The ConCord Transmission Atlas of the United States

Electric transmission lines are linear infrastructure that stretch across every state in America. They connect electricity generators to electric demand in our homes and businesses through a network of substations and lines called the electric grid. 

Through original geospatial data analysis, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory estimates that the transmission network within all fifty United States, including Puerto Rico, Washington D.C., and Guam, spans 11 million acres in corridor space and 589,116 miles in line length. Using the 2020 U.S. Census data, over 226 million people live within one mile of a transmission line—this is almost two-thirds of the entire American population.

Due to their linearity, scale, and uniformity, transmission powerlines (the largest type of powerlines that transits the greatest amount of energy) and the work they do can be hard to “see” in their entirety. Power lines do not perfectly conform to common geographic boundaries or throughways, such as roads. But the way they network across the landscape does have a story.

To represent the relationships between transmission powerlines and geographical features, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory is building a library of detailed maps and compiling them into an atlas. The atlas visually illustrates the complex relationships between transmission lines, ecosystems, and human activities. It provides valuable insight not readily available elsewhere and contextualizes how transmission infrastructure can interact with its surroundings, both natural and human.

As part of the Connecting Transmission Corridors (ConCord) Initiative, this body of GIS knowledge and insights can inform communities and decision-makers on transmission deployment approaches that combine public and environmental benefits with national interests in infrastructure. The ConCord project is an initiative through the U.S. Department of Energy's Grid Deployment Office, led by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to investigate the full range of local benefits that can be enabled through corridor investments. Recreation, ecosystem services, and local wealth-building are three types of public benefits that can be planned in powerline corridors to supplement the reliability, energy, and carbon benefits of the lines themselves.

Click on the link below each of the thumbnails to view a high-resolution rendering along with a detailed description of the data depicted in each map.

Check back often for new maps, new data, and new insights.

Transmission and average CDC's Social Vulnerability Index (SVI). Click to enlarge.	Public access portions of transmission lines. Click to enlarge.	Population within one mile buffer. Click to enlarge.
Trail Crossing Through Transmission Lines. Click to enlarge.

PNNL-SA-210071