Testimony of Dr. Liza Reed, Director of Climate and Energy Policy at Niskanen Center for the United States Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Hearing: “State of the Bulk Power System” on March 25, 2026.
Video
Key moments
- Opening and written statements [19:05]:
- Why HVDC is important technology for reliable energy
- Why we need a federal siting authority for interstate transmission
- Options are key to power AI and American competitiveness
- Affordability
Transcript
Chairman Lee, Ranking Member Heinrich, and distinguished members of the Committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify today on the state of the bulk power system.
I am Dr. Liza Reed, the Director of Climate and Energy Policy at the Niskanen Center. For over a decade, my work has focused on the challenges of building a transmission backbone to deliver reliable and affordable energy across the country.
Transmission moves electricity from where it is generated to where it is consumed, and allows regions to share power with one another. It is essential for reliability, resilience, and affordability.
The United States is entering a period of rapid load growth, driven by data centers, advanced manufacturing, and electrification. We are building a more diverse set of energy resources—gas, nuclear, wind, solar, geothermal, and storage
But no single resource is sufficient on its own. Reliability depends on how these resources work together. And transmission is what allows that coordination to happen and ensures every American has access to affordable power.
Right now, our system is not built to do that well.
Our electricity system is broken up into regional grids with limited ability to transfer power between them.
The consequences of those constraints are already clear.
During recent winter storms, we have repeatedly seen one region have excess power while another faced shortages and extremely high prices.
A Niskanen and Grid Strategies analysis on how the grid performed during Winter Storm Fern found that across the Southwest, Midwest, and Mid-Atlantic regions, wind power produced at more than twice the expected level, while coal, solar and natural gas all produced less power than expected.
These reliability risks translate to real costs to consumers.
Consumers experienced price differences of hundreds of dollars between neighboring regions, including negative power prices indicating there was power not being used at all because the transmission wasn’t available to move it where it was needed. Transmission between regions could have captured nearly $200 million dollars in savings during that one storm.
The North American Electricity Reliability Corporation (NERC), the entity that Congress and FERC look to for reliability assessments, determined last year that it would be prudent to add 35 GW of interregional transmission to the system to increase reliability. That is a 40% increase on our current capabilities to move power around.
Interregional transmission lines are in the national public interest, yet they face much higher siting and permitting barriers than other energy infrastructure because the authority to approve interstate projects still rests largely with individual states or, in some cases, individual counties.
Existing market structures also create unnecessary barriers to new technologies, particularly high-voltage direct current transmission technology. Grid operators do not allow HVDC projects to be compensated for grid services that they place to pay generators and other participants for the same functions.
Our inability to grow and unwillingness to adapt is impacting American competitiveness.
China has built tens of thousands of miles of high capacity transmission in the last two decades to our hundreds, and has adopted the modern high voltage direct current system to move power long distances. We are behind on increasing capacity. We are behind on adopting modern technology. This will put us behind on attracting and maintaining top industries.
A shortage of grid capacity is the primary barrier to the cost-effective and swift deployment of AI in this country. The data center infrastructure can go anywhere it can get power–it does not have to be here in the U.S. In fact, it won’t be if we cannot update our regulatory systems to build the bulk power lines we need for a dominant grid.
We need a narrow and clear federal authority to build interregional transmission.
We need to remove market barriers to advanced technologies, to get more grid-enhancing technologies and high-voltage direct current systems online to move power efficiently
Congress can deliver a grid that grows the economy, that provides affordable energy, and that demonstrates America’s competitive edge. The next industry can be built anywhere there are electrons; let’s make sure it’s right here in the U.S.
