Providing the Missing Links: How Transmission Planning Reform Can Build a Clean and Resilient Grid

The electric power grid is a complex network. Its backbone is the transmission system which moves power from where it's generated to the communities where it's consumed. This system is also expensive and time-consuming to develop. 

Last year the federal government ordered power providers to reform their approach to long-term transmission planning. This landmark ruling lays the foundation for building our transmission system to deliver power more efficiently and reduce electricity costs for consumers. Its recommended planning reforms could allow the transmission system to accommodate more clean energy resources, which are the predominant type of new generation waiting to connect to the grid today, and to carry more clean power across longer distances to reach consumers who can't produce enough locally or need help fulfilling local decarbonization goals. As rising demand and extreme weather put increasing strain on our power system, these reforms could also improve energy reliability and resilience by adding alternate pathways to keep power flowing to consumers when outages occur.

In this session, we will explain the critical role of the transmission system and unpack the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's Order 1920. We'll explore how it addresses current flaws in transmission planning and how utilities can adopt its guidance to bolster grid decarbonization, efficiency, and reliability. We'll also look at how external stakeholders can get involved.