Transmission planning in the era of integrated resource planning: A survey of recent cases.

摘要

State action is critical to the expansion of the high-voltage transmission network, because regulated utilities must seek approval from utility commissions for proposals to site new lines. It is the purpose of this report to survey the regulatory treatment of issues that are unique to or ubiquitous in transmission planning and use. The authors review recent transmission siting cases to examine how the issues are presented to and resolved by state regulatory commissions and to provide a perspective for more general discussion of transmission policy. Their primary focus is on planning issues. Transmission capacity expansion is not typically treated in integrated resource planning. It is usually assumed that there is adequate transmission to achieve any particular plan. The authors believe that one important reason for this omission is the inherent complexity of transmission system expansion. Regulators and competitors may be at a serious disadvantage in negotiating or adjudicating specific transmission proposals with utilities, who generally have greater knowledge of both general technological considerations and case specifics. This problem of asymmetric information must be addressed at some level in planning or dispute resolution. However, they observe that explicit consideration of the information problem is absent from most regulatory and technical analysis of transmission. The goal of this survey is to share knowledge about the problems facing state regulators over the siting of new transmission facilities, and help to define constructive approaches to them.