Over the years, it has become clear that centralized generation is creating serious problems for the grid. As the demand for electricity increases, transmission lines need to be built to handle the distances between the generators and the load. As more transmission and generation facilities are added, the grid becomes congested and unstable. The cost of transmission has increased exponentially over the past five years. Yet, despite all of the investment, the grid is not any more stable than it was on August 14, 2003, when 50 million United States and Canadian customers lost power due to a minor transmission problem in central Ohio.

Transmission lines are limited in the power that they can carry. As load increases, additional new transmission lines are required. Today it costs between $2 million and $3 million dollars a mile to build transmission. This is a tremendous cost that does nothing to help with the energy supply or reduce the cost of electricity; only adding to the rising cost of electricity.

For example, an eleven-mile transmission line is being constructed to supply Stowe, Vermont with the extra power required to supply the growth of commercial buildings. This project will cost ratepayers 40 million dollars. In the future, this is 40 million dollars that needs to be spent on local distributed generation, displacing the need for future transmission projects.

While the costs of transmission accelerate, so does the cost of fuel that is required to generate the electricity.