Advanced Energy Perspectives

With the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) much-awaited final rule on Transmission Planning and Cost Allocation imminent, New England’s grid operator, ISO-NE, quietly prepared to file at FERC its own hugely consequential, self-initiated Longer-Term Transmission Planning (LTTP) reforms. The problem it seeks to address? With peak demand for electricity set to double to 51 – 57 GW in the region by 2050, planners recognize the current grid’s transmission capabilities are ill-equipped to ensure reliability while handling the transition to an emissions-free electricity sector. ISO’s LTTP filing establishes a framework for procuring, building, and funding transmission projects and follows the inception of a new paradigm for long-term electric system planning. Combined, these solutions promise to propel us towards the much-needed build-out of the future grid and help us reach urgent state energy and climate policy requirements. In recognition, Advanced Energy United, along with a number of other allied organizations, wrote to ISO-NE and the New England States Committee on Electricity (NESCOE), commending their efforts while urging them to leverage this process as soon as it is effective.   

Our industry has a story to tell. It is a great story. It is the story of a growing, job-creating, economic engine of our society. It’s about an industry that is poised to leverage billions of dollars in federal and state funds into many billions more in private investment to transform our energy infrastructure and create the path to a cleaner, more reliable, more affordable energy future. It’s about the chance to bring people who have been ignored or excluded into the energy resource planning process to define and implement community benefit projects that are, in fact, beneficial.  

As a candidate, Governor Maura Healey pledged to achieve 100% clean electricity in Massachusetts by 2030. Such an ambitious target will require not only lots of clean energy generation to be built quickly and a doubling down of energy efficiency measures but will also require that the state support the building of a stronger, more dynamic electric grid. Creating the modern electric grid that Massachusetts needs to achieve its energy goals will require transformative investments on two fronts: the state needs to build new lines to move clean power like offshore wind throughout the Commonwealth, and it also needs to upgrade existing power lines with modern technologies. Nowhere is the more critical than at the transmission level. Advanced Energy United is working with decision-makers in New England to address these challenges with policy solutions.

Currently, over two million megawatts of generator and storage projects are actively seeking to connect to the U.S. transmission grid. The process to connect these proposed projects to the grid so they can start generating electricity—called “generator interconnection”—is outdated, slow, unpredictable, and sorely in need of reform. The 2024 Advanced Energy United Generator Interconnection Scorecard is the first-ever attempt to evaluate each of the seven regional transmission system operators on their generator interconnection processes. 

Our transmission grid is overdue for an upgrade. More than 70% of America’s transmission lines are nearing the end of their 50-80-year lifespan, and the older our antiquated grid gets, the more vulnerable it becomes to failure. According to a U.S. Government Accountability Office analysis, power outages have become longer and more frequent in recent years, affecting nearly three in four Americans and jeopardizing the health and safety of vulnerable people. America needs more transmission to keep up with its growing electricity needs.