This year’s WIRES University provided an understanding of the basic operational facts about the high-voltage grid (including a basic understanding of how it is regulated and by whom), the technologies that animate it, and the major policies and economic realities that drive it.

Speakers included leaders from Congress and regulatory agencies, the industry, and think tanks. WIRES University – The Survey Course focused on some current controversies involving grid cybersecurity and the impacts that EPA’s Clean Power Plan could have on the electric system.

In six short hours, the objective was for attendees to have an understanding of why transmission infrastructure is critical to the economic life of the United States as well as what challenges need to be overcome by current efforts to expand or upgrade the transmission system.