The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has issued a new rule to better coordinate the massive buildout of new electric transmission systems. In this episode of Grid Talk, host Marty Rosenberg interviews Ari Peskoe who is the director of the Electricity Law Initiative at the Harvard Law School Environmental and Energy Law Program.

FERC is trying to help pave the way to get a reported 11,000 wind, solar, and battery projects online. Right now, they are in limbo because of the lack of transmission.

“There are massive amounts of generation, mostly clean generation, stuck in these interconnection lines or interconnection queues,” said Peskoe.

In May, FERC issued Order No. 1920 to coordinate information sharing and transmission buildout. 

“FERC is trying to motivate the industry to develop high-voltage transmission lines and to work together on that development through existing regional alliances.”

Peskoe says there have been tens of billions of dollars a year spent on transmission, but much of it has gone to rebuilding last century’s infrastructure.

“We need to keep the system working, but we also need to think about ways to expand it in a cost-effective way.” 

Order No. 1920 urges the industry to be more forward thinking rather than reacting to these generators on a project-by-project basis.

“Let’s look at the broader trends, the long-term trends that we’re seeing, both in the supply mix changes as well as the potential for increasing demand due to electrification and other factors and plan wholistically going forward to anticipate the future needs.” 

Ari Peskoe has written extensively about regulation of the U.S. power sector, on issues ranging from Constitutional challenges to states’ energy laws to interstate transmission development. Prior to the Environmental and Energy Law Program, Ari was an associate at a law firm in Washington, D.C. where he litigated before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission about the Western Energy Crisis. He received his J.D. from Harvard Law School and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with degrees in electrical engineering and business.