A state-mandated review of the potential for advanced transmission technologies on California’s grid uncovered 85 potential near-term projects across the state. That doesn’t necessarily mean that they’ll happen, though.
Last year, the state’s three investor-owned utilities assessed the cost saving and reliability benefits of tools like dynamic line rating, advanced power flow control, or topology optimization. But they also outlined the ongoing barriers to deployment, according to an analysis of the reports conducted by the Watt Coalition, AMP Coalition, and Grid Strategies.
While California is well-positioned to lead the country in deployment of these technologies, its utilities are currently bogged down by the same narrow evaluation approaches, rigid planning frameworks, and regulatory conservatism that is delaying deployment around the country, the analysis noted.
The reports come as transmission constraints become a major bottleneck for grid expansion and the data center buildout: The White House has considered issuing an executive order directing the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to require grid operators and utilities to identify opportunities for advanced transmission tech to replace the need for new wires. The Department of Energy opened an additional $1.9 billion in funding for advanced transmission projects. And hyperscalers are structuring power deals for data centers that include contributions to grid upgrades as they seek faster interconnection.
California, which has ambitious clean energy goals and is confronting both high energy prices and substantial load growth, passed legislation in 2024 that ordered transmission-owning utilities to assess the potential value of technologies like dynamic line rating and advanced reconductoring. The law specifically required the assessment of whether certain technologies could increase transmission capacity, reduce congestion and curtailment, and contribute to wildfire hardening, all in a cost-effective way.
The initial round of those reports, which are now due on an annual basis, were submitted to the California Independent System Operator at the end of 2025.
The goal was to encourage utilities to look at the grid more holistically, the authors noted, because many advanced transmission technologies show their greatest value when viewed at the system level. For the most part though, this first round of utility reports assessed individual project feasibility, using existing transmission planning tools, rather than taking a system-wide approach.
But even through that restricted lens, the utilities identified 23 transmission lines as good candidates for dynamic line rating, which uses software and sensors to track real-time weather conditions and adjust how much power a line can safely carry. They also identified 62 potential candidates for high performance reconductoring projects, which would replace older wires with advanced materials like carbon-core conductors to boost capacity.
The vast majority of those opportunities are in Southern California Edison territory, which spans from central California down the southern coast.
That’s largely because SoCal Edison “took a step in the right direction” by conducting a broader system scan to find candidate lines, the report authors explained. The approach included applying a screening process across its network to proactively identify cost-effective projects, rather than simply analyzing pre-selected problem areas. SoCal Edison found value for dynamic line ratings on nine out of the 11 lines it studied, with deployment timelines of just one or two years. It also identified 56 lines as candidates for high-performance conductors.
Pacific Gas and Electric and San Diego Gas and Electric, meanwhile took a narrower approach to their studies, only testing technologies’ potential as substitutes on a handful of specific lines previously flagged for traditional reliability upgrades. They identified 14 lines for further dynamic line rating study, and nine lines for advanced reconductoring across their combined territories.
Progress over perfection
The findings reveal a massive pipeline of untapped potential, the report authors noted. They underscore “how much additional value could be uncovered through expanded analysis across the system.” The good news, they added, is that even a relatively small number of deployments on high-value corridors around the state could meaningfully reduce congestion, leading to savings for ratepayers.
The barrier to scaling deployment of these technologies, of course, isn’t the tech itself, but the need for “updating processes and mindsets” the report added. That would mean evaluating reliability and economic benefits together rather than as separate benefits, improving cross-functional coordination across siloed utility teams, and assessing a project’s system-wide and lifetime impact.
Striking this balance has historically been challenging. For example, for SoCal Edison’s most recent rate case, the California Public Utilities Commission didn’t approve utility funding for broader deployment of DLR, and instead encouraged the utility to pursue a pilot through the California Energy Commission. The result was that SCE’s first annual report describes DLR largely as a pilot opportunity, despite the fact that the technology has been commercially deployed for more than a decade, and that the utility itself had previously proposed its use system-wide.
To break this cycle, the report authors lay out a list of “no-regrets” actions that could help California deploy advanced transition technologies more consistently. These include moving at least one project for each advanced transmission technology through the full procurement and operational process to build institutional experience in doing so, and developing “load co-investment pathways” so that large power users like data centers, for example, can fund upgrades that accelerate their own interconnections and keep the cost of those upgrades off ratepayer bills.
