According to Utility Dive, Southwest Power Pool has proposed merging its transmission planning and interconnection processes to tackle surging electricity demand and a massive 130 GW project backlog. The grid operator reported peak demand jumped nearly 11% over just four years, with all indicators suggesting acceleration ahead. The new Coordinated Planning Process would proactively identify optimal transmission upgrades and share costs between generators and load through a GRID-C rate framework. SPP says the landmark proposal faced zero opposition in its stakeholder process, calling that “nearly unprecedented” for such a fundamental change. Separately, SPP asked FERC to approve subregional cost allocation for 100-300 kV projects, shifting 67% of costs to local subregions rather than individual pricing zones.
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Why this actually matters
Here’s the thing – we’re talking about the fundamental plumbing of America’s energy transition. SPP’s territory stretches from the Texas Panhandle to North Dakota, covering some of the best wind resources in the country. But right now, developers face this crazy situation where they queue up projects, wait years for studies, then get hit with unpredictable network upgrade costs that can kill projects entirely. The current system basically encourages speculative applications that clog the queue and force constant restudies. It’s a mess.
What SPP’s proposing is essentially saying: let’s stop reacting and start planning. Instead of studying each generator’s impact individually, let’s figure out the regional transmission needs upfront and allocate costs more predictably. That GRID-C framework? It’s meant to give developers certainty about what they’ll pay before they commit millions. And certainty is exactly what’s been missing.
The stakeholder miracle
Now, the fact that this proposal went unopposed in SPP’s stakeholder process is genuinely shocking. These are the same stakeholders who typically fight tooth and nail over every dollar of transmission cost allocation. We’re talking about states, utilities, generators, consumer advocates – all with competing interests. For them to agree on something this fundamental? That tells you how broken the current system is.
But here’s my question: is unanimous support a sign of brilliant compromise, or does it mean everyone’s so desperate for any solution that they’ll take whatever’s offered? The grid interconnection crisis has become so severe that maybe stakeholders are willing to swallow bitter pills they’d normally reject. The FERC filing shows this has been brewing since 2020 – that’s four years of stakeholder discussions to reach this point.
Where this could go wrong
Let’s be real – anytime you’re talking about shifting cost allocation, someone’s going to pay more. The subregional proposal for 100-300 kV projects means local customers will bear more of the burden for local upgrades. That makes intuitive sense, but it could create resistance down the line when specific communities see their bills increasing.
And there’s another risk: what if this new “proactive” planning ends up building transmission that doesn’t actually get used? The current reactive system, for all its flaws, only builds upgrades when there are actual generators ready to connect. SPP’s betting that they can forecast future needs accurately enough to justify building ahead of demand. That’s a bold assumption in an energy landscape changing as fast as ours.
The detailed proposal will need FERC approval, and you can bet other grid operators will be watching closely. If this works in SPP, it could become the model for PJM, MISO, and others facing similar interconnection nightmares. But if it fails? We could be looking at another decade of energy projects stuck in queue while demand keeps surging. The stakes couldn’t be higher.
