Over the past nine months, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has been working on a major reform to U.S. transmission-grid policy, one that clean-energy advocates say could determine whether or not the country will be able to build the vast amount of solar and wind power needed to combat climate change.
On Thursday, FERC approved the first fruits of that process — a proposal to require transmission providers to develop new planning processes and draw up 20-year plans for building large-scale regional transmission and sharing the costs. The aim is to build a grid robust enough to handle a rapidly changing energy mix over decades to come.
FERC’s notice of proposed rulemaking (NOPR) doesn’t directly address some factors holding back clean-energy growth. For example, it doesn’t propose policies specifically aimed at reducing interconnection queue backlogs and costly grid upgrades for wind, solar and energy-storage projects — issues that the agency intends to take up in a future proposed rulemaking.
But the NOPR has earned cautious approval from clean-energy backers like the American Clean Power Association trade group for laying the groundwork for building the kind of grid the country will need to capture the cost, reliability and decarbonization benefits of clean energy.
“Clean energy resources are abundant in the U.S., but our grid falls short of connecting clean-energy-rich regions to the population centers that need it most,” American Clean Power CEO Heather Zichal said in a Thursday statement. “We encourage FERC to refine and finalize today’s proposal so that current and anticipated transmission needs can be met in a timely and cost-effective manner and support a transition to a clean energy future.”
Thursday’s 4–1 vote approving the NOPR is only the first step in this process. Stakeholders — including transmission grid operators, state utility and energy regulators, transmission-owning utilities, independent transmission and energy developers — will have months to comment on the proposal and debate how planning should be conducted. Then FERC will vote on a final rule, potentially before the end of this year.
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