DOE Identifies 10 Preliminary National Transmission Corridors

Written by John Egan for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--The Biden administration took another step to accelerate the development of high-voltage electric transmission projects May 8 when it released a preliminary list of 10 potential National Interest Electric Transmission Corridors (NIETCs). Inclusion of a corridor on the list does not guarantee its final selection or its eligibility for federal funding. The public can comment on a preliminary NIETC for 45 days, until June 24. By yearend 2024, the Department of Energy (DOE) (Washington, D.C.) expects to finalize these transmission areas, which would enable transmission developers with a project in that corridor to begin negotiating the terms of financial support developers can expect from the federal government.

The DOE's announcement did not identify specific transmission projects; rather, the agency was trying to designate geographic areas where federal authority might be exerted to expedite the development of transmission projects that improve the grid's efficiency, resiliency and reliability while also integrating more renewable generating resources. The statement emphasized the words "preliminary" and "potential."

In releasing a list of 10 preliminary NIETCs, the DOE also provided minimum eligibility criteria for direct loans under the $2-billion Transmission Facility Financing (TFF) program that was created in the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. The DOE expects to formally open the loan request program next year.

In a background statement on the importance of a vibrant national transmission network and the NIETC, the energy agency said, "Consumers frequently are harmed from a lack of transmission infrastructure, which can directly contribute to higher electricity prices, more frequent power outages from extreme weather, and longer outages as the grid struggles to come back online." While these needs are urgent, building and expanding electric transmission often requires several years of permitting, siting, and regulatory processes, especially if the proposed transmission line extends through multiple states and regions.

Noting the lengthy process to permit, site, and approve multistate transmission projects, the agency said that the Federal Power Act authorized the DOE secretary to designate any geographic area as an NIETC "if the secretary finds that consumers are harmed by a lack of transmission in the area and that the development of new transmission would advance important national interests in that area, such as increased reliability and reduced consumer costs."

As a build-up to designating areas as an NIETPC, the DOE last October released its triennial National Transmission Needs Study, which concluded:

• There is a pressing need for additional transmission infrastructure
• Increasing interregional transmission results in the largest benefits, and
• Transmission needs will shift over time.

In designating 10 areas as preliminary NIETCs, the DOE listed the strategic benefits that could come from strengthening and expanding the transmission grid in these areas, including:

• Maintain and improve reliability and resilience: Potential electricity shortfalls could leave regions vulnerable during extreme weather. Electricity demand growth and generator retirements threaten reliability.
• Alleviate electric congestion: Electric congestion in an area prevents cost-effective generation from being delivered to where it is needed, when it is needed.
• Meet future generation and demand growth: There is a significant need for additional electric transfer capacity between regions to meet various future power sector scenarios.
• Increase clean energy integration: Increased access to more diverse, clean energy generation is necessary to lower power sector greenhouse gas emissions.

In a statement, DOE Secretary Jennifer Granholm said, "At more than a century old, our power grid is showing its age, leaving American consumers to bear the costs of maintaining it with frequent and longer power outages from extreme weather. The Biden-Harris Administration is leveraging every tool to expand transmission and deploy more reliable, affordable, and clean power in every pocket of the nation."

John Podesta, senior advisor to the president for international climate policy, added this: "In order to reach our clean energy and climate goals, we've got to build out transmission as fast as possible to get clean power from where it's produced to where it's needed," adding that it was essential for the federal government to "accelerate progress on transmission permitting and financing and build a clean energy future."

For varying reasons, developers, utilities, large commercial customers, environmental advocates, regulators, consumer advocates, industry analysts and ISOs/RTOs have for years sought ways to expedite the transmission-siting process.

Industrial Info's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) platform is tracking about 1,075 U.S. electric transmission projects valued at $69.25 billion that have a medium or high probability of moving forward as planned according to their current timelines.

The 10 preliminary NIEP corridors identified by the DOE are:

• Delta - Plains: A 645-mile corridor that is between four and 18 miles wide stretching across Oklahoma and Arkansas, connecting the Midcontinent System Independent Operator (MISO) (Carmel, Indiana) to the Southwest Power Pool (SPP) (Little Rock, Arkansas).
• Mid-Atlantic: This regional corridor within the PJM Interconnection would include multiple parallel sections, each of which could be about two miles wide and 15 miles long. These corridors would include portions of Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia.
• Mid-Atlantic - Canada: This corridor, about one mile wide by 42 miles long, would connect PJM to the Independent Electricity System Operator in Ontario, Canada.
• Midwest - Plains: This strip would be about five miles wide and 780 miles long, stretching across portions of Illinois, Indiana, Kansas and Missouri. It would include parts of an existing 345-kilovolt transmission right-of-way. This would be an interregional corridor between PJM, MISO and SPP.
• Mountain - Northwest: Stretching about 515 miles from southern Nevada to southern Oregon, this narrow (0.3 miles wide) alley would be co-located within existing U.S. Bureau of Land Management energy corridors in Nevada and follows existing infrastructure for most of its length.
• Mountain - Plains - Southwest: This 515-mile-long corridor would stretch from Pueblo in southern Colorado to southern New Mexico. Its width would range from 10 miles to 100 miles.
• New York - Mid-Atlantic: This strip has the potential to integrate offshore wind generation in the Atlantic Ocean. It would be about four miles wide and 12 miles long, connecting portions of New York (in NYISO) and New Jersey (in PJM).
• New York - New England: This alley would be approximately one mile wide and 60 miles long, connecting portions of Massachusetts (in ISO-NE) and New York (in NYISO).
• Northern Plains: This corridor would have multiple sections that are between 10-50 miles wide, 300 miles long on an east-to-west basis and 400 miles long on a north-to-south basis. This corridor would include portions of Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and several Tribal Nations. It would exist entirely in the SPP and would address a lack of extra high-voltage transmission.
• Plains - Southwest: At between five and 100 miles wide, 345 miles long on an east-to-west basis and 220 miles long on a north-to-south basis, this strip would stretch across portions of Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas. It would facilitate connections between SPP and WestConnect, with the potential to facilitate interconnections with Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), MISO and PJM.

Last October, the DOE decided to enter into capacity contract negotiations with three transmission projects across six states aimed at adding approximately 3,500 megawatts (MW) of additional grid transmission capacity. These negotiations were started pursuant to the Transmission Facilitation Program.

Those three projects were:

• Southwest Intertie Project - North: This project, 285-miles long and capable of transmitting up to about 2,000 MW of electricity, would stretch from Twin Falls, Idaho to Ely, Nevada.
• Cross-Tie 500kV Transmission Line Project: A proposed 214-mile, 1,500-MW transmission line connecting existing transmission systems in Utah and Nevada would increase transmission capacity, improve grid reliability and resilience, relieve congestion on other key transmission lines, and expand access to low-cost renewable energy across the region.
• Southline Transmission Project: This proposed 175-mile, 748-MW transmission line from Hidalgo County, New Mexico to Pima County, Arizona will help unlock renewable energy development in southern New Mexico and deliver clean energy to growing markets in Arizona that currently rely on fossil fuel generation.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of industrial market intelligence. Since 1983, IIR has provided comprehensive research, news and analysis on the industrial process, manufacturing and energy related industries. IIR's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) platform helps companies identify and pursue trends across multiple markets with access to real, qualified and validated plant and project opportunities. Across the world, IIR is tracking over 200,000 current and future projects worth $17.8 Trillion (USD).