Notice2022-00883
Building a Better Grid Initiative To Upgrade and Expand the Nation's Electric Transmission Grid To Support Resilience, Reliability, and Decarbonization
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Published
January 19, 2022
Issuing agencies
Energy Department
Abstract
In this notice, the Department of Energy (DOE or the Department) unveils its new Building a Better Grid Initiative focused on catalyzing nationwide development of new and upgraded high-capacity transmission lines. Under the Building a Better Grid Initiative, DOE will identify critical national transmission needs and support the buildout of long-distance, high-voltage transmission facilities that meet those needs through collaborative transmission planning, innovative financing mechanisms, coordinated permitting, and continued transmission related research and development. DOE commits to robust engagement on energy justice and collaboration, including with states, American Indian Tribes and Alaska Natives, industry, unions, local communities, and other stakeholders for successful implementation of the program.
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 87 Issue 12 (Wednesday, January 19, 2022)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 87, Number 12 (Wednesday, January 19, 2022)]
[Notices]
[Pages 2769-2773]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2022-00883]
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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
Building a Better Grid Initiative To Upgrade and Expand the
Nation's Electric Transmission Grid To Support Resilience, Reliability,
and Decarbonization
AGENCY: Office of Electricity, Department of Energy.
ACTION: Notice of intent.
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SUMMARY: In this notice, the Department of Energy (DOE or the
Department) unveils its new Building a Better Grid Initiative focused
on catalyzing nationwide development of new and upgraded high-capacity
transmission lines. Under the Building a Better Grid Initiative, DOE
will identify critical national transmission needs and support the
buildout of long-distance, high-voltage transmission facilities that
meet those needs through collaborative transmission planning,
innovative financing mechanisms, coordinated permitting, and continued
transmission related research and development. DOE commits to robust
engagement on energy justice and collaboration, including with states,
American Indian Tribes and Alaska Natives, industry, unions, local
communities, and other stakeholders for successful implementation of
the program.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ms. Michelle Manary, Acting Deputy
Assistant Secretary, Electricity Delivery Division, Office of
Electricity, Mailstop OE-20, Room 8H-033, 1000 Independence Avenue SW,
Washington, DC 20585; Telephone: (202) 586-1411 or
<a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#296c454c4a5d5b404a405d506d4c45405f4c5b50694158074d464c074e465f"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="a7e2cbc2c4d3d5cec4ced3dee3c2cbced1c2d5dee7cfd689c3c8c289c0c8d1">[email protected]</span></a>. More information will also be available
at <a href="https://www.energy.gov/oe/office-electricity">https://www.energy.gov/oe/office-electricity</a>.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Background
A robust transmission system is critical to the Nation's economic,
energy, and national security. However, the United States faces
challenges as its electric grid infrastructure continues to age--
studies from the past decade find that 70 percent of the grid's
transmission lines and power transformers were over 25 years
old.<SUP>1 2</SUP> In addition, insufficient transmission capacity--
especially transmission that facilitates transfer of power across
regions--presents another critical challenge facing the grid. Upgrading
and expanding the current transmission system will enhance grid
reliability and resilience and enable the cost-effective integration of
clean energy.
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\1\ See U.S. Dep't of Energy, Infographic: Understanding the
Grid (Nov. 2014), <a href="https://www.energy.gov/articles/infographic-understanding-grid">https://www.energy.gov/articles/infographic-understanding-grid</a>.
\2\ See Energy Information Agency, Major utilities continue to
increase spending on U.S. electric distribution systems, (July 20,
2018), <a href="https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=36675">https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=36675</a>.
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Modernizing, hardening, and expanding the grid will enhance the
resilience of our entire electric system, and ensure that electricity
is available to customers when it is needed most. Aging infrastructure
leaves the grid increasingly vulnerable to attacks.\3\ The increasing
frequency of extreme weather events is leading to energy supply
disruptions that threaten the economy, put public health and safety at
risk, and can devastate affected communities all over the country.
Investment in transmission infrastructure can help protect the grid
against supply disruptions due to physical and cyber-attacks or
climate-induced extreme weather, minimize the impact of supply
disruptions when they happen, and restore electricity more quickly when
outages do occur.
