Power Grid Upgrade Costs to Handle Extreme Weather Divide States

Clean energy goals and resilience to extreme weather should spur the next wave of power grid upgrades, federal energy officials and state utility commissioners broadly agreed Wednesday during a meeting in Washington.

But the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s mission to overhaul a series of rules in the next year targeting transmission projects prompted concerns that consumers could be paying for more than their fair share of the expensive projects.

New lines are needed to move power from areas with wind and solar generation to states and cities with goals of consuming higher amounts of renewable energy. Climate change-driven extreme weather ...