Congressional Democrats have reintroduced legislation that would require FERC to establish interregional and interconnection-wide transmission planning processes and increase RTO transparency requirements.

Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) introduced the bill to the Senate, saying the Connecting Hard-to-reach Areas with Renewably Generated Energy (CHARGE) Act would aid the development of transmission needed to bring clean energy onto the grid. Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Greg Casar (D-Texas) introduced the bill in the House.

“While there has been rapid growth of renewable energy resources and skyrocketing public demand for clean energy, there is not nearly enough capacity in our power lines to bridge the gap between clean power and the cities and towns that need it. The CHARGE Act changes that,” Markey said in a statement announcing the legislation.

Interregional Transmission Planning

The legislation would require FERC to engage in interregional and interconnection-wide transmission planning at least every four years and consider the benefits of a potential project, including reduced energy and ancillary service costs, access to generation in neighboring regions, delivery of renewable energy, and improvements to grid flexibility and reliability. FERC also would be required to consider the potential of grid-enhancing technologies (GETs), such as dynamic line rating and storage-as-transmission.

Developers of interregional projects could submit costs to FERC for recovery, with cost allocation based on the project’s benefits. The bill would seek to avoid cost allocation mechanisms that might discourage energy efficiency, demand response, storage and distributed resources.

The bill also would change the cost allocation for new interconnections to prohibit utilities from requiring generation developers to bear the full — or a disproportionate — cost for network upgrades needed to connect their projects to the grid. Instead, FERC would encourage the creation of cost-sharing models that allocate costs based on the “broad set of benefits and beneficiaries for any network upgrades.”

The legislation would require RTOs to establish independent transmission monitors to oversee planning and operations and look for inefficiencies and practices that may contribute to unreasonable rates for consumers. The monitors also would review project costs, identify where non-wire or interregional project alternatives may be most cost-effective and provide guidance to transmission owners on operations, planning and cost allocation.

FERC would be required to create an Office of Transmission to review projects submitted by utilities in accordance with regional and interregional transmission planning processes. The office also would investigate ways to alleviate interconnection queue backlogs and explore opportunities to improve transmission planning and use GETs.

Ocasio-Cortez and Casar highlighted the importance of new transmission for developing renewable energy and addressing climate change.

“Our patchwork transmission system is blocking billions of dollars in new renewable deployment,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “This same transmission system is also increasingly vulnerable to widespread power outages in nearly every part of the country. The CHARGE Act is the key to updating this transmission network so we can plan for and meet the growing demand for grid resilience and renewable energy across the U.S.”

“As the climate crisis worsens, we must do everything we can to increase grid reliability across the country. That’s why we must pass the CHARGE Act,” Casar said. “Every single family should be able to rely on their utilities.”

Increased RTO Transparency Requirements

The bill would introduce several transparency requirements for RTOs and the commission, including stakeholder meetings being recorded and transcribed, records of votes being public and RTOs being subject to the Freedom of Information Act.

A 30-member advisory committee would be established by FERC to provide recommendations on the governance and oversight of RTOs and their stakeholder processes, with the goals of promoting competition, reliability and affordability in transmission planning. The committee also would consider improvements that could be made to transparency and decision-making in non-RTO regions.

Consumer organizations would be granted full voting and participation rights in stakeholder meetings, and RTOs would be required to provide intervenor compensation for public interest participation in RTO processes.

A handful of the transparency provisions mirror state initiatives relating to RTO governance. A bill introduced in the Maryland House of Delegates this year would have required utilities participating in stakeholder meetings to report their votes to the state each year. (See Maryland Bill Would Require Utilities to Report Votes at PJM.)

Additionally, the West Virginia Public Service Commission in March filed a complaint with FERC seeking access to PJM’s Member Liaison Committee, which is open only to voting members. (See W. Va. PSC Files Complaint over PJM Meeting Policy.)

Under the Markey bill, FERC and utilities would be required to coordinate with EPA and the Energy Information Administration to create a public database with hourly operating data for generators including fuel type, marginal greenhouse gas emissions per megawatt-hour and other attributes updated as close to real time as possible.

The legislation would direct the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine to work with EPA, DOE and FERC to draft a public report identifying the effects on consumers of procuring energy competitively outside of utilities in markets administered by RTOs or other independent organizations compared with noncompetitive models. The study would account for factors such as cost savings, improved grid reliability and GHG emissions.

Public Interest and Climate Organizations Endorse Bill

Several climate and consumer advocacy groups endorsed the bill, including the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE), Americans for a Clean Energy Grid (ACEG), the Natural Resources Defense Council and Public Citizen.

“Our clean energy transition depends on building new high-capacity transmission lines. We need legislation that will accelerate this development, unlocking new domestic energy resources and making sure the lights stay on during severe weather episodes like the intense heat waves we’ve experienced across America this summer,” said ACEG Executive Director Christina Hayes.

Tyson Slocum, director of Public Citizen’s Energy Program, said the bill’s transparency and transmission monitor requirements would ensure that transmission development proceeds with consumer protections built in.

“Among many other accomplishments, the legislation would impose needed transparency standards, public accountability and governance reform for America’s private RTO grid operators, including subjecting them to the federal Freedom of Information Act; empower the public and energy justice communities with access to resources to participate in FERC and RTO proceedings by requiring FERC’s Office of Public Participation to provide intervenor funding, and; ensure the electric transmission buildout maximizes consumer protections through a new independent transmission monitor,” he said in a statement.

ACORE President Gregory Wetstone said the bill would establish critical provisions around interregional planning and would promote reliability by establishing minimum transfer requirements between transmission planning regions during severe weather.

“This legislation lays the groundwork for the construction of critical interstate transmission lines. The bill also reforms participant funding, a crucial step to help bring more clean energy resources onto the grid, and establishes a sorely needed mandate for a minimum transfer capacity between grid planning regions that will bolster reliability and better enable our electric power system to withstand increasingly frequent extreme weather events,” he said.