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\3\ See ICF International, Electric Grid Security and
Resilience: Establishing a Baseline for Adversarial Threats, at 26
(June 2016), https://www.energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2017/01/f34/
Electric%20Grid%20Security%20and%20Resilience_
Establishing%20a%20Baseline%20for%20Adversarial%20Threats.pdf.
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Expanding transmission capacity also improves reliability by
creating stronger and more numerous energy delivery pathways, helping
to ensure that consumers have a dependable source of electricity to
power their homes, schools, and businesses. When one generation source
is physically unavailable or uneconomic, transmission enables delivery
from other generation sources, making the system better equipped to
meet delivery requirements under the broader range of real
circumstances and stresses seen in recent years.
Electric grid investment also spurs economic growth. Investment in
the grid will create demand for well-paying jobs in construction and
will drive innovation, commercialization, and deployment of energy
technologies that can spur new businesses. Moreover, clean energy
generation is increasingly the least-cost option in many parts of the
country, and investment in transmission will play a critical role in
unlocking the deployment of greater renewable energy generation.
Transmission is critical to addressing the climate crisis through
the decarbonization of the power sector and electrification of
transportation and other sectors. The climate crisis accelerates the
need for the United States to modernize its electric grid. To
[[Page 2770]]
address the imminent threat of climate change, and capitalize on the
economic opportunity of doing so, President Biden established ambitious
goals: A carbon pollution-free power sector by 2035, and a net-zero
greenhouse gas emissions economy by 2050.\4\ Multiple pathways exist
for the United States to meet these clean energy goals, but all require
upgrading and expanding the Nation's transmission infrastructure.\5\ In
particular, they require deploying interstate high-voltage lines
connecting areas with significant renewable energy resources to demand
centers and linking together independently operated grid regions. The
most cost-effective renewable resources are often located in remote
geographic areas far from the areas with the biggest demand.\6\
Therefore, accelerating the shift toward a clean power sector requires
investment in critical enabling infrastructure such as transmission to
increase access to these renewable energy sources.\7\ Numerous studies
conclude ``that a reliable power system that depends on very high
levels of renewable energy will be impossible to implement without
doubling or tripling the size and scale of the [N]ation's transmission
system.'' \8\ A recent study found as the number of generation and
storage projects proposed for interconnection to the bulk-power system
is growing, interconnection queue wait times are increasing and the
percentage of projects reaching completion appears to be declining,
particularly for wind and solar resources.\9\ Needed investments in
transmission infrastructure include increasing the capacity of existing
lines, using advanced technologies to minimize transmission losses and
maximize the value of existing lines, and building new long-distance,
high-voltage transmission lines.
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\4\ See Executive Order 14008 of Jan. 27, 2021, Tackling the
Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad, 86 FR 7619 (Feb. 1, 2021),
<a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2021/02/01/2021-02177/tackling-the-climate-crisis-at-home-and-abroad">https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2021/02/01/2021-02177/tackling-the-climate-crisis-at-home-and-abroad</a>; Fact Sheet:
President Biden Sets 2030 Greenhouse Gas Pollution Reduction Target
Aimed at Creating Good-Paying Union Jobs and Securing U.S.
Leadership on Clean Energy Technologies (Apr. 22, 2021), <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/04/22/fact-sheet-president-biden-sets-2030-greenhouse-gas-pollution-reduction-target-aimed-at-creating-good-paying-union-jobs-and-securing-u-s-leadership-on-clean-energy-technologies/">https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/04/22/fact-sheet-president-biden-sets-2030-greenhouse-gas-pollution-reduction-target-aimed-at-creating-good-paying-union-jobs-and-securing-u-s-leadership-on-clean-energy-technologies/</a>.
\5\ See North American Renewable Integration Study, Executive
Summary, p. 9.
\6\ See id. at 4-5.
\7\ See Eric Larson, et al., Net-Zero America: Potential
Pathways, Infrastructure, and Impacts, at 13-14 (Dec. 15, 2020),
<a href="https://netzeroamerica.princeton.edu/img/Princeton_NZA_Interim_Report_15_Dec_2020_FINAL.pdf">https://netzeroamerica.princeton.edu/img/Princeton_NZA_Interim_Report_15_Dec_2020_FINAL.pdf</a>.
