FERC Order 1920 (2024) — Long-Term Transmission Planning

Order No. 1920, issued in May 2024 in Docket RM21-17-000, advanced long-term transmission planning requirements for transmission providers, reflecting continued Commission emphasis on forward-looking planning as the resource mix evolves and the grid faces new stresses from electrification, renewable deployment, and extreme weather. FERC found that existing planning under Order 1000, while significant, needed strengthening to ensure regions identify long-term transmission solutions that address reliability, affordability, and policy-driven resource shifts over a multi-decade horizon.

The order requires transmission providers to conduct long-term regional transmission planning over a minimum 20-year planning horizon using multiple scenarios reflecting plausible futures for load growth, generation retirement and addition, and known public policy requirements. Planning must evaluate transmission alternatives that address identified long-term needs and select cost-effective solutions through an open stakeholder process. Order 1920 builds on Order 1000's regional planning and cost allocation framework rather than replacing it.

Cost allocation provisions require that beneficiaries pay for selected long-term transmission facilities in proportion to benefits, with methods developed through the regional process and subject to Commission review. The order addresses coordination with generator interconnection planning, recognizing that interconnection-driven upgrades and proactive long-term transmission investments must be better aligned to avoid piecemeal, inefficient expansion. Order 1920 also includes provisions for interregional planning coordination and transparency in how regions document planning assumptions.

As one of FERC's most significant transmission planning rules since Order 1000, Order 1920 aims to accelerate development of large-scale transmission needed for a reliable, affordable transition to cleaner generation. Implementation will unfold through compliance filings as regional planning regions amend their planning processes over the coming years.

Regions must identify long-term transmission needs using planning models that incorporate known generator retirements, anticipated interconnection projects, and load forecasts reflecting electrification trends. Selected solutions must be evaluated against non-transmission alternatives, and stakeholders must have meaningful input before projects advance to cost allocation. Order 1920 responds to criticism that Order 1000 planning focused too heavily on near-term reliability gaps while multi-state renewable integration and load growth required larger, forward-looking infrastructure investments with clear beneficiary funding obligations.

The Commission positioned Order 1920 as necessary to unlock large-scale transmission needed for generator interconnection clusters and state policy targets that near-term planning processes had not captured. Compliance will require regional tariff revisions and stakeholder processes that build on, rather than replace, the Order 1000 planning regions already in operation. The rule reflects FERC's view that proactive regional transmission investment is essential to affordable reliability during the clean energy transition.