Casten Introduces Legislation to Safeguard Electric Grid from Extreme Weather
Washington, D.C. — U.S. Congressman Sean Casten introduced the Reinforcing the Grid Against Extreme Weather Act of 2024, legislation to bolster electric power grid reliability against increasing and intensifying extreme weather events.
“The Reinforcing the Grid Against Extreme Weather Act of 2024 unlocks the vast supply of domestic US clean energy sources, increases the reliability of our electric grid, and helps cut down on the number of blackouts caused by heat waves, severe storms, and flooding,” said Rep. Sean Casten. “By requiring the various transmission planning entities across the country to ensure they meet appropriate minimum transfer capabilities, we can ensure that when one region of the country faces extreme weather, Americans will still have access to reliable, affordable electricity.”
The Reinforcing the Grid Against Extreme Weather Act of 2024 will require the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to establish rules to determine the minimum transfer capability between transmission planning regions – “transfer capability” being the amount of electric power that can be transferred reliably from one area to another. The rules will require each transmission planning entity – the organizations responsible for planning electric transmission in the various regions of the country – to establish a minimum transfer capability with its adjacent regions.
Once provided this minimum transfer capability, each region will be able to import enough electricity to ensure reliable access to electricity in the face of severe weather, cyberattack, and physical damage to its own electric grid, as well as to improve access to lower-cost solar and wind energy. Under the bill, each transmission planning entity will submit its plan for achieving a minimum transfer capability for FERC’s approval within three years of enactment and every five years thereafter.
Text of the legislation can be found here.
Summary of The Reinforcing the Grid Against Extreme Weather Act of 2024:
The Reinforcing the Grid Against Extreme Weather Act of 2024 will amend the Federal Power Act, adding a new section on “Improving Interregional Electricity Transfer Capability.”
Within 24 months of enactment, the FERC will issue regulations to establish processes for:
- Calculating “transfer capability” – the amount of electric power that can be transferred reliably from one area to another – employing protocols that each transmission planning region can use in common with adjacent transmission planning regions;
- Determining a minimum transfer capability between each transmission planning region and its adjacent transmission planning regions in order to—
- Ensure that each region can import enough electricity to meet its electricity needs despite impacts due to severe weather, physical damage, or cyberattack; and
- Optimize achievement of “transmission benefits,” which include improved reliability, resilience, access to lower-cost electricity, and access to zero-emission sources of electricity (see below for the full list of transmission benefits);
- Selecting and allocating costs for the individual transmission projects needed to achieve minimum transfer capability for each region; and
- Preventing the disclosure of information pertaining to cyberattacks that may compromise the security of the electricity system.
Within three years of enactment and every five years thereafter, each transmission planning region will file a plan with the FERC that selects transmission projects that will collectively provide it the minimum interregional transfer capability. The FERC will approve or deny the plans.
Within four years of issuing the above-mentioned regulations, the FERC will publish a report in the Federal Register on the results of implementing this law.
The bill defines the following terms:
- Transmission planning region: a geographic area that the FERC finds sufficient to satisfy the requirements established under two previous transmission-related FERC orders, known as Order 1000 and Order 1920.
- Transmission planning entity: an entity responsible for planning for the deployment of electric transmission for a given transmission planning region.
- Greenhouse gas
- Transmission benefit:
- improved reliability;
- improved resilience;
- reduced congestion;
- reduced power losses;
- greater carrying capacity;
- reduced operating reserve requirements;
- improved access to lower-cost electricity generation;
- improved access to electricity generating facilities with no direct emissions of greenhouse gasses;
- improved public health from the closure of electricity generation facilities that emit harmful pollution;
- increased competition and market liquidity in electricity markets;
- improved energy resilience and reliability of Department of Defense installations;
- optimizing use of existing transmission assets, including any existing rights of way; and
- other transmission costs avoided by the proposed transmission solution.
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