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FERC Takes On Long-Term Planning With Historic Transmission Rule
FERC acted to ensure the transmission grid can meet the nation’s growing demand for reliable electricity with a new rule that outlines how to plan and pay for facilities that regions of the country will need to keep the lights on and power the American economy through the 21st Century.
This rule, Order No. 1920, marks the first time in more than a decade that FERC has addressed regional transmission policy – and the first time the Commission has ever squarely addressed the need for long-term transmission planning.
This rule adopts specific requirements addressing how transmission providers must conduct long-term planning for regional transmission facilities and determine how to pay for them, so needed transmission is built. The final rule reflects more than 15,000 pages of comments from nearly 200 stakeholders representing all sectors of the electric power industry; environmental, consumer and other advocacy groups; and state and other government entities.
The grid rule contains several major elements including:
- Requirement to conduct and periodically update long-term transmission planning to anticipate future needs.
- Requirement to consider a broad set of benefits when planning new facilities.
- Requirement to identify opportunities to modify in-kind replacement of existing transmission facilities to increase their transfer capability, known as “right-sizing.”
- Customers pay only for projects from which they benefit.
- Expands states’ pivotal role throughout the process of planning, selecting, and determining how to pay for transmission facilities.
“We need to seize this moment,” Chairman Phillips said. “Over the last dozen years, FERC has worked on five after-action reports on lessons learned from extreme weather events that caused outages that cost hundreds of lives and millions of dollars. We must get beyond these after-action reports and start planning to maintain a reliable grid that powers our entire way of life. The grid cannot wait. Our communities cannot wait. Our nation cannot wait.”
FERC press release
FERC Fact Sheet
Docket No. RM21-17-000; Order No. 1920 (05/13/2024)
Building For The Future Through Electric Regional Transmission Planning And Cost Allocation
