This approach, which assigns costs of high-voltage transmission regionally and lower-voltage locally, is designed to help members build a stronger transmission grid that benefits the entire region. The proposal took effect June 19. See the FERC press release and the full decision (PDF 211 KB).
And in a move hailed by the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), FERC issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR) for open access transmission reforms by establishing a closer link between regional electric transmission planning and cost allocation to help ensure that needed transmission facilities are actually built.
The NOPR includes proposals to require that:
- transmission providers establish a closer link between cost allocation and regional transmission planning;
- transmission planning take into account the needs driven by state or federal laws or regulations, such as renewable energy standards;
- neighboring transmission planning regions improve their coordination of facilities that are proposed in two adjacent regions to address transmission needs more efficiently than separate facilities;
- provisions that provide an undue advantage to an incumbent developer must be removed, allowing others to build and own new transmission projects.
AWEA said the action will allow much-needed transmission lines to be built. They say grid constraints in several U.S. regions are holding up tens of thousands of megawatts of wind development. See the press releases from FERC and AWEA, as well as the full NOPR (PDF 388 KB).
FERC also released a report, two years in the making, saying that public institutions and private sector organizations nationwide should form a coalition to help states, localities, and regions develop and deploy cost-effective electric demand response programs.
Demand response refers to the ability of customers to adjust their electricity use by responding to price signals, reliability concerns, or other signals from the grid operator, and it can help avoid the need for new power plants and power lines that are intended primarily to meet peak power demands. See the FERC press release and the National Action Plan on Demand Response (PDF 3.8 MB).
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EREE Network News is a weekly publication of the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE).
