Officials from the six New England states, New York and New Jersey asked the Department of Energy to help form a “Northeast States Collaborative on Interregional Transmission” to explore ways to increase interconnectivity–including for offshore wind–between the regions.
In addition to DOE and the states, the region’s three regional transmission organizations (RTOs) were mentioned as possible participants to provide technical support.
“Rather than wait for new regulatory mandates to spur action, we can collectively take steps now to consider expanding ties between our regions,” the letter said. It said the collaborative approach could help enhance system reliability and transition to a clean energy future “more quickly and affordably.”
The letter was sent to Maria Robinson, director of DOE’s Grid Deployment Office. It was signed by Rebecca Tepper, secretary of the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs; June E. Tierney, commissioner with the Vermont Department of Public Service; Chris Kearns, acting commissioner with the State of Rhode Island Office of Energy Resources; Katie S. Dykes, commissioner with the Connecticut Department of Energy & Environmental Protection; Dan Burgess, director of the Maine Governor’s Energy Office; Doreen M. Harris, president and CEO of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority; and Jared Chicoine, commissioner with the New Hampshire Department of Energy.
Under the proposed structure, DOE would lead the states in planning activities that could include investigating opportunities for mutually beneficial options for increasing the flow of electricity between three different planning regions in the Northeast and assessing offshore wind infrastructure needs and solutions.
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The coalition said that greater interconnectivity lowers prices for consumers through a larger marketplace for low-cost clean energy generation, bolsters reliability during periods of extreme weather and system stress, and increases access to renewable energy to meet decarbonization goals.
The letter said that DOE’s Draft National Transmission Needs Study as well as its Atlantic Offshore Transmission Study identified the anticipated need for new transfer capacity between various regions such as New England and New York and the Mid-Atlantic and New York, as well as system and governmental needs for the successful integration of new resources. It said that federal legislators and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission are also exploring or proposing changes to transmission planning and operations to increase transfer capabilities between regions.
The DOE grid deployment office on May 9 it issued a notice of intent (NOI) and request for information (RFI) to help it designate National Interest Transmission Corridors (NIETS). NIETCs are geographic areas where electricity limitations, congestion, or capacity constraints are adversely affecting electricity consumers and communities. Being designated as an NEITC could help spur transmission investments needed in these geographic areas to improve reliability and resilience and reduce consumer costs.
In the NOI, DOE identified program design elements that it said should form the basis of an applicant-driven, route-specific process to designate NIETCs.
Maria Robinson of the Grid Deployment Office said at the time, the U.S. “must improve and expand national transmission capacity to meet the challenges of more frequent and intense weather, provide access to diverse sources of clean electricity, and fulfill electricity demands driven by increased electrification of homes, businesses, and vehicles.”
She added that NIETCs are a tool “to facilitate timely development of transmission infrastructure to meet these needs.”
Under the Federal Power Act, the Secretary of Energy may designate any geographic area, such as a route, as a NIETC if they find that current or anticipated future electric energy transmission capacity constraints or congestion are adversely affecting consumers. These routes can range in length up to several hundred miles.
An NIETC designation can unlock federal financing tools, specifically public-private partnerships through the $2.5 billion Transmission Facilitation Program under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the $2 billion Transmission Facility Financing Loan Program under the Inflation Reduction Act.
