Getting to GETs

Grid Challenges Today

1. Urgent Grid Challenges - With over 70% of U.S. transmission lines exceeding 25 years of service, and many components operating beyond their designed lifespans, the grid is facing a critical situation. Thermal constraints and voltage instability are limiting capacity, leading to the unfortunate necessity for utilities to curtail renewable energy during peak generation.

2. Renewable Integration Bottlenecks - Solar and wind projects face interconnection delays due to transmission congestion. In 2018, 723 GWh of solar energy was curtailed in four states alone.

3. Permitting - Traditional grid upgrades (e.g., new transmission lines) take 10–15 years to permit and build, lagging behind renewable deployment timelines.

4. Climate Vulnerabilities - Extreme weather events, like the 2021 Texas winter storm and wildfires, highlight the grid’s fragility. Rising temperatures further reduce transmission line efficiency.

5. Economic Inefficiencies - Congestion costs U.S. ratepayers $4.8 billion annually, as operators dispatch costlier fossil-fueled generators to avoid overloading lines.

6. Regulatory and Market Barriers - Utilities lack incentives to adopt GETs, which often provide lower returns than capital-intensive projects like new transmission lines.

What is Grid-Enhancing Technologies (GETS)?

The U.S. power grid, a critical backbone of modern society, is facing unprecedented challenges as it transitions to a clean energy future. However, grid-enhancing technologies (GETs) offer a beacon of hope, providing cost-effective solutions to modernize the grid, reduce congestion, and accelerate decarbonization. This blog explores these challenges, GETs’ transformative potential, and policy frameworks like the GETs Act that could unlock their benefits.

The Proposed GETs ACT

The Advancing Grid-Enhancing Technologies (GETs) Act is a federal legislative proposal designed to accelerate the adoption of grid-enhancing technologies across the U.S. electric transmission system. Its core objective is to help bring new renewable energy online more quickly and affordably by making better use of existing grid infrastructure, thereby supporting national clean energy and climate goals.

What does the GETs Act do?

• Creates a Shared Savings Incentive - The Act requires the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to establish a financial incentive that allows developers who install GETs to receive back a portion of the cost savings their projects generate. Specifically, developers can recoup the cost of their investment plus 10–25% of the realized savings over three years, with the remainder benefiting ratepayers.
• Sets Savings Requirements - To qualify, a GETs project must deliver at least four times its upfront cost in savings over the three years, ensuring only high-impact deployments are rewarded.
• Consumer Protections - The Act includes guardrails to protect consumers, ensuring that incentives are only paid when real, measurable savings are achieved.
• Annual Congestion Reporting - Transmission operators must submit annual reports on congestion costs and constraints, which increases transparency and helps identify where GETs can provide the most value.

• DOE Technical Assistance - Under the GETs Act, the Department of Energy (DOE) is directed to provide technical guidance and maintain a clearinghouse of GET case studies. This support is crucial for utilities and developers, as it helps them deploy these technologies effectively, ensuring the successful implementation of GETs across the U.S. electric transmission system.

The GETs Act aims to realign utility incentives so that targeted, cost-saving investments in grid-enhancing technologies become as attractive as building new infrastructure. By doing so, it seeks to unlock additional grid capacity, reduce congestion, lower energy costs, and speed up the integration of renewable energy resources, offering a promising future of economic efficiency.

Top 10 GETS Technologies

Grid-enhancing technologies (GETs) are advanced hardware and software solutions designed to unlock additional capacity, efficiency, and flexibility from existing power grid infrastructure. Unlike traditional grid upgrades, which often require building new lines or substations and can involve significant costs, GETs offer a more cost-effective solution. These technologies include dynamic line ratings, advanced power flow controllers, topology optimization software, high-temperature capacitors, and advanced conductors. GETs help address the growing challenges of congestion, renewable integration, and aging infrastructure by enabling real-time monitoring, control, and optimization of power flows.

The adoption of GETs is increasingly seen as essential for modernizing the grid to meet the demands of a cleaner, more electrified economy. They help reduce renewable energy curtailment and congestion costs and improve reliability and resilience in the face of extreme weather and rising electricity demand. As utilities and grid operators seek to accelerate the clean energy transition, GETs provide a flexible toolkit to maximize the use of existing assets, defer expensive upgrades, and support the rapid integration of new renewable resources.

10-Year Deployment Plan for GETs

We have all heard that anything is possible given enough time and money. Unfortunately, given the growth of power demand, the rise of AI, and the goals of reshoring manufacturing, we don’t have enough time or money to upgrade the grid the way we want, so we will have to do it in stages.

The grid-enhancing technologies listed above are central to this transformation, offering utilities and grid operators a toolkit to unlock capacity, flexibility, and reliability from existing infrastructure while deferring the need for costly and time-consuming new transmission projects. The following table “takes a shot” at a 10-year phased approach to researching, piloting, deploying, scaling, and managing a new grid based on GETs. The objective of the plans is that each year builds on the previous one's technical, operational, and regulatory progress. Let’s pretend we must do it in a decade, the funds are available, and the permitting is not a roadblock.

• Phase 1 Years 1–3: Focus on proving ROI through pilots in high-impact zones (e.g., ERCOT, CAISO).

