Oh say can you NIETC?

That's pronounced NIT-SEE, for the uninitiated.

Otherwise known as National Interest Electricity Corridors, NIETCs were preliminarily designated by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) earlier this month. This was just one of two major developments in U.S. federal transmission policy this month, the other being the much-anticipated Order 1920 ruling from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) last week. What are they and why do they matter? Brace yourself for an exceptionally geeky edition coming your way.

Transmission corridors

Robinson Meyer calls transmission policy the "most cursed area of energy law" on a recent episode of his Shift Key podcast, co-hosted alongside Jesse Jenkins. He's probably not wrong. They both note that in the coming years we need to build out transmission twice as fast as we have on average over the last decade, if we have any hope of reaching net zero by 2050. For those with an hour to spare, I strongly recommend listening to this episode. My favorite part was the second half, featuring a guest appearance from Maria Robinson of the DOE's Grid Deployment Office. She breaks down their recent announcement of 10 proposed NIETCs across the U.S. The designation of these corridors would qualify electricity transmission projects located within a corridor for FERC's backstop siting authority, meaning FERC could approve a project that has not received state or local permits after 1 year of waiting. That's a big deal, given how many multi-state transmission projects have struggled to overcome localized siting pushback. Projects could also qualify for some credit subsidy assistance from the DOE Loan Program Office, so that's nice.

What's not nice? The fact that, according to Maria Robinson, projects in these corridors could potentially go through THREE. SEPARATE. NEPA REVIEWS. Cue the mind-blown emoji. A NEPA review (National Environmental Protection Act) is an incredibly cumbersome, lengthy federal permitting that most major construction projects are obligated to conduct. The DOE will conduct NEPA reviews on every proposed NIETC corridor. If a project within that corridor wants to access the DOE Loan Program funding, it will have to conduct a NEPA review, and if it then needs to avail itself of the FERC backstop siting authority, it will require YET A THIRD NEPA review. Seriously. She explains how the "dull, bureaucratic mechanics" of NEPA reviews prompted their decision to designate quite narrow corridors, for ease of study. That's probably a practical benefit, but if you dig back into the annals of transmission regulatory history you will find a NIETC cautionary tale. The last time the DOE attempted to exercise its NIETC authority, back in 2007, it tried to designate the entire Commonwealth of Pennsylvania as a NIETC. Pennsylvania filed a successful suit to halt the action, calling it an unreasonable encroachment on their state permitting authority. I found this little treasure on the internet wayback machine when I was factchecking my memory on this case (jump to page 8).

Order 1920

This one's not about Prohibition (that gallant attempt of yesteryear to wean America off alcohol), and it's also not about the suffragette movement, nor is it a centennial celebration of the State of Maine's admission into the Union. It's about long-term planning, who pays for what, and how we calculate fair cost allocation for regional transmission line projects. I guess it lends itself less to a fun party theme. Energy nerds, prove me wrong!

If Meyer and Jenkins can call transmission law "most cursed", I'm going to go out on a limb and call FERC the "most arcane" agency in the entire federal government. The magicians at FERC, an ostensibly bipartisan agency with a penchant for rules longer than Stephen King's most bloated novels, are responsible for regulating wholesale energy markets. They ensure these markets operate smoothly, efficiently, and transparently in parts of the country that have decoupled electricity generation ownership from transmission system operations. Making life complicated, only some parts of the U.S. grid are managed by transmission system operators that are subject to FERC oversight. Other parts of the country allow vertically-integrated utility companies to manage the transmission grid, while Texas has a transmission system operator that is not subject to FERC jurisdiction. Madness! This patchwork of grid operation was one of the fundamental issues that muddied the waters for the clean hydrogen production tax credit guidance. Check out our previous edition about hydrogen tax credit guidance for more on that topic.

The (1300+ page) rule directs transmission system operators for wholesale energy markets to plan transmission within their region more holistically, over longer time horizons, and with a more systemic evaluation of how costs for new transmission should be allocated. Interconnection queues are clogged with a decade's worth of generation projects, waiting in line for their turn to connect to the grid, and this new FERC rule should make it more likely that more transmission is built, faster. For more details on how the new transmission planning processes need to operate, try this handy summary from the brilliant folks at Perkins Coie .

Want to know more about wholesale energy markets and their potential limitations in deliver new transmission infrastructure? This episode of Energy Policy Now is an incredible primer for how competitive electricity markets work, why we have them, and how they changed everything (at least in part of the country).

It's not all big wires

The bulk power transmission grid gets all the love these days, but our distribution system is just as old, cumbersome, inefficient, and underinvested. For those who dig English spoken in sexy, non-American accents (two of my favorites, Irish and French), and really want to understand what's going on in the less sexy part of the grid, check out this recent podcast episode from Redefining Energy all about the distribution grid. The distribution grid is the portion of the grid that delivers electricity to homes and businesses - 5.5 million miles of wires in the U.S., operating at lower voltages than the 200,000 miles of high-voltage transmission grid. While the podcast focuses on trends unfolding internationally, the technologies in play and challenges being faced are quite similar here in the U.S. EV charging, heat pumps, rooftop solar panels, and other technologies meant to "electrify everything" can help us decarbonize faster, but the distribution grid was not designed and built with these technologies in mind. Want an EV charger at your house? Better hurry up and get that charger installed before your neighbors tap out the local distribution transformer. The lead times on those bad boys can easily extend beyond months and into years, not to mention the upgrade costs which might be borne by the customer.

There's a lot of new(ish) thinking about how we can make better use of the distribution grid. Smart technologies can allow the distribution grid to function more dynamically or give more visibility and control to a transmission system operator, who might be able to aggregate smaller loads into a functional unit. A recent Volts podcast episode unpacks these various solutions in an episode that's a little bit long, a little bit kooky, but compelling and provocative.

One day, I hope I'll get a text message from my utility asking if I'd allow them to draw power from my EV for an hour in exchange for a couple of bucks. The future is now, except when it isn't. We have the technology to do this - let's get with the program!