trapezoidal aluminum strands increase aluminum area within a given conductor diameter. The result is a conductor designed not only to move more power, but to waste less of it and maintain clearance at elevated operating temperatures.
For CTC Global, however, supporting a successful reconductoring project extends far beyond supplying a conductor core. The company continues to invest in engineering, testing, manufacturing quality, conductor and hardware qualification, installation training, field support and project-specific analysis for its growing list of utility and industrial customers across the United States. That work includes collaboration with conductor manufacturers and hardware suppliers; review of structures, tensions, clearances and installation equipment; preparation and training of installation crews; and on-site support when the conductor is installed. These activities are less visible than an ampacity number on a data sheet, but they are essential to converting a promising technology into a dependable grid asset.
CTC Global has also continued to advance the supporting technology around ACCC Conductor. The ACCC InfoCore® System provides a method of confirming conductor-core integrity following manufacture and installation, offering an additional level of quality assurance for utilities and installation teams. More recently, the ACCC GridVista™ System has extended the concept further by integrating optical-fiber sensing capability into the conductor core, creating the potential for enhanced asset visibility and condition awareness. Along with the standard ACCC design, ACCC ULS, ACCC AZR and ACCC Plus variants reflect a broader engineering principle: different projects face different combinations of capacity, efficiency, strength, temperature, environmental and structural requirements, and the solution should be selected accordingly.
The experience gained through major U.S. deployments has also been indispensable. Projects undertaken by utilities such as American Electric Power, Southern California Edison, NV Energy and others have demonstrated how advanced conductors can help increase capacity, address clearance constraints, improve efficiency and make better use of existing rights-of-way. Each completed project adds to the body of knowledge surrounding design, hardware, installation, inspection and long-term operation. That accumulated experience matters because transmission assets are expected to perform reliably for decades, often under conditions far more demanding than those represented in a laboratory qualification test.
The S&P Global Energy report does not attempt to rank individual conductor technologies, nor should it be represented as doing so. It groups several high-performance conductor types together and evaluates ATTs at a system level. Its greater contribution is to establish why speed, capacity, efficiency and better use of existing corridors have substantial economic value. It gives utilities, regulators, large energy users and policymakers a strong analytical basis for accelerating transmission investment while leaving the essential project-level questions to detailed engineering evaluation.
For the industry, the appropriate response is to move from recognition to execution. New transmission corridors will remain necessary, but they can take many years to permit and build. In the meantime, utilities have an enormous opportunity to examine existing lines and determine where reconductoring, Grid Enhancing Technologies and other advanced solutions can release additional capacity sooner. In many cases, these technologies can complement one another: an advanced conductor can improve the physical capability and efficiency of a line, while sensing, dynamic ratings and power-flow controls can help operators use that capability more intelligently.
S&P Global Energy and its collaborators have made an important contribution by quantifying what is at stake. The report shows that transmission expansion can support affordability, industrial growth, reliability and national security, and that advanced technologies can improve the economics and speed of that expansion. CTC Global is proud to be part of the larger industry effort to turn those findings into operating infrastructure - working alongside utilities, engineers, manufacturers, hardware suppliers, contractors, regulators and research organizations to deliver real projects for real customers.
The next phase of grid modernization will not be defined simply by how much transmission we build. It will also be defined by how intelligently we improve the assets and corridors already serving the country. Transmission capacity is valuable. Capacity delivered efficiently, reliably and with the benefit of proven engineering and field experience is more valuable still.
Source: S&P Global Energy, CERA Consulting, “Powering Growth and Affordability: The Role of Transmission in Economic and National Security,” August 2026, especially pp. 2, 4 and 53.