The states that filed for a rehearing of FERC Order 1920 on transmission planning and cost allocation either argue the federal regulator is overstepping its authority or want changes to the order to ensure it doesn’t upset ongoing regional planning efforts.

The NEPOOL Transmission Committee voted to approve a proposal by ISO-NE and the New England States Committee on Electricity to create a new process to facilitate transmission investments that address state-identified, long-term needs associated with the clean energy transition.

Transmission limits remain a major barrier to scaling up wind and solar energy to meet state decarbonization goals, speakers at the NECA’s Renewable Energy Conference said.

ISO-NE provided additional information on the second phase of its Longer-Term Transmission Planning project, which is intended to facilitate transmission investments to meet the states’ policy goals.

ISO-NE is pursuing an alternative compliance pathway on FERC Order 2023 regarding storage resource interconnection, hoping to sidestep the need for “control technology,” the RTO told the NEPOOL Transmission Committee.

Transmission upgrades that are needed to avoid overloads in a fully electrified New England by 2050 could cumulatively cost between $22 billion and $26 billion, ISO-NE told its Planning Advisory Committee.