How Power is Delivered to You Safely and Reliably and What is Changing
To serve our customers, National Grid delivers nearly 33.3 gigawatt hours of electricity at peak through an energy network consisting of more than 5,600 miles of transmission lines that carry electricity long distances at high voltage levels to nearly 250 transmission substations that step power down to a lower voltage.
This electricity is then carried across 48,000 miles of distribution lines, supported by hundreds of thousands of poles and more than 700 strategically located distribution substations. Power is then stepped down again at thousands of transformers to deliver power safely and reliably to millions of homes and businesses.
This extensive electric network will need to evolve and expand in capacity over the next 20 years due to the electrification of transportation and heating, increasing cooling needs and the connection of more energy resources, and growth in large-load manufacturing customers. This includes building new substations and expanding others, and constructing new poles and towers, and increasing the amount of electricity our wires can carry. It’s what we’re calling the Upstate Upgrade.
Without the proposed investments, the expected growth in electricity demand and addition of new devices and technologies will overload existing equipment, impacting the safety and reliability of the network. Local and regional economies would suffer as energy-intensive industries look beyond New York to expand or construct new facilities.
The Upstate Upgrade: A Three-Pronged Approach
Meeting our goals at pace means investments are needed in three key areas:
- Network Infrastructure, to make the grid stronger and more resilient, and ready to accommodate large load requests, increased power flows, and new connections.
- Technology and Platforms, to make the grid smarter, more flexible, dynamic, secure and efficient, and provide greater visibility into and control of system operations.
- Customer Programs, to deliver energy solutions and put customers in control of their energy choices and use.
National Grid is expected to invest more than $4 billion in the Upstate Upgrade to achieve these goals and enable a more electrified energy future.
