FERC

Electric utilities spend billions of dollars across the country on smaller lines and replacement lines that fall below the requirement for state or federal review and then pass those charges on to customers. (Photo by Robert Zullo/States Newsroom)

Lack of oversight on transmission spending leads to higher electric bills, consumer advocate says

BY: - October 10, 2023

Electric customers have fallen into a “regulatory gap” that’s allowed billions of dollars of transmission construction to happen without oversight of need, prudence or cost effectiveness, according to a complaint filed with federal regulators by the Office of the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel. And though the complaint to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission was made on behalf of […]

A PPL Electric Utilities employee installs a dynamic line rating sensor onto a transmission line in Pennsylvania from a helicopter. The sensors allow utilities to take into account wind speed, cloud cover and other conditions to determine if a line has more capacity. (Courtesy of PPL Electric Utilities)

Federal, state regulators prod utilities to consider technology for grid upgrade

BY: - August 28, 2023

Of the many challenges confronting the nation’s aging, straining electric grid, the need for a lot of new transmission capacity is among the most pressing, experts and policymakers say. Earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Energy said the nation will need thousands of miles of new lines to better link regions to handle extreme weather, reduce […]

After a series of winter storms, regulators approve new standards for power plants

BY: - February 28, 2023

Two years after Winter Storm Uri, which caused a massive power failure in Texas that caused more than 200 deaths, and just two months after another storm, Elliott, forced blackouts in parts of the South, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has approved new extreme cold reliability standards for power plants.  However, the vote last week […]

Federal-state task force grapples with grid protection

BY: - February 20, 2023

A federal task force wrestled with the costs and benefits of better shielding the nation’s tens of thousands of electric substations from a growing number of attacks, like a neo-Nazi plot the FBI says it foiled earlier this month in Maryland, another that knocked out power to thousands in North Carolina in December and more […]