\8\ ESIG Report at 10 (providing a summary of six studies at
Appendix B); also, see Net Zero America (previous footnote).
\9\ See Joseph Rand, et al., Queued Up: Characteristics of Power
Plants Seeking Transmission Interconnection as of the End of 2020,
Briefing at 6 (May 2021), <a href="https://eta-publications.lbl.gov/sites/default/files/queued_up_may_2021.pdf">https://eta-publications.lbl.gov/sites/default/files/queued_up_may_2021.pdf</a>.
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Recognizing these challenges, Congress enacted and the President
signed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) on November
15, 2021. IIJA builds on existing Department of Energy authorities to
provide substantial new tools and funding to the Department to
accelerate the modernization, expansion, and resilience of the Nation's
electric grid. DOE intends to coordinate the use of all authorities and
funding focused on collaborative planning, innovative financing
mechanisms, and coordinated permitting now at the disposal of the
Department to resolve challenges and constrains facing the electric
grid.
II. Transmission Deployment Program
For the reasons discussed previously, DOE intends to launch a
coordinated transmission deployment program to implement both IIJA and
previously enacted authorities and funding. Under the Building a Better
Grid Initiative, DOE will engage in a collaborative initiative to
encourage and enable investment in transmission infrastructure. DOE
recognizes the importance of engaging with other federal agencies,
state and local governments, American Indian Tribes and Alaska Natives,
industry, unions, local communities, environmental justice
organizations, and other stakeholders. Working with these partners, DOE
aims to increase coordination and transparency; to employ available
tools and resources to support the development of nationally-
significant transmission projects; and to improve transmission siting,
permitting, and authorization processes.
DOE's implementation of the Building a Better Grid Initiative will
fall into five broad categories: Coordination; enhancing transmission
planning to identify areas of greatest need; deploying federal
financing tools to reduce project development risk; facilitating an
efficient transmission permitting process; and performing transmission-
related research and development.
A. Coordination
Early and collaborative engagement is an essential element of
building a reliable, resilient, and efficient electric grid. DOE will
consult and work collaboratively with government entities, including
states, American Indian Tribes, and Alaska Natives, and other
stakeholders throughout the process of evaluating and deploying the
Department's tools and authorities to accelerate transmission
deployment.
(1) Regional Convenings. In most of the country, the primary venue
in which the future of the transmission grid is being planned is
through regional and state-level processes led by transmission planning
organizations such as independent system operators (ISOs)/regional
transmission organizations (RTOs), state regulatory commissions, and
utilities, with key involvement from transmission developers,
independent power producers, consumer advocates, unions, public
interest organizations, technology providers, and other stakeholders
that contribute to the planning process to identify where and when new
transmission lines are needed to ensure that the delivery of
electricity remains reliable and affordable. In implementing the
specific elements of the Building a Better Grid initiative described
underneath, DOE intends to leverage existing regional venues where
stakeholders are convened around transmission planning to identify
nationally significant transmission lines, validate transmission
modeling approaches, and provide technical analysis to states, American
Indian Tribes and Alaska Natives, ISOs/RTOs, and utilities.
(2) Offshore Wind Transmission Convening. DOE is partnering with
the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management
(BOEM) to convene key stakeholders, government partners, and ocean
users, including American Indian Tribes and Alaska Natives, state and
local governments, ISOs/RTOs, utilities, wind energy developers, and
non-governmental organizations, to elucidate the central transmission
challenges associated with meeting the Biden Administration's goal--30
GW of deployed offshore wind (OSW) capacity by 2030 and to facilitate
OSW development well beyond that goal--and identify potential solutions
to those challenges. Later this year, DOE and BOEM will lead a series
of convening workshops, in consultation with the Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission (FERC) and other federal agencies, to develop a
set of recommendations and associated action plan for addressing
medium- and long-term OSW transmission challenges. These will include
recommendations for OSW transmission development, transmission planning
and permitting policies, as well as seeking to maximize benefits to the
onshore transmission system by considering solutions that will reduce
congestion and support system interconnection inclusive of
[[Page 2771]]
potential onshore transmission upgrades.
