# Building Tomorrow’s Grid: Why the Southwest’s Transmission Proposal Falls Short *Published:* 2026-08-06 *Author:* Veronica Ung-Kono *By Ben Jones & Veronica Ung-Kono* The Western power grid is increasingly strained by rapid load growth, surging demand to interconnect new power sources, extreme weather and pressure to deliver affordable electricity. Proactively planning interstate electric transmission lines –the high voltage wires that transport cost-effective and clean power across long distances – is essential to addressing these challenges. Unfortunately, **the West’s transmission system is antiquated**, and transmission expansion throughout the region has largely remained limited to small, local projects that connect utilities’ generators to population centers inside their own service territories. The piecemeal nature of such projects prevents them from realizing the cleaner, more affordable and more reliable power that regional transmission can bring. To address nationwide shortfalls in regional transmission planning, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued [Order No. 1920](https://elibrary.ferc.gov/eLibrary/filelist?accession_num=20240513-3036) in 2024. This order requires each transmission planning region to initiate **long-term, scenario-based regional transmission planning**, using transparent criteria to identify the most valuable regional transmission projects. Environmental Defense Fund is **[protesting the compliance filing](https://elibrary.ferc.gov/eLibrary/docinfo?accession_number=20260805-5183&sid=1bc3dfc7-3d9f-4918-a395-c2379678b727)** submitted to FERC by the Southwest region’s planning entity, WestConnect, arguing that it contains several violations of Order No. 1920 and would hinder efforts to expand much-needed transmission in the region. **The need for better transmission in the Southwest** ----------------------------------------------------- **Regional transmission lines** spanning multiple utility service territories, **along with interregional lines** [connecting otherwise separate electricity markets](https://blogs.edf.org/climate411/2025/05/23/as-california-moves-closer-to-authorizing-a-west-wide-electricity-market-new-analysis-shows-how-the-market-will-benefit-other-western-states/), allow power to be delivered from where it is produced to where it is needed most. Long-distance lines enable power to be shared from areas with cheap, excess supply to far-away areas of high demand, reducing the need to build costly new generation locally. A robust regional and interregional transmission network can also route power around damaged or congested portions of the grid, which could help as disasters like wildfires and floods [become more common and damaging](https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2026/07/30/heat-dome-southwestern-states/3121785440737/) around the region. Optimizing this network could unlock the West’s abundant clean energy resources, enhance grid reliability, and reduce inefficiencies in the delivery of electricity that contribute to higher costs. However, the current financial and regulatory structure around transmission incentivizes utilities to avoid regional planning for several reasons, like [less regulatory oversight](https://rmi.org/app/uploads/dlm_uploads/2024/11/rmi_mind_the_regulatory_gap.pdf) for local projects than regional ones. That’s resulted in a fragmented planning landscape that has failed to develop the regional infrastructure the Western grid increasingly requires. [Modest projections](https://www.westernpowerpool.org/private-media/documents/WestTEC_10-year_Full_Report.pdf) indicate the West **must build 12,600 miles of new regional and interregional transmission by 2035** with a cumulative price tag of approximately $12.6 billion dollars to meet [projected demand](https://blogs.edf.org/climate411/2026/03/05/planning-western-transmission-lines/) from new economic development, population growth, and data center development. **The issues with WestConnect’s proposal** ------------------------------------------ Since 2007, FERC has required utilities to form planning authorities to better coordinate the development of regional transmission projects. WestConnect is the planning authority for the Southwest and is supposed to serve the region’s electricity needs. However, despite federal actions to require utilities **to move beyond reactionary construction of local lines and proactively acknowledge the value of regional transmission solutions, the utilities that comprise WestConnect have skirted their responsibility.** Instead, they’ve [litigated](https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/ca5/18-60575/18-60575-2023-08-02.html?__cf_chl_f_tk=kth3sV09BIEmT6S8N4M_9GgY5TavDkeRTFUG5Hy1lzc-1783024517-1.0.1.1-tyPqMEcWzq9XFdZPd5wp5IXosSQw_yUmv.hYQQZEX3M) around FERC rules, tried to present a [bundle](https://www.cleanenergygrid.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/ACEG_Transmission_Planning_and_Development_Report_Card.pdf?utm_source=chatgpt.com) of local transmission plans as a true regional plan and continued to prioritize their own self-interest at the expense of customers facing rising costs and an increasingly unreliable system. FERC required regional transmission planning authorities to submit their proposed plans for the next three years of projects back in June. **EDF has reviewed WestConnect’s proposal, and is arguing that it violates Order No. 1920 in three key ways:** 1. It gives WestConnect two extra years to complete its transmission planning—something that violates the order and that no other planning authority requested. 2. It declines to assess the benefits of regional transmission projects for customers, instead only focusing on the benefits to utilities. 3. It jeopardizes already-approved regional projects by allowing further unnecessary reevaluation, undermining trust in projects and bringing progress on them to a halt. Taken together, these violations seriously undercut regional transmission planning and risk higher costs, unreliability and, ultimately, an electric grid that can’t handle the growing demands facing it. **EDF will continue to urge FERC to reject this proposal and not settle for anything less than a plan that meaningfully powers the Southwest’s future.** What’s next? ------------ WestConnect must submit a separate compliance filing to FERC on August 12, 2026, detailing its plans to coordinate interregional transmission planning with its neighbors. Given the tremendous stakes for costs, reliability and future energy development, state energy offices, transmission developers and other stakeholders in the Southwest should follow WestConnect’s proposal closely as implementation progresses.