A successful transmission network requires deliberate planning, and a new and different approach. One that identifies long-term, flexible, and interregional solutions that will meet national interests. 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.
National Transmission Planning Study
On October 3, 2024, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) released the final National Transmission Planning (NTP) Study, a set of long-term planning tools and analyses that examine a wide range of potential future scenarios through 2050 to identify pathways to maintain grid reliability, increase resilience, and reduce costs, while meeting local, regional, interregional, and national interests and supporting the changing energy landscape. The NTP Study was developed in partnership with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL).
Transmission Needs Study
Released on October 30, 2023, the National Transmission Needs Study serves as DOE's triennial state of the grid report and is a robust assessment of current and near-term future transmission needs through 2040. The Needs Study is not intended to displace existing transmission planning processes and is not intended to identify specific transmission solutions to address identified needs, but it does identify key national needs that can inform investments and planning decisions. Where previous National Transmission Congestion Studies were limited to consider only historic congestion, this study considers both historic and anticipated future transmission needs driven by the increase in renewables, and transportation and building electrification.
Atlantic Offshore Wind Transmission Study
To inform the integration of offshore wind (OSW), DOE conducted supportive analyses to identify transmission pathways and develop transmission strategies to integrate OSW. In November 2021, DOE launched the Atlantic Offshore Wind Transmission Study, a two-year study led by NREL and PNNL. Through robust engagement with diversified stakeholder groups, this work evaluated coordinated transmission solutions to enable OSW energy deployment along the U.S. Atlantic Coast, addressing gaps in existing analyses.
Pacific Northwest Regional Energy Planning Project
The Pacific Northwest Regional Planning Project (PREPP) is a broad engagement‐based planning process that will produce regional analyses of infrastructure investments that will be required to meet the goals and requirements of regional participants, including resource adequacy, decarbonization, ecosystem priorities, and system resilience and reliability. Funded by GDO and the Washington State Department of Commerce, the 18-month study will explore how utilities in Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington can plan infrastructure investments to address complex dynamics facing the region such as high load growth, electrification, planning for extreme weather events, and meeting decarbonization targets. The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory will perform PREPP.