3rd European Grid Conference – How can American innovation inspire European grid development?

To guarantee power system stability and security is not only a technological challenge – more and more actors consider the conversion of our power system asocial experiment based on new cooperative planning procedures. In 2007 – two years before RGI was founded – California had already established the Renewable Energy Transmission Initiative (RETI) that aimed for broad public participation of as many interest groups as possible.

As coordinator of the RETI, David Olsen set new standards for cooperative procedures and transparent planning processes. Environmental and cost efficiency criteria formed the basis for the identification of grid corridors. The integrated planning approach considered both potential for efficiency enhancement and demand-side-management. Inspired by this innovative process, other actors started to rethink their own roles: grid operators increasingly take on more responsibility beyond technological neutrality.