• Phase II Years 4–6: Scale solutions using modular designs to avoid "stranded asset" risks.

• Phase III Years 7–10: Prioritize climate resilience and equitable access, leveraging mature GETs supply chains.

Why High-Temperature Capacitors Matter

Advanced GETs like PFCs and FACTS require capacitors that operate reliably under high voltages and temperatures. Traditional capacitors fail under stress, but high-temperature variants offer:

• Reactive Power Support - High-voltage capacitors improve power factor, which is the ratio of real power to apparent power in an AC circuit. Inductive loads, like motors and transformers, consume reactive power, which can reduce system efficiency. Capacitors provide the necessary reactive power to counteract this inductive load, improving the power factor and increasing system efficiency.

• Power Firming and Smoothing - Renewable energy sources like solar and wind often produce intermittent power. Capacitors are used to smooth out these power fluctuations, providing a more consistent power supply. They can absorb excess power during periods of high renewable generation and release it when needed, helping to firm up the power supply.

• Microgrid Support - Capacitors are particularly well-suited for microgrids, which are smaller, isolated power systems. According to the Department of Energy, they can provide inrush current support during equipment startup, absorb surges during load changes, and even provide backup power during outages. They can also work alongside microgrid batteries to provide faster response times and improve system reliability.

• Enhanced Grid Stability and Reliability - Capacitors contribute to overall grid stability and reliability by providing reactive power support, smoothing power fluctuations, and assisting in microgrids. They can help prevent voltage fluctuations, improve frequency regulation, and reduce the impact of transient disturbances.

• Reduced System Losses - Capacitors can minimize energy losses in the grid by improving power factor and smoothing power fluctuations. This can lead to significant energy savings and cost reductions.

High-temperature capacitors, particularly supercapacitors, are valuable tools in grid-enhancing technologies. They enable more efficient and reliable power delivery, especially in the context of increasing renewable energy integration.

NanoPlex - The 100% Plug-and-Play Upgrade for BOPP Capacitor Film

As the power grid transitions to a more dynamic, digital, and renewable-powered future, the demands on grid infrastructure and the components that enable advanced control skyrocket. Grid-enhancing technologies (GETs) such as Dynamic Line Ratings, Advanced Power Flow Controllers, and Flexible AC Transmission Systems rely on high-performance capacitor films to manage voltage, support reactive power, and maintain system stability under increasingly challenging conditions. Traditional capacitor films like BOPP (biaxially oriented polypropylene) are reaching their technical limits, mainly as grid devices must operate at higher temperatures and under more stressful cycling.

Why NanoPlex LDF?

Peak Nano’s NanoPlex LDF is engineered as a 100% plug-and-play replacement for standard BOPP, offering a leap forward in performance and reliability for GETs and the next generation of grid systems. Here’s why NanoPlex LDF stands out as the ideal capacitor film technology to support advanced grid modernization:

• 35% High-Temperature Operation - NanoPlex LDF operates continuously at 135℃ without de-rating, compared to BOPP’s 85℃ limit. This enables reliable performance in high-heat environments such as substations, converter stations, and power flow controllers, where thermal stress is routine.

• Up to 5x Extended Lifespan - With a 5x longer operational lifespan under extreme conditions, NanoPlex LDF dramatically reduces maintenance needs and replacement cycles, supporting the long-term reliability required for critical grid assets.

• 50% Better Energy Efficiency - NanoPlex LDF delivers a 50% better dissipation factor than standard BOPP, translating to lower energy losses and improved efficiency in reactive power management for supporting the flexible, high-capacity operation of GETs.

• High Structural Stability - No film shrinkage occurs under 135℃ workloads, ensuring stable, predictable capacitor performance even during thermal cycling and grid transients.

• 100% BOPP Replacement  - As a 100% plug-and-play replacement for BOPP, NanoPlex LDF can be directly integrated into existing capacitor designs and manufacturing processes, minimizing transition costs and deployment timelines.

• 100% Secure, Domestic Supply Chain - NanoPlex LDF is US-manufactured with a 100% allied-nation supply chain, supporting grid resilience and national security as demand for advanced grid components surges.

By overcoming the temperature, efficiency, and reliability limitations of legacy BOPP films, NanoPlex LDF empowers utilities and OEMs to deploy GETs at scale, unlocking more grid capacity, reducing congestion, and accelerating renewable integration. Its robust performance profile is critical for advanced power flow controllers, dynamic line rating systems, and other grid devices operating in demanding environments without compromise. In short, NanoPlex LDF is the capacitor film foundation for tomorrow’s brighter, more resilient, and more flexible electric grid.

NanoPlex films also improve self-healing properties, mitigating dielectric breakdown risks during voltage spikes. Peak's technology supports advanced grid technologies by enabling higher power density and thermal stability.

We Can Get to GETs

Grid-enhancing technologies are not a luxury but are necessary for a resilient, low-carbon grid. The U.S. can modernize its infrastructure efficiently and equitably by leveraging dynamic line ratings, advanced capacitors, and policy tools like the GETs Act. The roadmap is clear - accelerating GETs deployment today will ensure affordable, reliable power for decades.