With the election results finalized, there are major changes coming at the federal level. For the first time in two years, we have a full complement of FERC Commissioners. A new FERC Chairman will be named shortly, and by mid to late 2021, a likely new Commissioner added, giving the Democrats a majority at FERC. In Congress, the outcome of the Georgia Senate runoff positions Senator Joe Manchin as the likely next chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee. WIRES looks forward to working with all of these key policymakers in their new roles as they tackle the issues and challenges facing transmission infrastructure in the coming year and beyond. As Sen. Manchin stated in his Keynote Address at WIRES’ Fall Meeting, “groups like WIRES have a central role to play in helping us navigate the policy, legal, and technological challenges. Your perspective is valuable, and I encourage you all to work with us on the Energy Committee to find common solutions.”

Congratulations to the WIRES 2021 officers and board members!

President: David Weaver, Vice President, Transmission Strategy, Exelon Corp.

Vice President: William Sauer, Federal Regulatory Affairs Director, Duke Energy

Secretary: Jodi Moskowitz, Deputy General Counsel & RTO Strategy Officer, PSEG

Treasurer: Kelly Pearce, Managing Director, Transmission Asset Strategy & Policy, American Electric Power

David Bonenberger, Vice President, Transmission and Substations, PPL Electric Utilities

Brian Gemmell, Vice President, Transmission Asset Management & Planning and Capital Delivery Electric, FERC, National Grid

Tom Hestermann, Manager, Transmission Policy, Sunflower Electric Power Corp

Priti Patel, Vice President & Chief Transmission Officer, Great River Energy

Nina Plaushin, Vice President, ITC Holdings

The Fall meeting also featured two panel discussions: Integration of Renewables and Impact on Transmission, and Resilience and the Grid. Among our esteemed panelists were Joe Kelliher, former EVP of Federal Regulatory Affairs at NextERA Energy and former FERC Chairman; and the Hon. Rick Mroz, Senior Advisor to Protect our Power, and former President, NJ Board of Public Utilities.

A recording of Sen. Manchin’s keynote and the complete Fall Meeting panel sessions is available on our website. A transcript of Sen. Manchin’s prepared remarks are also available.

Members who would like to receive recordings of these sessions, please contact Andrew Brackbill at ABrackbill@kellencompany.com

WIRES formally endorsed the Macro Grid Initiative’s Vision Statement. Larry’s statement:

“WIRES welcomes the Macro Grid Initiative (MGI) - an important new industry voice - to the growing number of industry leaders calling for the strategic expansion of the high-voltage transmission grid. Our members support the MGI vision of upgrading and expanding the nation’s transmission network with the accruing benefits of driving jobs and economic development, a cleaner environment, a more reliable and resilient grid, and lower costs for consumers. We anticipate 2021 will be a pivotal year for addressing the pressing need for more transmission, and we encourage state and national policymakers to sharpen their focus on enabling these critical benefits.”

On Jan. 27th the FSMs will meet virtually to finalize priorities for 2021. Former FERC Chairman Cheryl LaFleur will be the featured speaker.

Please mark your calendars for the 2021 member meetings. We anticipate the April meeting will be virtual, but we are hopeful we will once again be able to meet in person during the second half of this year.

April 26-27, 2021 – WIRES Spring Member Meeting – Keynote: FERC Commissioner Rich Glick.

July 28-29, 2021 – WIRES Summer Member Meeting

Oct. 27-28, 2021 – WIRES Fall Member Meeting

Exelon is a FORTUNE 100 company that works in every stage of the energ​​​​y business: power generation, competitive energy sales, transmission and delivery. Exelon employs approximately 33,400 people nationwide and the Exelon family of companies represents every stage of the energy value chain. Exelon’s six utilities deliver electricity and natural gas to approximately 10 million customers in Delaware, the District of Columbia, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey and Pennsylvania through its Atlantic City Electric, BGE, ComEd, Delmarva Power, PECO and Pepco subsidiaries. Exelon utilities are focused on safely powering reliability and resilience, modernizing their energy infrastructure, making it stronger, safer and more secure. Exelon is proactively preparing the grid to adapt to changing conditions and withstand more extreme weather and disruptive events, making their systems more secure to protect against physical and cyber attacks, while also developing and deploying innovative technology, building a smarter energy grid.

On Feb. 3^rd Larry will be speaking on a panel hosted by Power Markets Today on the topic of “Building out the Grid for Clean Energy.”

WIRES is an international, non-profit trade association of investor-, publicly-, and cooperatively owned transmission providers, transmission customers, regional grid managers, and equipment and service companies. WIRES promotes investment in electric transmission and progressive state and federal policies that advance energy markets, economic efficiency, and consumer and environmental benefits through development of electric power infrastructure. For more information, visit www.wiresgroup.com.