Iseman, Tom; Schroeder, Alex --- "Integrated Planning: Transmission, Generation and Water in the Western States" [2011] ELECD 1034; in Kenney, S. Douglas; Wilkinson, Robert (eds), "The Water–Energy Nexus in the American West" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2011)

Book Title: The Water–Energy Nexus in the American West

Editor(s): Kenney, S. Douglas; Wilkinson, Robert

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781849809368

Section: Chapter 15

Section Title: Integrated Planning: Transmission, Generation and Water in the Western States

Author(s): Iseman, Tom; Schroeder, Alex

Number of pages: 16

Extract:

15. Integrated planning: transmission,
generation and water in the Western
states
Tom Iseman and Alex Schroeder1

15.1. INTRODUCTION

Western governors have long identified a clean, diverse and reliable energy
supply as a significant regional and national priority. More recently, they
have explicitly recognized the need to consider water, land use, and wild-
life while planning and developing energy supplies for the West (Western
Governors' Association [WGA], 2010). The Regional Transmission
Expansion Project (RTEP) will engage states, electric utilities and other
stakeholders in the development of a regional transmission plan to unlock
the potential of the West's vast clean energy resources. As part of that
effort, the Western Governors' Association (WGA) will seek generation
and transmission options that are compatible with reliable water supplies
and healthy wildlife communities in the West.
In its work on energy and electricity, the WGA has identified access to
electric transmission lines as a significant ­ if not the primary ­ impediment
to increasing the use of renewable energy resources. The RTEP is a
response to that issue. Since the start of the project in late 2009, the WGA
has worked with the Western Electricity Coordinating Council, the US
Department of Energy (DOE) and the national laboratories to develop
and implement a framework for integrating water supply considerations
into electric transmission planning. Support from the national laborato-
ries was put in place in the summer of 2010, and initial technical work
began in the fall of 2010. Quantitative and geographically specific analysis
of water­energy issues ...