Episode Summary
Executive Summary: The episode explains why U.S. transmission buildout is becoming a central climate and grid-resilience challenge. InvEnergy EVP Shashank Saneh describes the shift from local, centralized generation to large renewable resources in remote high-wind/high-solar regions, the advantages of HVDC transmission, the regulatory and siting hurdles for interstate lines, and how projects like Grain Belt Express are trying to create a more interconnected national grid.
Main Topics: Shashank Saneh’s career path and role at InvEnergy (Priority: 4/5): Saneh describes moving from investment banking to renewable energy finance, then operations, and finally leading InvEnergy’s transmission business. His background in project finance and deal-making helped him shift into building real infrastructure. What transmission is and why HVDC matters (Priority: 5/5): Transmission is framed as high-capacity, long-distance power movement. Saneh explains that DC lines are more efficient over long distances, can move more power in a smaller footprint, and are controllable, but require expensive converter stations back to AC for grid interconnection. Why the U.S. needs much more transmission now (Priority: 5/5): The grid was built for centralized coal, gas, and nuclear generation near load centers. A renewable-heavy system instead relies on dispersed wind, solar, and storage in the best resource regions, requiring large new lines to move power to demand centers and improve resilience. Grid fragmentation, resilience, and extreme weather (Priority: 5/5): Saneh argues the U.S. is not really one grid but many regional pockets, which makes it hard to move power during crises. He cites winter storms as examples where energy existed elsewhere but could not reach affected areas, leading to blackouts and curtailment. The Grain Belt Express as a case study (Priority: 5/5): The episode uses Grain Belt Express to illustrate interstate transmission development, stakeholder negotiations, state approvals, and the need to share benefits with host states. The project evolved from a point-to-point line to a larger, more distributed asset intended to serve multiple regions. Permitting, politics, and the lack of federal siting authority (Priority: 5/5): Unlike interstate gas pipelines, electric transmission lacks a federal body with primary siting authority. Siting is mainly state-led, which slows projects crossing multiple jurisdictions and forces developers to work county-by-county, state-by-state, with landowners and regulators. Policy and market gaps for interregional transmission (Priority: 4/5): Saneh says there is growing recognition of overall transmission needs, but not enough recognition of the value of interregional lines. He wants stronger federal policy and better market valuation of reliability benefits so these projects can move faster.
Key Arguments: Transmission is essential to the energy transition because renewable generation is geographically concentrated in the best wind and solar regions, not near every load center. DC/HVDC is the preferred technology for long-distance bulk transfer because it has lower losses, uses less land, and offers precise controllability, even though converter stations add cost. A cleaner grid still needs reliability and affordability, so the solution is not one technology but a mix of wind, solar, storage, transmission, hydrogen, and some natural gas. The U.S. grid was designed for centralized generation and is poorly suited to share power across regions during emergencies, which worsens blackouts during extreme weather. Interregional transmission creates system-wide resilience by allowing surplus power in one region to serve deficits in another; without that, clean energy can be curtailed while other regions experience outages. Permitting is difficult because stakeholders in states crossed by a line need tangible local benefits; projects must be designed with landowners, counties, states, and federal considerations in mind. Grain Belt Express was redesigned to provide more evenly distributed benefits, especially to Missouri, demonstrating that project structure can be adjusted to align with stakeholder interests. The biggest missing piece is a mechanism to recognize and monetize the reliability value of interregional transmission, which is currently undercounted or not formally valued. Federal support to date has helped mainly through tax credits for generation and loan programs, but transmission still lacks a major dedicated policy or financing regime.
Data Points: Projects developed by InvEnergy: More than 200 - Company-wide project count discussed in the introduction Power developed by InvEnergy: More than 31 gigawatts - Total global power capacity associated with InvEnergy Wind capacity share: A little over 16 gigawatts - Of InvEnergy’s 31+ GW portfolio, described as wind-oriented Solar capacity developed: Close to 7 gigawatts - InvEnergy’s solar project development portfolio U.S. transmission expansion needed: Over 50% by 2035 - DOE estimate cited in the introduction New power line buildout cited: 47,000 gigawatt miles - New York Times/DOE estimate referenced by the host Historical coal/nuclear plant size: 1–2 gigawatts - Typical size of large centralized plants that historically served load centers Historical gas plant size: 500–1,000+ megawatts - Typical gas plant range described by Saneh Historical solar plant size: 50–100 megawatts - Older utility-scale solar projects Historical wind farm size: 100–200 megawatts - Older utility-scale wind projects Modern InvEnergy wind project: 999 megawatts - Largest single-site wind farm in the U.S. in western Oklahoma Modern InvEnergy solar project: North of 1,000 megawatts - A Texas solar facility under development Grain Belt Express capacity: 5,000 megawatts - Final size of the transmission project after redesign Original Grain Belt capacity: 4,000 megawatts - Project size before redesign Original Missouri allocation: 500 megawatts - Initial power drop in Missouri before redesign Redesigned Missouri allocation: 2,500 megawatts - New evenly split allocation to Missouri Redesigned Illinois-Indiana allocation: 2,500 megawatts - New evenly split allocation to Illinois/Indiana border Transmission support in IRA/BIL: $2.5 billion - DOE authorized borrowing capacity for the Transmission Facilitation Program Portfolio project in New Mexico: Close to 4 gigawatts - NorthPath project referenced by Saneh Portfolio project in New York: 1,300 megawatts - Clean Path New York project Portfolio project in Oklahoma: Close to 2 gigawatts - Another InvEnergy transmission-related project under development
Pivotal Quotes: "There is no U.S. power grid." — Shashank Saneh: Used to explain that the country is really many regional grids, not one unified system "DC is most efficient for transmission. Transmitting large amounts of electricity over long distances." — Shashank Saneh: Explaining why InvEnergy focuses on HVDC transmission lines "The need for transmission in this country is huge, but the need for interregional transmission and a way to recognize the value of that is what is going to drive the most value." — Shashank Saneh: His closing argument on what policy and markets need to prioritize
Implications: For climate and energy stakeholders, transmission is a bottleneck as important as generation. Faster interstate siting, better valuation of resilience, and more interregional lines could unlock renewable buildout, reduce curtailment, and improve reliability during extreme weather.