Forward Pass: Policy Challenges and Technical Opportunities on the U.S. Electric Grid

Due to a variety of recent policy changes and technical innovations, the U.S. electric grid will encounter significant opportunities and challenges over the next several decades. As we have described above, various policy and system-level issues will need to be addressed and new technologies will need to be fully developed and used appropriately for the U.S. grid to evolve along an efficient path with minimal disruption and to ensure electricity rates and levels of reliability remain acceptable. The journey to the electric grid of 2030 has begun, and there will be plenty of surprises along the way. Much can and should be done now to smooth the road ahead.