B. Planning
Building a cost-effective transmission network that offers access
to a diversity of energy resources within and across geographic
regions, and that supports reliability and resilience through robust
inter-regional transfer capability, requires deliberate planning and a
different approach than has been used traditionally. Transmission
planning processes have not generally been designed to identify long-
term (beyond 10-year planning cycles), flexible, and inter-regional
solutions that will meet national interests by enhancing electric
system resilience across regions. Modernizing transmission planning can
provide greater certainty to drive investment to the highest-need
transmission projects and enable development of the projects with the
largest long-term benefit for consumers. DOE intends to consider the
following actions to facilitate transmission planning:
(1) National Transmission Needs Study. DOE intends to identify
high-priority national transmission needs--specifically, to identify
where new or upgraded transmission facilities could relieve expected
future constraints and congestion driven by deployment of clean energy
consistent with federal, state, and local policy and consumer
preferences; higher electric demand as a result of building and
transportation electrification; and insufficient transfer capacity
across regions--by conducting a Transmission Needs Study. Consistent
with authority provided by the Energy Policy Act of 2005 \10\ and the
IIJA, this study will evaluate current and expected future electric
transmission capacity constraints and congestion that could adversely
affect consumers. DOE will consult with affected states, American
Indian Tribes and Alaska Natives, and appropriate regional entities.
The results of this needs assessment can inform the prioritization of
the DOE financing authorities described in Section II.C of this
document; designation of national interest electric transmission
corridors (National Corridors), as described in Section II.D of this
document, and regional transmission planning processes.
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\10\ Federal Power Act (FPA) section 216(a); 16 U.S.C. 824p(a).
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(2) National Transmission Planning. In addition to the Transmission
Needs Study, DOE is leading a national-scale, long-term (a 15- to 30-
year) transmission planning analysis to identify transmission that will
provide broad-scale benefits to electric customers; inform regional and
interregional transmission planning processes; and identify
interregional and national strategies to accelerate decarbonization
while maintaining system reliability. In partnership with the Pacific
Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and the National Renewable Energy
Laboratory (NREL), DOE will work with stakeholders to help identify
viable future grid realization pathways to a large-scale transmission
system buildout that would accomplish clean energy goals. Robust
stakeholder engagement will help define new scenarios for analysis to
reach grid decarbonization goals cost effectively and under new high-
stress conditions. As part of this process, DOE intends to work with
the Department of Transportation, the Department of the Interior, the
United States Forest Service, other federal and state agencies, and
utilities as appropriate, to integrate existing rights-of-way into the
National Transmission Planning Study, including existing rail and
highway rights-of-way; the Bureau of Land Management's (BLM) West-wide
Energy Corridors; and other existing federal land and utility rights-
of-way.
(3) OSW Transmission Analysis. To inform the integration of OSW,
DOE will conduct supportive analyses to identify transmission pathways
and develop transmission strategies to integrate offshore wind,
consistent with the Administration's goal of 30 GW of OSW by 2030 and
to set the stage for a more ambitious 2050 OSW deployment target. In
November 2021, DOE launched the Atlantic Offshore Wind Transmission
Study, a 2-year study led by NREL and PNNL. Through robust engagement
with diversified stakeholder groups, this work evaluates coordinated
transmission solutions to enable offshore wind energy deployment along
the U.S. Atlantic Coast, addressing gaps in existing analyses.\11\
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\11\ See Atlantic Offshore Wind Transmission Study, NREL.
<a href="https://www.nrel.gov/wind/atlantic-offshore-wind-transmission-study.html">https://www.nrel.gov/wind/atlantic-offshore-wind-transmission-study.html</a>.
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(4) Transmission Planning Technical Assistance. DOE will continue
to develop and leverage modeling tools and capabilities to provide
technical analysis to states and regions, and other agencies, where
appropriate. This includes the research and capabilities created as
part of the National Transmission Planning and the OSW Transmission
Analysis above. The technical analysis and assistance aim to aid in
long-term energy planning, policy implementation, and regulatory
rulemaking, informed by core transmission planning precepts and in
alignment with current federal and state public policy goals. The IIJA
requires states to incorporate transmission planning as a mandatory
feature of their energy plans and is supported with $500 million in
increased funding for the State Energy Program.
