A report by WIRES in March found that the drive towards electrification of transportation and heating in the U.S. will require between $230 and $690 billion in major new electric transmission infrastructure investment by 2050. The report, prepared by The Brattle Group at the request of WIRES, projects that major increases in electricity demand created by electrification of the heating and transportation sectors will necessitate significant new investments in the transmission network, to as much as $35 Billion annually after 2030. The benefits of transmission in lowering customer costs and making the grid resilient overall remain the primary drivers for transmission investment, however.

The number of electric vehicles (EVs) on the road are slated to jump from one million today to seven million by 2025. The Report contemplates a major shift to electrified transportation by 2050. Without innovation and new investment, the existing grid will be challenged to serve this new load. New facilities like fast-charging stations on major highways will be important to meeting the expectations of state policy makers and many consumers that EVs will be a viable alternative to fossil fueled mobility. These developments will also drive the need for low-carbon and renewable electric generation resources, the report concludes. Investment in a more robust transmission infrastructure will be necessary to support this fundamentally different energy economy

"The writing on the wall is clear; we're headed toward a cleaner energy future. The transportation and heating sectors will be electrified -- it's just a matter of when," said Brian Gemmell, President of WIRES Group and Vice President of Transmission and Asset Management with National Grid. "We need to start planning now in order to keep pace with the coming increased demand and to ensure continued reliability of the US electric system."

At its March Meeting, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) launched two new inquiries into electric transmission rates in order to consider whether the transmission grid, fostered for over two decades by open access, incentive rates, and regional planning solutions, is maturing fast enough in ways that serve the public interest in reliable, low-cost power. The Commissions gave commenters 90-120 days within which to help create a record about how its transmission incentives policies could be updated and about the methodology for establishing rates of return on equity, an issue that has been the subject of complex litigation in some regions of the country. WIRES will therefore be considering filing in the following dockets:

Inquiry Regarding the Commission's Electric Transmission Incentives Policy. Initial Comments are due June 25, 2019, and Reply Comments are due July 25, 2019 in Docket No PL19-3-000. Among the important issues raised by the NOI is how the need for incentives can be based on the value or benefits of transmission projects instead of just their risks.   84 FR 11759 (Volume 84, Number 60 | Pages 11759-11768)

Inquiry Regarding the Commission's Policy for Determining Return on Equity. Comments are due June 26, 2019 in Docket No. PL19-4-000 and reply comments are due July 26. This broad inquiry into how base returns are set creates some interesting complications for pending ROE cases that are subject to prior orders that allow use of alternative ROE methodologies instead of just DCF. 84 FR 11769 (Volume 84, Number 60 | Pages 11769-11777)

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