Transmission Planning and Development

Transmission is to renewable energy resources what the transcontinental railroad was to opening up the West. We need to connect California’s renewable resource-rich regions—wind from Tehachapi, geothermal and wind from the Imperial Valley, and solar power from the Mojave Desert and the Central Valley—to the large coastal urban load centers of the state where it is needed. Making this vital connection will require a series of massive, multibillion-dollar investments in new transmission infrastructure. In conjunction with the California Energy Commission, we have been promoting a unique stakeholder collaboration project to expedite planning and development of vital transmission projects.

Recent Developments:

All through 2023 and continuing into 2024, CEERT has partnered with GridLab and consultant Ed Smeloff to convene a series of biweekly calls among NGOs, developers, trade associations, utilities, communication strategists, and legislative offices to report on transmission-related activities at the California Independent System Operator (CAISO), California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), and the legislature.

The closing of the 2023 legislative session brought some bad news with Governor Newsom’s vetoes of two transmission-proactive bills, SB 619 by Senator Padilla, which would have allowed certain transmission projects to seek certification at the CEC rather than CPUC, and SB 420 by Senator Becker, which would have expanded upon existing exemptions and shifted permitting authority to local agencies for some smaller transmission projects. CEERT partnered with Environment California, GridLab, and the WATT Coalition to meet with the Governor’s Office to discuss more near-term transmission-augmenting solutions, such as the use of grid-enhancing technologies (GETs) and advanced reconductoring. CEERT is planning to cover GETs more in-depth in a fourth report by the end of Q1 or early Q2 of this year.

During this time, CEERT has also engaged with the CPUC’s Phase 1 of General Order 131-D revision of the process by which public utility projects submit applications and receive certification. CEERT signed onto a joint proposed Settlement Agreement that was heavily disregarded throughout the revision’s
Phase 1 process. (See the Advocacy at the CPUC section below for more details).

Following the close of last year’s legislative session, CEERT and GridLab co-authored a third transmission report, “California’s Progress in Advancing Transmission Planning and Permitting: A 2023 Review,” that was released in December. The report summarized the present state of the CAISO’s 2023-2024 Transmission Planning Process (TPP) and updated 20-Year Outlook; interconnection and permitting reform; continued efforts on a zonal-planning approach, looking closely at the Central Valley and Los Angeles Basin; and the emerging use of grid-enhancing technologies. Like the previous two, this report concludes with a set of findings and recommendations.

For information regarding the transmission call series or report access, please contact CEERT’s Policy Director, Maia Leroy, at maia@ceert.org.