Fortnightly Magazine – September 2025
Many utilities see advanced conductors as a reconductoring solution for niche use cases with special requirements such as river crossings or other long spans. In reality, today’s advanced conductors are a game-changer for everyday new builds, too. Every new transmission project is a long-term investment, and the conductors you choose today will lock in performance capabilities for decades to come.
Recent studies and utility deployments show that reconductoring with advanced conductors can vastly improve the performance of America’s existing transmission systems. But there’s no question about it: We also need substantial new-build transmission capacity to meet escalating demand, interconnect generation, and support reliability.
The U.S. DOE’s National Transmission Needs Study forecasts that in just the next decade — by 2035 — the country could need double the intraregional transmission capacity and potentially quintuple the interregional transfer capacity of today. Reconductoring is a partial solution. But clearly, substantial new-build transmission capacity is also required, and which conductors grid operators use will have ramifications for many decades to come.
That’s where next-gen advanced conductors come in. They can optimize new lines, often enabling fewer, shorter structures while providing capacity headroom for future demand growth. Let’s take a closer look at how advanced conductors make new-build transmission projects excel for grid operators and customers alike.
New Builds: Benefits of Advanced Conductors
New transmission corridors have a critical role to play in supporting America’s energy future. At this moment, a trifecta of load growth, electrification, and grid modernization are all converging to drive unprecedented demand. But America’s transmission capacity has been expanding at a rate of less than one percent per year, compared to a needed four to seven percent annual growth. That needs to change.
It’s urgent that we build new infrastructure efficiently and effectively. Today’s field-proven advanced conductors represent a step-change for what transmission engineers can spec into their new-build projects.
In new-build transmission projects, the conductor usually totals five percent or less of the total project cost. Structures and construction are the two major budget drivers. By allowing for shorter and fewer structures, advanced conductors create a cascade of savings: less steel, smaller foundations, reduced construction time, and lower labor costs.
Plus, fewer structures mean less land acquisition and lower annual property tax obligations for utilities. The combined effect yields up to a ten to twenty percent reduction in total project costs, creating net savings even with the modestly higher conductor price compared to traditional options.
Advanced conductors maximize capacity in valuable rights of way, providing headroom for uncertain demand growth and avoiding costly upgrades in the future. This allows grid operators to pack more capacity into their new transmission rights of way. Now that the era of flat U.S. power demand is over, getting the most out of new transmission corridors is prudent.
North Dakota: A New Advanced Conductor Line
In January 2023, Basin Electric completed a new twenty-seven-mile, two hundred thirty kilovolt transmission line project in North Dakota with advanced conductors. The project increased ampacity by seventy-six percent compared to traditional conductors and reduced the number of structures by fifteen percent, effectively offsetting the modest conductor price premium. A smaller conductor size could have resulted in even greater savings, but the project team opted for increased capacity for future RTO requirements, essentially future proofing the line.
Despite weather-related delays, the project was completed successfully and under budget. The ability to reduce structure count and size while increasing capacity showcases the potential for significant cost savings in greenfield projects.
New Builds: Success Depends on the Right Materials
Getting new transmission lines permitted and built in the U.S. is a notoriously slow and challenging process. Yet new transmission capacity is desperately needed. It only makes sense to do it right the first time around, putting ratepayer funds to their best and highest use in support of a modern, affordable, reliable grid for all.
In the third and final installment of this series, we will explore the lifecycle benefits of advanced conductors in any system, including both reconductoring and new builds.
Part One of this three-part series on advanced reconductoring can be found in the August issue of Public Utilities Fortnightly.
This article originally appeared in Public Utilities Fortnightly.
