Integrating Fusion Energy: Feeding the Electricity Grid is The Final Test
Over the past couple months, The Fusion Report has run several articles on developing the correct frameworks for the regulation of fusion energy, and how important having the right regulatory framework is for the further development, and eventual deployment, of fusion energy into the economy. One thing that is equally important, however, is how fusion energy will be integrated into the national electricity grid. Since most commercial fusion energy developers are focused on selling power plants to utilities, this is a critical part of the overall fusion energy equation. Let’s look at some of the steps that it will take to do this, and the potential challenges of doing so.
Where Will Fusion Electricity Fit Within The Grid?
Without stating the obvious, the United States electricity grid already exists. In fact, the first central power generation station in the US (Thomas Edison’s Pearl Street Station) was built in 1880. Between then and the 1930s, huge steps towards regional power grids (and eventually a national power grid) were made, including the adoption of alternating current (AC) and step-up/step-down power transmission (1886), the creation of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA; 1933), and the construction of large hydroelectric dams like the Hoover Dam (1935) and the Grand Coulee Dam (1941) providing the means to generate and transmit electricity over long distances.
Today, the US has roughly 11,000 utility-scale power plants that are connected to the US power grid. The US power grid is broken into ten (10) distinct transmission regions,which are managed by seven independent system operators (ISOs). While there will be some greenfield opportunities for fusion energy (primarily around supplying data centers with electricity), by and large most fusion power plants will replace existing aging fossil fuel power plants as they are retired. This means that the new fusion energy plants will have to fit into the power and management footprint that currently exists in the US, as well as elsewhere on the globe.
Cost Considerations and the Impact on Fusion Energy Deployment
Fusion energy plants are very likely to be costly to build (at least in their first instances), with prices similar to nuclear fission power plants. The capital to build these plans, which in general is provided by the utilities that will operate the plants, competes with a number of other uses such as other energy sources (renewables, nuclear, and fossil fuels), grid reliability upgrades (the US grid is fairly old), and power transmission line and equipment updates.
Financing for nuclear fission plant construction, which provides a good template for how fusion energy power plants would be financed, are funded through a combination of government funding and private funding, including the US Department of Energy (DoE) Loan Programs Office (LPO), tax credits and subsidies such as the Nuclear Production Tax Credit program, private project financing, power purchase agreements, and hedging arrangements. Similar structures need to be put in place for fusion energy as well, some of which will take passing new or modified legislation and regulations.
Ensuring Public Acceptance of Fusion Energy – Avoiding NIMBY
One of the greatest “what-if” factors around fusion energy adoption and success revolves around the “not in my backyard” (NIMBY) movement. Even for clean energy sources such as solar and wind energy, NIMBY issues persist. In some cases, the concern is simply aesthetics (the windmill in the picture is a good example of that).
In the case of solar energy, the objections are usually amplified by the use of lithium-ion batteries to provide 24-hour power availability, which have been the subject of a number of hard-to-extinguish fires. Even power lines (let alone high-voltage ones) have been the subject of homeowner concerns. In any case, fusion energy, with the right amount of public education, has a better-than-decent chance of avoiding these issues. A good example of how positively this can go is Commonwealth Fusion Systems and their SPARC site in suburban Boston, which has wide public support.
Summary: Integration is Not Easy, But is Critical to Think About Now
For commercial fusion energy to be successful in anything but greenfield deployments, it must integrate with the existing utility grid, not only from a transmission standpoint, but also from a security, regulatory, funding, power output management, and public acceptance standpoint. While these are not simple matters, they are not impossible ones either. By working these as hard as physics and engineering, the likelihood that fusion energy can be successfully commercialized is very high.
