2 May 2012: The World Bank is promoting proactive planning by transmissions utilities and regulators to ensure countries are capable of scaling up transmission capacity to allow expansion of renewable sources of energy required by low carbon development strategies.

The report, titled “Transmission Expansion for Renewable Energy Scale-Up — Emerging Lessons and Recommendations” suggests that governments and utilities employ a system of proactive planning to replace the predominantly reactive planning seen today, to maximize effectiveness and efficiency in transmission expansion. The report makes recommendations on planning the scaling-up of transmission infrastructure needed to accommodate new renewable sources of energy. It also provides guidance on regulating transmission to ensure that renewable energy goals are achieved. This new framework aims to bring consumers more reliable power, and enables producers to cover their costs and are incentivized to continue transmission expansion. The report uses examples of successful proactive planning in Brazil, the Philippines, and Mexico to illustrate the methods effectiveness and economic viability. It also notes that this system must include advanced pricing mechanisms to ensure that transmission infrastructure is priced using cost-benefit analyses. [World Bank News] [Publication: Transmission Expansion for Renewable Energy Scale-Up]