The Best Time to Plan Transmission Was 15 Years Ago. The Second-Best Time Is Now.

The document asserts that the US transmission system must expand by 50% to 300% to achieve a clean electricity goal by 2035, as current shovel-ready projects would only add 11-12% capacity. It highlights systemic failures in regional planning, such as narrow benefit definitions and unrealistic growth assumptions for renewables, which have led to interconnection queues containing approximately 1,000 GW of wind and solar capacity. The author supports a FERC Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR) that would require long-term, forward-looking regional planning and encourages the inclusion of broad benefits and grid enhancing technologies (GETs) in cost allocation and project selection.

• To achieve President Biden's goal of 100 percent clean electricity by 2035, the US transmission system needs to expand by 50 to 90 percent, even without accounting for increased loads from electrifying buildings, industry, and transportation. With full economy-wide decarbonization, capacity needs to at least double or triple.
• Current transmission planning is insufficient; the 22 significant shovel-ready projects currently in the US would only increase total transmission capacity by 11 to 12 percent.
• Inadequate planning and narrow benefit definitions have contributed to a backlog in interconnection queues, which currently hold about 1,000 GW of wind and solar capacity and over 400 GW of storage.
• The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR) to require long-term regional planning that considers changing resource mixes, demand, technology trends, and extreme weather events, while enabling planners to recognize a broader range of transmission benefits for cost allocation.

APA

RMI (2022). The Best Time to Plan Transmission Was 15 Years Ago. The Second-Best Time Is Now. https://rmi.org/resources/the-best-time-to-plan-transmission-was-15-years-ago-the-second-best-time-is-now/

Chicago

RMI. The Best Time to Plan Transmission Was 15 Years Ago. The Second-Best Time Is Now. 2022. https://rmi.org/resources/the-best-time-to-plan-transmission-was-15-years-ago-the-second-best-time-is-now/.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |author=RMI |title=The Best Time to Plan Transmission Was 15 Years Ago. The Second-Best Time Is Now. |date=22 April 2022 |url=https://rmi.org/resources/the-best-time-to-plan-transmission-was-15-years-ago-the-second-best-time-is-now/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{rmi2022best, author = {{RMI}}, title = {{The Best Time to Plan Transmission Was 15 Years Ago. The Second-Best Time Is Now.}}, publisher = {RMI}, year = {2022}, month = apr, url = {https://rmi.org/resources/the-best-time-to-plan-transmission-was-15-years-ago-the-second-best-time-is-now/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }