Energy Groups Press Regulators to Scrutinize Power Grid Costs

US energy regulators should adopt a cost containment strategy in an upcoming final rule to protect consumers from shouldering undue costs of building out the US power grid, a group of public power utilities, industrial energy consumers, and renewable and transmission developers said Wednesday.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission should require transmission providers to be ready to “pivot” if electric transmission costs spiral upward or if the cost-benefit analysis of a line changes significantly, said Christina Hayes, executive director of Americans for a Clean Energy Grid (ACEG).

“It was important to us to have a proposal that struck a good ...