The Coalition believes that national transmission policy should adhere to the following principles in order to facilitate the construction of needed new transmission in a manner that ensures the lowest reasonable cost of delivered energy to consumers.

 Transmission Planning Principles 

Ø Any effort to improve transmission planning must build on existing successful, coordinated, open, and transparent regional processes, and be inclusive of all stakeholders.

Ø Transmission planning must be initiated at the local and regional level based on the needs of the customers who bear the burden and benefits of the decisions driven by the planning processes.

Ø Transmission must be planned to ensure cost-effective compliance with NERC reliability standards.

Ø Voluntary interegional coordination should be a complement to, and not a substitute for, local and regional processes.

Ø Alternative transmission solutions must be considered as part of the planning process.

Transmission Cost Allocation Principles

Ø Costs for new transmission investments required to meet NERC reliability standards must be allocated to the planning area(s) where the investments are required to meet the standards.

Ø Costs for new transmission investments not otherwise required to meet NERC reliability standards must be allocated to the parties (generation and/or load) in a manner that clearly aligns cost responsibility with cost causation.

Ø Deference should be provided to consensus regional cost allocation solutions developed through open and collaborative processes.