Since the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC”) issued Order No. 1000 in 2011, public utility transmission providers and transmission developers have participated in competitive solicitations, in regions where they exist, to determine which entities will have the opportunity to develop and recover the costs of transmission facilities included in regional transmission plans.1 Evidence to date, including Concentric Energy Advisors, Inc.’s (“Concentric”) August 2022 analysis of competitive transmission processes (“2022 Report”),2 suggests that the benefits underlying FERC’s rationale for the elimination of the Right of First Refusal (“ROFR”) processes have been elusive.
This report updates and expands on the research and analysis performed by Concentric in the 2022 Report by leveraging additional quantitative data that has become available in the intervening eighteen months. This data is used to update findings about the six projects studied in the 2022 Report and to analyze additional projects that have reached later stages of development or have since entered service. In addition, this report: i) expands the approach from the 2022 Report to include incumbent-developed transmission projects resulting from Order No. 1000 solicitations; and ii) makes observations about several recent processes that highlight certain challenges with Order No. 1000 solicitations.
This report was prepared on Behalf of the DATA Coalition: Ameren Services, Eversource Energy, Exelon Corp., ITC Holdings Corp., National Grid USA, Public Service Electric and Gas Company, and Xcel Energy.
1 Public utility transmission providers were required to remove from FERC-approved tariffs and agreements a federal right of first refusal for a transmission facility selected in a regional transmission plan for purposes of cost allocation. This allowed, but did not require, public utility transmission providers in a transmission planning region to use competitive bidding to solicit transmission projects or project developers.
2 Competitive Transmission: Experience To-Date Shows Order No. 1000 Solicitation Fail to Show Benefits. August 2022.