DOE's National Interest Electric Transmission Bottlenecks (NIETB) Process
Background
Our country needs to invest in the electric transmission system to meet the needs of its growing economy. In addition, the current transmission system was not built to accommodate the large numbers of transactions and resulting inter-regional power flows now common in many regions of the country.
In some locations, the transmission grid has become congested, leading to "transmission bottlenecks" that hold-up economic flow of electricity from generation source to point of use and threaten reliability.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is developing a process to periodically assess congestion along critical transmission paths or corridors and then designate the most significant ones as "National Interest Electric Transmission Bottlenecks (NIETBs)." DOE expects that the designation of NIETBs will encourage states, regions, industry, and the investment community to cooperatively work to implement timely solutions to address these critical bottlenecks.
DOE is designating NIETBs in order to implement a central recommendation of the 2002 National Transmission Grid Study. The National Transmission Grid recommended that:
DOE, through a public process, will determine how to identify and designate transmission bottlenecks that significantly impact national interests.
DOE will further develop the analytic tools and methods needed for comprehensive analysis to determine national-interest transmission bottlenecks.
DOE will assess the nation's electricity system every two years to identify national-interest transmission bottlenecks.
In addition, the electricity reliability title of the pending comprehensive energy legislation now before the U.S. Congress would require DOE to periodically conduct studies of transmission congestion, consider alternatives and recommendations from interested and affected parties, and designate geographic areas experiencing significant transmission constraints or congestion-those that adversely affects consumers-as national interest electric transmission corridors. DOE will modify its process to designate National Interest Transmission Bottlenecks to be consistent with this legislation should it be enacted and signed into law.
Preliminary Scoping and Planning Work
DOE's Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability (OE) has completed preliminary work to support the public process to establish criteria for and designate National Interest Transmission Bottlenecks.
The preliminary scoping and planning work consists of three reports prepared for DOE by the Consortium for Electric Reliability Technology Solutions (CERTS):
DOE Federal Register Notice of Inquiry on National Interest Electric Transmission Bottlenecks
DOE issued a Federal Register Notice of Inquiry seeking comments on issues relating to the identification, designation and possible mitigation of National Interest Electric Transmission Bottlenecks (NIETBs). This inquiry is the initial step in DOE establishing a procedure for identifying and designating National Interest Electric Transmission Bottlenecks. By publicly identifying and designating National Interest Electric Transmission Bottlenecks, DOE seeks to help mitigate transmission bottlenecks that are a significant barrier to the efficient operation of regional electricity markets, threaten the safe and reliable operation of the electric system, or impair national security. DOE seeks comments on the questions posed in the Notice of Inquiry, and welcomes other pertinent comments or proposals. The comment period will be 60 days from the issue date.
Full text of the Notice of Inquiry (PDF 50.3 KB) |
