[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 3109 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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116th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 3109

   To require the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to initiate a 
 rulemaking to reform the interregional transmission planning process, 
                        and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           December 19, 2019

 Mr. Heinrich introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
       referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To require the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to initiate a 
 rulemaking to reform the interregional transmission planning process, 
                        and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Interregional Transmission Planning 
Improvement Act of 2019''.

SEC. 2. RULEMAKING TO INCREASE THE EFFECTIVENESS OF INTERREGIONAL 
              TRANSMISSION PLANNING.

    (a) In General.--Not later than 6 months after the date of 
enactment of this Act, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission shall 
initiate a rulemaking to consider--
            (1) the effectiveness of existing planning processes for 
        identifying transmission projects across regions that provide 
        economic, reliability, operational, and public policy benefits, 
        taking into consideration the public interest, the integrity of 
        markets, and the protection of consumers;
            (2) changes to the processes described in paragraph (1) to 
        ensure that efficient, cost-effective, and broadly beneficial 
        transmission solutions are selected for construction, taking 
        into consideration--
                    (A) the public interest;
                    (B) the integrity of markets;
                    (C) the protection of consumers;
                    (D) the broad range of benefits that interregional 
                transmission provides;
                    (E) the need for single projects to secure 
                approvals based on a comprehensive assessment of the 
                multiple benefits provided;
                    (F) that projects that meet interregional benefit 
                criteria should not be subject to subsequent 
                reassessment by regional entities;
                    (G) the importance of synchronization of planning 
                processes in neighboring regions, such as using a joint 
                model on a consistent timeline with a single set of 
                needs, input assumptions, and benefit metrics;
                    (H) that evaluation of long-term scenarios should 
                align with the expected life of a transmission asset;
                    (I) that transmission planning authorities should 
                allow for the identification and joint evaluation of 
                alternatives proposed by stakeholders;
                    (J) that interregional planning should be done 
                regularly and not less frequently than once every 3 
                years; and
                    (K) the elimination of arbitrary project voltage, 
                size, or cost requirements for interregional solutions; 
                and
            (3) cost allocation methodologies that reflect the multiple 
        benefits provided by interregional solutions.
    (b) Timing.--Not later than 18 months after the date of enactment 
of this Act, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission shall promulgate 
a final rule to complete the rulemaking initiated under subsection (a).
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