H.R. 9335: Advanced Transmission Technology to Reduce Rates Act

This bill would direct the Department of Energy to set up a public clearinghouse for information about advanced transmission technology within one year. The clearinghouse would collect and publish:

• DOE projects and activities related to advanced transmission technology
• Information on existing federal financial assistance that can help deploy these technologies
• Studies on how these technologies may affect the electric grid, including:
  • expanding transmission capacity
  • reducing congestion on transmission lines
  • making better use of existing transmission infrastructure
  • improving grid visibility and automating some transmission-related processes
• Analyses of costs and benefits for utilities and ratepayers
• Analyses of how geography and weather affect where these technologies can be used cost-effectively

The bill would also allow the Secretary of Energy, if asked, to provide technical assistance to:

• Electric utilities, to help them use the clearinghouse and find funding
• Transmission organizations, to help them include advanced transmission technologies in transmission planning
• State regulatory authorities, to help them create rules for these technologies and evaluate their costs and benefits

It would also amend a separate federal energy law so that state energy conservation plans can include programs that help deploy advanced transmission technology.

In addition, the bill says that certain federal funding actions for deploying advanced transmission technology, including loans or grants, would not automatically be treated as major federal actions under NEPA for environmental review purposes.

Finally, the bill would require the Department of Energy, within one year, to develop best practices for wildfire mitigation for electric utilities. These best practices would focus on reducing the risk that the bulk-power system starts wildfires, and would include guidance on:

• vegetation management and removing hazardous fuels near transmission lines
• engineering methods to reduce wildfire ignition risk
• safer operating practices

These wildfire best practices would be advisory only; the bill says the government could not require utilities to use them.

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