Transmission Planning in the Era of Integrated Resource Planning: A Survey of Recent Cases

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. We 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. Our primary focus is on planning issues. Regulatory approval requires that satisfactory answers be given to the basic question, 'Why should a particular project be built?' This is typically the framework adopted when utilities propose new bulk power capacity additions.