C. Financing
Financial risk poses a significant barrier to pursuing large scale,
multi-region transmission projects. Transmission projects require
large, upfront investments. For regulated utility projects, returns are
ultimately collected over long periods through rates charged to end-use
customers, but it is difficult for such utilities to recover costs for
transmission projects that cross multiple service territories and
planning regions. Merchant transmission developers face challenges
securing transmission customers before a project is built, but customer
commitments are often needed to reduce investment risk. The IIJA
provided critical new authorities and appropriations that the
Department can use to help reduce financing challenges project sponsors
may face and catalyze private investment in transmission. DOE intends
to deploy these authorities while also continuing to make available
existing financing tools.
New Programs Authorized in IIJA:
(1) Transmission Facilitation Program. The IIJA establishes a new
$2.5B revolving fund to facilitate the construction of high capacity
new, replacement, or upgraded transmission lines.\12\ This program will
prioritize projects that improve resilience and reliability of the
grid, facilitate inter-regional transfer of electricity, lower electric
sector greenhouse gas emissions, and use advanced technology. DOE is
authorized to do so through three separate tools.
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\12\ In addition, eligible projects include those that would
connect an isolated microgrid to an existing transmission,
transportation, or infrastructure corridor located in Alaska,
Hawaii, or a U.S. territory.
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<bullet> DOE is authorized to serve as an anchor customer on new
and upgraded transmission lines in order to facilitate the private
financing and construction of the line. Under this authority, DOE would
buy up to 50 percent of planned capacity from the developer for a term
of up to 40 years. A purchase of capacity will not be considered a
``major federal action'' that would trigger environmental review
pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). DOE will then
market the capacity it has purchased to recover the
[[Page 2772]]
costs it has incurred once the project's long-term financial viability
is secured.
<bullet> DOE is authorized to make loans for the cost of carrying
out eligible transmission projects.
<bullet> DOE is authorized to enter into public-private
partnerships to co-develop projects that are located in a National
Corridor or that are necessary to accommodate an increase in demand for
interstate transmission, among other criteria. Such co-development can
entail the design, development, construction, operation, maintenance,
or ownership of a project.
DOE intends to establish procedures for the administration of this
program and for solicitation and selection of project applications.
Further guidance will be forthcoming for this program.
(2) Enhancing Grid Resilience. DOE will provide formula grants,
competitive grants, and competitive awards across a number of
provisions of the IIJA that allow for upgrading transmission
infrastructure. DOE intends to issue solicitations for applications by
states, American Indian Tribes, local communities, and industry.
Further guidance and solicitations will be forthcoming for these
programs.
<bullet> Preventing Outages and Enhancing the Resilience of the
Electric Grid--The IIJA authorizes DOE to make grants for supplemental
hardening activities to reduce risks of power lines causing wildfires,
and the likelihood and consequence of impacts to the electric grid due
to extreme weather, wildfires, and natural disasters. This program is
split between $2.5 billion in matching grants for industry and $2.5
billion in formula grants for states and American Indian tribes.
<bullet> Program Upgrading Our Electric Grid and Ensuring
Reliability and Resiliency--The IIJA authorizes DOE to provide $5
billion in competitive financial assistance to states, local
governments, and American Indian tribes. This financial assistance must
support electric sector owners and operators with projects that
demonstrate innovative approaches to hardening and enhancing the
resilience and reliability of transmission, storage, and distribution
infrastructure.
<bullet> Energy Improvement in Rural and Remote Areas--DOE is
authorized to provide competitive grants to small cities, towns, and
unincorporated areas to improve resilience, safety, reliability, and
availability of energy; and that provide environmental protection from
adverse impacts of energy generation.
(3) Deployment of Technologies to Increase Capacity and Enhance
Flexibility of the Existing Grid. The IIJA provides DOE with $3 billion
to provide matching grants for the deployment of advanced grid
technologies to enhance grid flexibility. Building on the success of
the Smart Grid Investment Grant Program, this program now includes
advanced transmission technologies such as dynamic line rating, flow
control devices, advanced conductors, and network topology
optimization, to increase the operational transfer capacity
transmission networks. Further guidance and solicitations will be
forthcoming for this program.
Existing DOE Programs:
(4) Loan Programs. DOE's Loan Programs Office (LPO) administers a
number of programs that can provide loan guarantees to help deploy
large-scale energy infrastructure projects in the United States, some
of which have already been utilized to issue over $300 million in
Conditional Commitment for the construction and energization of a new
transmission line. Under the Title 17 Innovative Energy Loan Guarantee
Program and the Tribal Energy Loan Guarantee Program, the Department is
authorized to provide loan guarantees to projects that will expand and
improve the transmission grid. Through these programs, LPO can offer
borrowers access to debt capital, flexible financing customized for the
specific needs of borrowers, and valuable expertise in energy
infrastructure project development. LPO can also reduce the risk of
investment in long-distance transmission projects by providing
financing support for projects that analysis shows are likely to
support repayment of the loan, even if those projects have not yet
secured pre-construction agreements for transmission service for their
full capacity.
(5) Transmission Infrastructure Program (TIP). The Western Area
Power Administration (WAPA) administers a unique federal infrastructure
development assistance and financing program. TIP manages WAPA's
statutory $3.25 billion borrowing authority to provide debt financing
and development assistance for qualifying transmission projects with at
least one terminus in WAPA's 15-state service territory and that
facilitate delivery of renewable energy. The program leverages WAPA's
transmission project development expertise and WAPA's borrowing
authority, partnering with private and other non-federal co-investment
to support the development of critical transmission and related
infrastructure in the West.
D. Permitting
The siting and permitting of interstate and inter-regional high-
voltage transmission generally requires action by many different
authorities governing the federal, state, local, and Tribal lands, as
well as private lands, that facilities will pass through. Projects
involving multiple agencies are subject to a wide array of processes
and procedural requirements for compliance with legal mandates and
multiple authorizations. The time required to meet these legal mandates
can be reduced through effective planning processes that take advantage
of existing rights-of-way, which as outlined previously, DOE intends to
incorporate into its planning activities. As an example, DOE is
coordinating with BLM as the agency updates its designated West-wide
Energy Corridors. But where such rights-of-way are not available,
siting and permitting processes can significantly slow development and
should be conducted efficiently, with clear expectations and
predictable timelines and processes. These aims should occur without
sacrificing important analysis, protection of environmental, cultural,
and other important values, or robust public engagement. DOE intends to
coordinate with states and with federal permitting agencies to help
facilitate the siting and permitting process, including through
consideration of the following actions:
(1) Federal Permitting Coordination. The Federal Permitting
Improvement Steering Council (FPISC), established pursuant to Title 41
of the Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act (``FAST-41''), and
made permanent by IIJA, facilitates coordination and oversight
procedures for federal environmental review and permitting process
related to eligible large-scale infrastructure projects. IIJA provided
additional authority to FPISC to include projects on the permitting
dashboard. DOE will work with relevant agencies to evaluate and
recommend whether to include nationally-significant transmission
projects on the dashboard. In addition, DOE works with interagency
partners to bolster pre-application planning for transmission projects
through its Integrated Interagency Pre-Application Process, which
allows transmission project developers a mechanism for early
coordination and information sharing with permitting agencies.\13\ DOE
intends to encourage developers to take advantage of the pre-
application process in order to streamline federal permitting action.
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\13\ FPA section 216(h); 42 U.S.C. 824p(h).
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(2) Public-private partnership projects. The previously-described
Transmission Facilitation Program,
[[Page 2773]]
enacted as part of IIJA, includes authority for the Secretary to enter
into public-private partnerships for the design, development,
construction, operation, maintenance, and ownership of transmission
facilities. In addition, the Secretary, acting through the
Administrators of the Southwestern Power Administration (SWPA) or WAPA,
has the authority to design, develop, construct, operate, maintain, or
own, alone or in partnership with third parties, transmission system
upgrades or new transmission lines and related facilities within states
in which WAPA and SWPA operate.\14\ In exercising these authorities,
DOE can help facilitate transmission development in areas where state
or local permitting requirements would otherwise make a project
difficult or impossible to complete. In carrying out either type of
project, the Secretary may accept and use contributed funds from
another entity, such as a transmission developer, to carry out the
Department's work on upgrades or on new projects. DOE may solicit
interest in these public-private partnership projects, with a
particular focus on projects that would fulfill transmission needs
identified by the transmission planning actions outlined previously.
