Transmission continues to be the hot topic this summer. In Q2 WIRES educated policymakers and regulators on the value and importance of transmission as a means of enhancing the economic recovery from the pandemic through the ongoing promotion of our recent “Repowering America: Transmission investment for economic stimulus and climate change” report prepared by London Economics International. The message has clearly taken hold.

Congress is looking to advance transmission through several targeted provisions of the pending Infrastructure bill. At the same time, FERC put transmission front and center at its July meeting by initiating an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to examine issues relating to transmission planning, cost allocation, and interconnection. That preliminary step by FERC will play out in the months and years ahead and has the potential to reshape key areas of various transmission processes. WIRES looks forward to providing its expertise on a range of issues teed up in the ANOPR.

But much more can, and should, be done right now. FERC must send a strong and unambiguous opening message about the importance of transmission investment by providing adequate and stable rates of return on transmission and spurring badly needed investment in transmission through its incentives policy, including continuation of the RTO participation incentive.

FERC has been actively soliciting input on transmission issues and hosting a series of technical conferences. WIRES and a number of our members were invited to participate in several of these events, including the April 29th conference on Electrification and the Grid of the Future.

Larry spoke on Panel 2: Infrastructure Requirements of Electrification, and shared findings from our 2019 Brattle Group Report, The Coming Electrification of the N.A. Economy.

A link to Larry’s pre-conference remarks and submitted materials can be found here.

4/26/21 – Center for Biologic Diversity - Docket No. RM21-15-000

5/6/21 – The NY Transmission Owners - Docket No. ER21-1647-000

5/6/21 – NY Independent System Operator - Docket No. EL21-66-000

5/10/21 – Offshore Wind Integration in RTOs/ISOs - Docket No. AD20-18-000

6/25/21 – Electric Transmission Incentives Policy NOPR – Including an Affidavit from The Honorable Joe Barton - Docket No. RM20-10-000

Jul 26, 2021 – RTO Participation Incentive NOPR – WIRES Reply Comments

Jul 28, 2021 – WIRES Comments on PJM Network Upgrade Filing

Aug 16, 2021 – EEI and WIRES Rehearing Request Dayton Power & Light Company

WIRES board member, David Quier, Vice President of Transmission and Substations, PPL Corporation will be speaking on the Sept. 10 FERC Workshop on Shared Savings Incentives for Transmission Technologies on the Technical and Reliability Issues panel.

We were delighted to welcome FERC Commissioner Mark Christie as the keynote speaker at our Summer Member Meeting. Thank you to Commissioner Christie and all our distinguished panelists and moderators for the informative transmission discussions.

A link to the recording of the meeting is now available on our website.

Moderated by Jodi Moskowitz, Deputy General Counsel & RTO Strategy Officer, PSEG & WIRES Secretary

At this juncture we are planning our Fall Member Meeting as an in-person event on Oct. 27-28, 2021 in Washington DC at the historic Willard InterContinental hotel. We are excited to welcome our keynote speaker FERC Commissioner Allison Clements.

WIRES members benefit from regular conversations with key regulators, legislators and transmission industry thought leaders. Our popular Member Webinar Series continued into Q2 featuring FERC’s General Counsel, Matt Christiansen, and Representative Cathy McMorris Rogers (R-WA-05)

Members who would like to receive recordings of these sessions, please contact Andrew Brackbill at ABrackbill@kellencompany.com

This session will be open to the public.

Wednesday, September 15, 2021

3:00 PM – 4:00 PM EST

Janet Sena, Senior VP of Policy and External Affairs at NERC, will address attendees about the topic of reliability and NERC’s recent and upcoming work to improve grid reliability.

In April the Energy Bar Association (EBA) aired a podcast interview featuring Larry as part its series The Energy Exchange. Listen to Larry’s compelling conversation with EBA President Mosby Perrow on his 20 year-career at FERC and his more recent work at WIRES.

On June 15th Larry was a speaker on the Canadian Embassy’s webinar, “Cross Border Partnerships for a Cleaner and More Resilient Energy Future.”

On June 17th Larry offered comments as part of the introduction to Grid North Partners’ Finding True North Webinar.

On August 17th Larry moderated a webinar discussion hosted by the Midwest Governors Association on the FERC ANOPR that explored what potential actions could mean for the Midwest and the electric grid. Speakers included:

The media’s interest in transmission issues continued unabated in the second quarter, fueled by the Biden administrations’ climate goals and supporting actions, FERC’s policy measures, and congressional efforts on an infrastructure bill. The May release of WIRES new report by London Economics Int’l, “Repowering America: Transmission Investment for Economic Stimulus and Climate Change”, resulted in a number of stories, including a write up in the Financial Times.

Sharing a few highlights of the quarter’s earned media below. For a complete listening of earned media, visit the WIRES In the News page. 

4/26/21 – AP: Biden Plan for Cleaner Power System Faces Daunting Obstacles

4/28/21 – E&E News: Glick - FERC to Usher in Transmission Reforms this Summer

5/18/21– Financial Times: How Rewiring the Grid Could Boost America’s Economy

6/5/21 – Politico: Morning Energy: Utilities, Unions to Congress – Make FERC Give Us our TX Bonus

6/18/21 – S&P Global Platts: GDP, Jobs, Climate Goals All Aided by Federal Support of Transmission Projects: Report

6/31/21 – T&D World: Opinion: Transmission Investment Drives Economic Recovery

8/25/21- S&P Global Platts: Power industry pushes priorities as Congress crafts budget reconciliation package

8/30/21 - Utility Dive: Ida Knocks Out All Transmission Lines into New Orleans, leaves +1M without Power

8/30/21 - The New York Times: Hurricane Ida Exposes Grid Weaknesses as New Orleans Goes Dark

8/31/21 - Utility Dive: Transmission tower destroyed by Ida likely to complicate power restoration in New Orleans, experts say

WIRES is an international, non-profit trade association of investor-, publicly-, and cooperatively owned transmission providers, transmission customers, regional grid managers, and equipment and service companies. WIRES promotes investment in electric transmission and progressive state and federal policies that advance energy markets, economic efficiency, and consumer and environmental benefits through development of electric power infrastructure. For more information, visit www.wiresgroup.com.