As Loudoun County residents organize to fight a power line project that would cut across western Loudoun to Leesburg, a recent release of the Department of Energy’s guidance for the National Interest Electric Transmission Corridor designation process could make that opposition harder.
On Dec. 19, the Grid Deployment Office released its final guidance for the NIETC designation process, articulating that the corridors may now be very narrow, where previously they were usually large enough to cover an entire state.
To expedite the permitting and constructing process of transmission lines in geographic areas where there is an urgent need for improvement, the Secretary of Energy is authorized to designate any area as a NIETC.
A NIETC designation allows the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to issue permits for the siting of transmission lines even when state authorities have denied an application.
“A NIETC is an area of the country where inadequate transmission harms consumers currently or in the future. … Transmission is inadequate where there is present or expected transmission capacity constraints or congestion that adversely affects consumers,” DOE Senior Transmission Advisor Gretchen Kershaw said during a Jan. 3 webinar.
Having a NIETC designation can also provide eligibility for federal financing tools such as the $2.5 billion Transmission Facilitation Program under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the $2 billion Transmission Facility Financing Loan Program under the Inflation Reduction Act.
NIETC designations are based on findings from the DOE’s National Transmission Needs Study, public input, information on transmission capacity constraints or congestion that harms customers, and information on whether one or more transmission projects are under development in the area.
The Needs Study was released Oct. 30, 2023, and assesses existing data and current and near-term future transmission needs through 2040.
Virginia falls within the DOE’s Mid-Atlantic region along with West Virginia, Kentucky, Delaware, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Maryland.
The Needs Study found that the Mid-Atlantic region, along with other regions, is enduring consistently high prices and that additional transmission to bring cost-effective generation to the area would help lower those prices.
The PJM Interconnection Board of Managers, the entity responsible for coordinating power transmission across all or parts of 13 states including Virginia, approved in December a proposal by Florida-based NextEra Energy to build a 130-mile 500 kV transmission line, known as the MidAtlantic Resiliency Link, that would cross Loudoun. The line was one of 15 approved by the board to address the reliability needs of the region.
NextEra must get the finalized line route approved by the State Corporation Commission before it can begin construction on the line. The company has pledged to work with the Loudoun community to build the project, according to a Dec. 11 press release.
“The study aims to identify a route that meets the technical specifications and economic needs of the project while avoiding or minimizing impacts on landowners, local communities and the natural environment,” NextEra representatives told Loudoun Now in an email.
The SCC has the authority to override local zoning regulations, historic designations, and conservation easements that localities and organizations put into place to preserve rural land, many of which are in the corridor identified for the MidAtlantic Resiliency Link, including Sweet Run State Park; the Village of Waterford, which is designated as a National Historic Landmark, and Phillips Farm which is under a conservation easement.
However, a NIETC designation would mean that if the SCC were to deny the MidAtlantic Resiliency Link’s route through western Loudoun, NextEra could still apply to FERC to override that decision.
The DOE is accepting public input regarding NIETC designations until Feb. 2, which will end phase one in the NIETC designation process. In phase two, the DOE will release a preliminary list of areas that are being considered for NIETCs and open a public comment period for that list. The DOE will then review all community and stakeholder input before moving on to phase three. Phase two is expected to begin in the spring.
During phase three the DOE will develop the geographic boundaries of the potential NIETCs, undergo another public input process, and assess the full basis including public comments and the Needs Study for the areas. The DOE will then issue a draft designation report before opening another public comment period.
During phase four, the DOE will release any necessary environmental documents before releasing the final NIETC designations.
Public comments can be made by emailing NIETC@hq.doe.gov.