America’s energy system has a problem: Solar and wind developers want to build renewable energy at a breakneck pace — and historic climate legislation has fueled their charge with financial incentives worth billions of dollars. But too often the power these projects can produce has nowhere to go. This is because the high voltage lines that move energy across the country do not have the capacity to handle what these panels and turbines generate. At the same time, electric vehicles, data centers and new factories are pushing the demand for electricity far beyond what was expected just a few years ago.
As a result, the U.S. is poised to generate more energy — and, crucially, more carbon free energy – than ever before, but the country’s patchwork system of electric grids does not have enough transmission infrastructure to deliver all that renewable energy to the homes and businesses that can use it. Indeed, this carryover gap could negate up to half of the climate benefits of the Inflation Reduction Act, according to one analysis.
On Monday, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, or FERC, a new rule approved which can help complete this circuit. The agency, which has jurisdiction over interstate power issues, is essentially trying to encourage the nation’s many electricity providers to improve their planning processes and coordinate with each other in a way that encourages investment in this infrastructure. The hope is that this new regulation will not only address the outstanding interconnection challenge and growing demand, but also strengthen the grid in the face of extreme weather, as more transmission will make it easier to move electricity from one grid to another. to move when there are disasters. -driven interrupts.
The new rule, years in the making, creates two new critical requirements.
First, it would require the operators of regional grids across the country to forecast their region’s transmission needs a full 20 years into the future, develop plans that take those forecasts into account, and update those plans every five years. In practice, this should mean a more robust consideration of new wind and solar power options, as well as greater adherence to the net-zero emissions targets set by many US states. Second, the rule requires suppliers to identify opportunities where they can upgrade existing infrastructure in a way that increases capacity, creating an easier route to move more power between states without the complexity of building new lines from scratch.
“This rule recognizes the reality on the ground, that the factors that affect our network – they change,” FERC chairman Willie Phillips said at a press conference Monday.
The nation’s energy system is in the midst of a massive transformation. About two dozen states were founded definitive goals for clean energy in the decades ahead, with most of it on the books before President Joe Biden committed the US to achieving 100 percent carbon-free electricity by 2035. The clear demand for the expansion of renewable energy has already led to nearly 2,600 gigawatts of generation and storage capacity bid for permission to tap into the country’s aging transmission system. It is more than double all the resources that are already connected.
While these goals and plans depend on the country’s transmission infrastructure, regional grid operators have so far had no requirement to ensure that new sources of renewable generation can connect to power lines without overloading them. FERC’s new rule changes that.
Before the rule, the 10 regional transmission operators that make up America’s patchwork could take largely independent approaches to infrastructure planning. Few have taken a meaningfully proactive approach to meeting the demands of climate policy.
There is one exception: The new FERC rule builds on a comprehensive approach developed by the transmission authority responsible for most of the Midwest, which has partially revamped its planning to help some of its state to achieve its aggressive climate targets. The new federal regulation requires operators in each US region to similarly consider at least three potential scenarios for how their electricity requirements will change over the next two decades and prepare plans accordingly.
However, the reality of the rulemaking process means that action may not come as quickly as the moment seems to demand. Although the rule was approved on Monday, it will not take effect until 60 days after its publication, and then grid operators and transmission planners will have 10 to 12 months to explain how they intend to comply with the new rule. Only then will the real planning begin.
“These reforms come at a critical time,” said Christine Powell, deputy managing attorney for the clean energy program at the nonprofit Earthjustice. Powell added that it can sometimes take 10 years to get new transmission lines built, given the logistical hurdles involved, so it’s essential to start planning processes as soon as possible.
Fortunately, not all the work required involves building new infrastructure on these long timelines. The new rule also sets out a requirement for “right-sizing” existing infrastructure by e.g. using the latest conductors and transformers to double the transmission capacity of existing towers in some cases.
Of course, these new requirements could be delayed or derailed by lawsuits — a likely prospect given the history of legal challenges major FERC rules have faced in the past. Both Powell and Phillips said they believe the new policy is durable enough to withstand those challenges. Powell told Grist that the rule went through a lengthy review process that involved extensive public comment. FERC went through 15,000 pages of those comments, ensuring that the arguments and issues raised in each were weighed and considered before finalizing the final rule.
Still, FERC Commissioner Mark Christie, a Republican and the lone “no” vote in Monday’s decision, claimed in his disapproval that the process was rushed. Powell, who worked at FERC for eight years, disputed that in an interview with Grist.
“This is not FERC in a hurry,” she said. “This is FERC really trying to deliberate and do the right thing.”
Chaz Teplin, who leads the clean competitive grid team at the nonprofit Rocky Mountain Institute, added that the new rule has broad bipartisan support, despite Christie’s disagreement. Republican governors and lawmakers were among those who recognized the importance of a policy like this and issued comments in support of it. Even Neil Chatterjee, a Republican who chaired FERC under then-President Donald Trump, published a tweet saying“If I was on the commission, I would have voted for it.”
Editor’s note: Earthjustice is an advertiser with Grist. Advertisers play no role in Grist’s editorial decisions.
