In the 1960s and 70s, the United States experienced a boom in transmission construction. At the time, most power plants being constructed were large, centrally located power plants, including coal, nuclear, and natural gas facilities. Therefore, the transmission network was built largely to suit the needs of these centrally located power plants. However, much of the transmission grid is now more than 50 years old, and the system now needs widespread maintenance, repair, and reconstruction. In addition, the energy grid has changed drastically since the first boom in transmission construction; renewables now make up a large portion of energy production. Unlike the large, centrally located power plants that coincided with the transmission boom, renewables are located where they produce the most energy and are often not co-located with demand.
There have been increasing calls for expanding and updating the transmission grid. For example, a study by Princeton University found that the U.S. will need to expand transmission capacity by 60% by 2035 and triple it by 2050. Furthermore, transmission expansion is widely viewed as a necessary precondition to meet the Biden administration's aggressive decarbonization goals. In the past few years, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has taken several steps to address issues in the transmission planning process and, most recently, has taken action to enact some of the reforms advocated for by the energy industry.