Resilience and growth are at the heart of a new energy pact signed by 11 governors in the West in an effort to have states collaborate and strengthen the region's power grid.
The agreement endorses goals described in the new Western Transmission Expansion Coalition, or WestTEC, which analyzed transmission needs across the region with input from utilities, state and tribal governments and others.
The main goal of the 10-year plan is to meet growing energy needs, according to Utah's Office of Energy Development. The department's study shows that growing populations and replacing outdated infrastructure are among the biggest hurdles to address growth. According to a 2023 National Transmission Needs Study by the U.S. Department of Energy, "the clean energy transformation, evolving regional demand, and increasingly extreme weather events must all be accommodated by the future power grid."
Lindsay Mayer, a transmission and distribution fellow with Utah's Office of Energy Development, calls the agreement "historic" and says it will expedite long-term projects, which she says will ultimately benefit consumers.
"We're ultimately saving people money because every single time you add more time or delays to building these projects, you're adding expenses and that cost is eventually passed on to the consumer," Mayer said.
The first part of the plan identifies more than 12,000 miles of transmission needed – of which over 9,000 miles are already planned – as either new expansion or modernizing of aging infrastructure throughout western states.
Mayer says moving away from a state-by-state perspective to a regional effort will be more efficient.
"This is really a first-of-its-kind opportunity for states to actually collaborate and work together in terms of long-term transmission planning across the region," Mayer said.
Those who signed the agreement at the recent Western Governors' Association meeting in Utah include the governors of Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming, as well as North Dakota, Oregon, and Washington.
This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Nevada Public Radio, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KUNR in Nevada, KUNC in Northern Colorado, KANW in New Mexico, Colorado Public Radio, KJZZ in Arizona and NPR, with additional support from affiliate newsrooms across the region. Funding for the Mountain West News Bureau is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Eric and Wendy Schmidt.
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