We Don’t Need Another Interregional Transmission Study to Take Action

The policy brief contends that the US electricity grid is fragmented and unable to meet growing demand or integrate clean energy, with new projects facing interconnection delays of four years or more. It criticizes the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 for mandating a three-year NERC study on interregional transmission instead of implementing concrete reforms. The author argues that the need for more transmission is already well-documented, citing a DOE meta-analysis of over 50 reports. The brief proposes three urgent actions: implementing a minimum interregional transfer capability requirement (suggesting 30 percent of peak demand), mandating strong interregional planning and cost allocation standards via FERC, and streamlining federal and state permitting processes to reduce the current 10-year average project timeline.

• The US power grid is currently experiencing a significant imbalance where the number of new projects waiting in interconnection queues exceeds the existing generation capacity.
• A proposed requirement for grid regions to transfer at least 30 percent of their peak electricity demand to and from neighbors would increase resilience and move the system toward the lower end of projected future needs, though it would still be insufficient for full decarbonization, particularly in regions like SPP and MISO.
• The US may need to double its overall transmission capacity within the next 20 years, but current progress is slow; major projects take an average of 10 years from proposal to construction, and all currently active major projects would only increase overall capacity by 15 percent.
• The Department of Energy's National Transmission Needs Study, which analyzed over 50 industry reports and 200 scenarios from six modeling studies, confirms a critical need for increased transmission between high-potential clean energy production areas and high-demand centers.

APA

RMI (2023). We Don’t Need Another Interregional Transmission Study to Take Action. https://rmi.org/resources/we-dont-need-another-interregional-transmission-study-to-take-action/

Chicago

RMI. We Don’t Need Another Interregional Transmission Study to Take Action. 2023. https://rmi.org/resources/we-dont-need-another-interregional-transmission-study-to-take-action/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=RMI |title=We Don’t Need Another Interregional Transmission Study to Take Action |date=14 September 2023 |url=https://rmi.org/resources/we-dont-need-another-interregional-transmission-study-to-take-action/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{rmi2023dont, author = {{RMI}}, title = {{We Don’t Need Another Interregional Transmission Study to Take Action}}, institution = {RMI}, year = {2023}, month = sep, url = {https://rmi.org/resources/we-dont-need-another-interregional-transmission-study-to-take-action/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }