Over the recent past, the cost of generating electricity has plunged because of sluggish economic growth and a glut of cheap natural gas. Unfortunately, the decline of wholesale power prices has been offset and, in places like southern
California and downstate
New York, eclipsed entirely by
escalating transmission and distribution costs.
The bottom line: electrons are cheap to generate but expensive to deliver.
The obvious solution is massive investment in upgrading our infrastructure, as nearly 75% of transmission lines and transformers are at least 25 years old and 60% of circuit breakers are more than 30 years old, according to the
U.S. Department of Energy.
