Making the Grade: A half-day transmission workshop

Wednesday, November 8, 2023
11:00AM – 3:00PM Central

In June 2023, Americans for a Clean Energy Grid (ACEG) issued its “Transmission Planning & Development Regional Report Card.” In their report, ACEG outlines their perspective on best practices for planning and development, their grading criteria, and the grades they arrived at for each region, with much of the country receiving Ds or worse. Regardless how much one may agree with the criteria and conclusions of ACEG’s assessment, there is broad agreement that our national electric grid needs significant investment and that there are large challenges in the planning and development process, some of which are identified in the ACEG report.

This half-day, virtual workshop is intended to move the conversation forward from just talking about the challenges to identifying actionable steps that can be taken to implement the kinds of investments needed for a more efficient, effective, and resilient electricity transmission grid. In addition to panels of industry experts and regulators, the program will include small-group breakouts to advance the conversation on actionable responses.

A recording of the program is now available on our YouTube Channel.

11:00-11:15Welcome, Introductions, and Framing our Task
11:15-11:45Session 1: ACEG’s Transmission Planning & Development Regional Report Card
Speaker: Christina Hayes, ACEG
11:45-12:45Session 2: Industry Response
Regardless how one views the details of the ACEG report, there is general consensus that our transmission network planning and development needs improvement. What are the barriers to making improvements? How do we begin removing those barriers? What steps can be taken now?
Moderator: Lanny Nickell, SPP
Panelists:
Aubrey Johnson, MISO
David Mindham, EDP Renewables
Kerry Powell, Duke Energy
Barbara Tyran, American Council on Renewable Energy
Simon Whitelocke, ITC-Michigan
12:45-1:45Session 3: Regulatory Response
What are the regulatory barriers and at what levels? What can and should state regulators do to promote more effective regional grid planning and development?
Moderator: Gladys Brown Dutrieuille, Commissioner-emeritus, Pennsylvania PUC
Panelists:
Commissioner Tricia Pridemore, Georgia PSC
Chair Scott Rupp, Missouri PSC
Chair Dan Scripps, Michigan PSC
Chair Emile Thompson, PSC of District of Columbia
1:45-2:45Session 4: Brainstorming Steps Forward
During this session, participants will be assigned to break-out groups to discuss the issues and ideas raised in the presentations. Each group will be charged with identifying and prioritize 3 to 5 concrete actions that could be taken by regional grid operators, incumbent utilities, renewable generation developers, and/or state regulators.

Each group will then report out its recommendations and we will attempt to identify common ideas, discuss different proposals, and attempt to identify actionable recommendations that have broad agreement.
2:45-3:00Wrap-up and Next Steps