Transmission line capital costs

The displacement or deferral of conventional AC transmission line installation is a key benefit associated with several technologies being developed with the support of the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Energy Management (OEM). Previous benefits assessments conducted within OEM have been based on significantly different assumptions for the average cost per mile of AC transmission line. In response to this uncertainty, an investigation of transmission line capital cost data was initiated. The objective of this study was to develop a database for preparing preliminary estimates of transmission line costs. An extensive search of potential data sources identified databases maintained by the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) and the Western Area Power Administration (WAPA) as superior sources of transmission line cost data. The BPA and WAPA data were adjusted to a common basis and combined together. The composite database covers voltage levels from 13.8 to 765 W, with cost estimates for a given voltage level varying depending on conductor size, tower material type, tower frame type, and number of circuits. Reported transmission line costs vary significantly, even for a given voltage level. This can usually be explained by variation in the design factors noted above and variation in environmental and land (right-of-way) costs, which are extremely site-specific. Cost estimates prepared from the composite database were compared to cost data collected by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for investor-owned utilities from across the United States. The comparison was hampered because the only design specifications included with the FERC data were voltage level and line length. Working within this limitation, the FERC data were not found to differ significantly from the composite database. Therefore, the composite database was judged to be a reasonable proxy for estimating national average costs