Hundreds of gigawatts of new power generation planned in the U.S. are either wind or solar, but inadequate buildout of the nation’s high-voltage transmission system is causing costly delays to their construction and connection to the grid, members of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission told Congress July 27 at a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing.
FERC’s transmission planning practices have not adjusted to the changing mix in generation and are not forward looking, Commissioner Allison Clements, a Democratic appointee said, adding roughly 93% of 750 GW of power projects now waiting for transmission interconnections are for renewable energy.