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\14\ Energy Policy Act of 2005 section 1222; 42 U.S.C. 16421.
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(3) Designation of Route-Specific Transmission Corridors. The
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has authority, clarified by
the IIJA, to issue permits for the construction or modification of
electric transmission facilities in National Corridors designated by
the Secretary of Energy.\15\ IIJA also clarified that National
Corridors can be any area experiencing or expected to experience
electricity transmission capacity constraints or congestion that
adversely affects consumers.\16\ DOE can designate a National Corridor
after taking into consideration the Transmission Needs Study discussed
previously and other information. In order to facilitate the efficient
consideration of projects seeking a FERC-issued permit, DOE intends to
provide a process for the designation of National Corridors on a route-
specific, applicant-driven basis. DOE intends to give particular
consideration to proposed National Corridors that, to the greatest
degree possible, overlap with or utilize existing highway, rail,
utility, and federal land rights-of-way. Further, in order to enable
effective use of both DOE's route-specific National Corridor process
and FERC's permitting process, DOE and FERC intend to work together, as
appropriate, to establish coordinated procedures that facilitate
efficient information gathering related to the scope of activities
under review pursuant to these authorities. By harmonizing, to the
greatest extent practicable, pre-filing and application processes, DOE
and FERC can work with applicants to identify and resolve issues as
quickly as possible; share information in a timely fashion; and
expedite reviews conducted pursuant to these authorities, the National
Environmental Policy Act, and other requirements.
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\15\ FPA section 216(b); 16 U.S.C. 824p(b).
\16\ Section 216(a) of the FPA; 16 U.S.C. 824p(a).
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E. Transmission Research, Development, and Demonstration (RD&D)
DOE continues to conduct RD&D to further develop and reduce the
costs of technologies that enable the transmission system to be used
more efficiently, including grid enhancing technologies, improved
transmission conductors, and grid-related energy storage facilities.
The National Laboratories' research programs, in partnership with
industry, are investing in the next generation of components and
systems. DOE's FY22 budget request prioritizes solicitations to support
transmission technology development including transformers, high
voltage direct current converter stations, and storage.
DOE is also developing and improving analytical tools to more
effectively support transmission deployment. DOE, in collaboration with
several National Laboratories, is developing the North American Energy
Resilience Model (NAERM), a national-scale energy planning and real-
time situational awareness tool. DOE is working to enable and expand
NAERM's capabilities to facilitate effective transmission planning.
Currently deployed transmission planning tools include the Energy Zones
Mapping Tool, an online mapping tool that can be used to identify
potential energy resource areas and energy corridors, and the
Transmission Resilience Maturity Model that enables utilities to
measure the maturity of their transmission resilience programs and
identify improvements to increase the resilience of their transmission
systems.
Moving forward, the Department will keep the public informed of its
planned activities and progress related to this Building a Better Grid
Initiative to expand and improve the Nation's electric transmission
grid. DOE is committed to robust engagement and collaboration with
states, American Indian Tribes and Alaska Natives, industry, unions,
local communities, environmental justice organizations, and other
stakeholders. For additional information, interested parties may reach
out to DOE's Office of Electricity using the contact information
provided in this Notice.
Signing Authority
This document of the Department of Energy was signed on January 11,
2022, by Jennifer M. Granholm, Secretary of Energy. That document with
the original signature and date is maintained by DOE. For
administrative purposes only, and in compliance with requirements of
the Office of the Federal Register, the undersigned DOE Federal
Register Liaison Officer has been authorized to sign and submit the
document in electronic format for publication, as an official document
of the Department of Energy. This administrative process in no way
alters the legal effect of this document on publication in the Federal
Register.
Signed in Washington, DC, on January 12, 2022.
Treena V. Garrett,
Federal Register Liaison Officer, U.S. Department of Energy.
[FR Doc. 2022-00883 Filed 1-18-22; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6450-01-P
</pre><script data-cfasync="false" src="/cdn-cgi/scripts/5c5dd728/cloudflare-static/email-decode.min.js"></script></body>
</html>Indexed from Federal Register on January 19, 2022.
This is legal information, not legal advice. Laws vary by jurisdiction and change frequently. Always verify current law with official sources and consult a licensed attorney in your jurisdiction for advice on your specific situation.