In a previous article, we discussed the critical case for developing more high voltage transmission lines in the United States. GridUnited, a transmission infrastructure company based out of Houston, is one of the handful of companies ambitiously leading this charge. The company was founded by Michael Skelly, who is known for his efforts in founding transmission infrastructure startup Cleanline Energy.

I visited the GridUnited office over Thanksgiving to learn more about the company and the industry. During my visit, I had the fortunate opportunity to meet with Gimod Olapurayil, the GridUnited’s vice president of transmission strategy. Gimod had a wealth of information about energy markets and pricing models from his nearly a decade of experience working as a transmission engineer. This visit highlighted two aspects of the startup that make it exciting: their unique business model and their highly experienced founding team.

A Unique Business Model

When transmission infrastructure companies typically begin working on a new project, they often plan the route for the transmission line early on. Once this route is finalized, it enters a long approval process that from various governmental bodies. If the route gets approved, the transmission company will then begin getting easements from land owners to build the lines through their land. When owners refuse to sell their land, the company has the right to use eminent domain to forcibly buy it. This is because the line was approved by a governmental body as being beneficial to the public good. This process was cheaper for transmission companies because it avoided them needing to purchase any land that they didn’t need. Skelly found, based on his experiences with Cleanline Energy, that this traditional approach led to trouble in the long run. Angered land owners vandalized construction, lobbied to cancel the project, and did anything it took to stall the development of the line. Skelly decided that he wanted to take an alternative route to buying land at GridUnited. He wanted to make sure the company didn’t need to use eminent domain. Instead, he wanted to make sure that anyone whose land was used to build the line were voluntary sellers who welcomed the line. To do this, GridUnited plans to begin procuring easements before finalizing the route of their transmission line. If they find that a community does not want the transmission line in their area, they’ll redraw the route such that the line goes around that community. This plan leads to more expensive upfront costs in for the company because they take the risk of buying land before even knowing if the route will be approved. In the long run though, these risks make sense given that they expect land costs to be cheaper than the alternative construction delays caused by angered communities. GridUnited has already found financial backing to make this plan a reality. It will be exciting to see whether their untraditional business model will prove to be successful.

A Strong Founding Team

GridUnited has an experienced team full of veterans in the energy sector. Multiple members of their founding team have over a decade of experience in energy and transmission infrastructure. Their backgrounds range from utilities(Patsy Barnard) to energy companies such as Enel(Allie Wahrenberg, Gimod Olapurayil), Xcel Energy(Bryant Coon), and transmission(Kris Zadlo, Michael Skelly). This is a major strength given the complexity of the space of transmission infrastructure and the variety of different groups GridUnited will need to communicate with. This experience could help them avoid many problems in funding, governmental approval, and construction delays. This will prove to be an very important advantage for GridUnited.

GridUnited is still in the very early stages, having been founded less than a year ago. I believe GridUnited is going to become increasingly popular over the coming few years as they make more progress on their plans and gain traction. I’m excited to see what the future holds for them. I hope readers appreciate how important the work GridUnited is doing is for the future of US electric grid.

Grid United Website: https://www.gridunited.com/