Ensuring a Reliable and Secure Grid

Strategic transmission planning increasingly hinges on knowing when to upgrade existing lines versus build new ones. The REFA tool gives utilities, planners, and regulators a clear, consistent way to compare the costs and benefits of reconductoring with advanced conductors—informing smarter investments in a reliable, resilient grid. 

Understanding the true cost of power outages is essential to prioritizing grid investments. LBNL's Interruption Cost Estimate (ICE) Calculator and Power Outage Economics Tool (POET) help utilities, regulators, and policymakers quantify the economic impacts of both short- and long-duration outages—guiding billions of dollars toward a more reliable grid. 

LBNL has been at the forefront of research on electric generation and storage interconnection queues—the pipelines of proposed electricity infrastructure projects seeking access to the transmission grid. The interconnection process plays a central role in grid planning because it identifies the transmission facilities and upgrades required to integrate new resources and determines how those costs are allocated among project developers. Through extensive analysis of interconnection queue data and practices across the United States, LBNL has produced influential insights that are helping utilities, regulators, system operators, and policymakers improve planning processes and support a more reliable and resilient electric grid.

LBNL is a leader in research on retail electricity prices and the factors that influence customer electricity bills. Using nationwide utility, market, and policy data, researchers identify the key drivers of electricity price changes—including grid infrastructure investments, fuel costs, extreme weather, and demand growth—and provide objective analysis to help policymakers and regulators maintain affordable, reliable, and resilient electric service.

ETA researchers quantify how energy efficiency, demand response, and demand flexibility affect distribution and bulk power systems. 

Load flexibility—also called demand flexibility—is the ability of electricity users to shift the timing or amount of their energy use in response to grid conditions, prices, or emergencies. Our researchers develop and demonstrate strategies that help turn buildings, industries, vehicles, and data centers into responsive resources for a more reliable, affordable grid. 

Buildings consume more energy when their controls don't work as intended—and faulty building automation systems waste an estimated $17 billion annually. Berkeley Lab is partnering with industry to develop self-correcting controls technology that automatically detects and fixes problems in HVAC and other equipment, improving efficiency, occupant comfort, and the ability of buildings to support a flexible, reliable grid. 

As U.S. electricity demand grows faster than new generation can be built, the industrial sector offers a powerful but underused way to stabilize the grid: shifting when it uses power. REFLEX is working with industrial customers, utilities, and technology providers to demonstrate flexible load strategies—across data centers, manufacturing, food distribution, and water treatment—that lower costs and unlock productivity using today's grid.

FLEXLAB® is the world's most advanced integrated testbed for building and grid technologies, enabling users to develop and test innovations under real-world conditions. Its FLEXGRID system supports real-time comparisons between grid supply and demand, pairing separately metered and controllable inverters, batteries, and building loads with novel control strategies to manage energy use and create value for utilities and customers.