Democrats call on FERC to swiftly finalize regional transmission, cost allocation planning rule
Congressional Democrats this week urged the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to finalize its pending regional transmission and cost allocation planning rule.
“In order to grow our economy, keep communities safe during extreme weather events, address historic environmental injustices, and decrease energy costs for consumers, a robust and well-planned transmission grid is essential,” wrote the 134 lawmakers in two identical Jan. 16 letters sent from each chamber to FERC Chairman Willie Phillips.
“With a strong final rule, FERC can play a critical role in achieving these goals, fulfilling the promise of the most consequential infrastructure and climate laws in history,” wrote the Democrats, who included 113 members of the U.S. House of Representatives and 21 U.S. senators.
They urged FERC to quickly strengthen and finalize its proposed transmission planning and cost allocation rule in its ongoing Docket No. RM21–17–000, “Building for the Future Through Electric Regional Transmission Planning and Cost Allocation and Generator Interconnection,” published in the April 21, 2022 Federal Register.
Specifically, FERC proposes reforms to its existing regional transmission planning and cost allocation requirements, with commissioners saying an expansion of the nation’s grid is critical to bringing new clean energy resources online and to improve reliability amid increasingly severe weather events and wildfires.
Led by U.S. Rep. Paul Tonko (D-NY) and U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM), the lawmakers cited data from the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Transmission Needs Study, which says transmission capacity will need to double in many regions of the country between now and 2035 to meet clean energy policy goals.
They also pointed to an October 2023 study issued by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine that warned if the nation fails to site, modernize, and build out the electrical grid, it would be “[t]he single greatest technological danger to a successful energy transition.”
“The need to plan for and ramp up transmission capacity is clear,” they wrote. “Improved and increased transmission is urgently needed for reliability, affordability, and clean electricity.”
At the same time, if the United States doesn’t expand its transmission capacity, then billions of dollars in federal clean energy investments from the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law cannot be fully leveraged, wrote the lawmakers, who said they’ve witnessed numerous examples of grid resilience issues in recent years that highlight the grid’s inadequacy to handle changing load patterns, interconnect new clean energy resources, and respond to increasingly frequent and severe weather events.
“FERC’s final rule should ensure that transmission planners account for these factors by requiring a long-term, forward-looking, 20-year planning horizon that addresses the changing circumstances and the evolution of our energy system,” wrote the congressional members.
They also concluded that FERC’s final rule must require consideration of a comprehensive and specific set of transmission benefits to consumers which should be used in cost allocation processes.
“We support incorporating states’ input on cost allocation, along with a means of resolving disagreements and allocating costs to customers in a way that is roughly commensurate with those specified benefits,” they wrote.
The Democrats’ letters follow one sent last month by several of the nation’s largest investor-owned utilities (IOUs) that joined members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), environmental groups and other stakeholders in also urging FERC to issue a final transmission planning rule as soon as possible.
“We support the commission’s proposal for regional, long-term, scenario-based transmission planning and urge the commission to issue, as soon as practicable, a final rule that will facilitate needed transmission investment,” wrote the entities in a Dec. 7 letter sent to FERC commissioners.
The coalition that signed the letter included eight IOUs — Ameren Transmission, Consolidated Edison Co. of New York Inc., Edison International, Exelon Corp., ITC Holdings Corp., Pacific Gas & Electric Co., Public Service Electric and Gas Co., and Xcel Energy — as well as the National Audubon Society, the Blue-Green Alliance, the Greater Warren County Economic Development Council in Missouri, four IBEW members from around the country, The Permitting Institute, and WEG Transformers USA.
Meanwhile, FERC Chairman Phillips has said that the commission’s proposed transmission planning and cost allocation rule is a “chief” priority.
“A robust transmission network is the foundation for electric reliability, especially in the face of the extreme weather,” Phillips wrote in a Nov. 16, 2023, letter sent to the National Caucus of Environmental Legislators.
