Heinrich Questions Experts on the Power Grid, Highlighting Need to Expand Transmission and Efficiently Power Data Centers to Help Lower Costs for Consumers

Ranking Member Heinrich (D-N.M.) questions experts on strategies to increase transmission and lower electricity costs for consumers during a Committee hearing to examine the state of the grid, March 25, 2026.

On Building Enough Interregional Transmission to Meet Rising Energy Demand and Lower Costs:

Heinrich began, "Do any of you think that we're building, and obviously I think the affordability argument is well received by everyone on this Committee because all of us have constituents who are under pressure, but do any of you think that we are building enough interregional transmission to service the existing grid and the kind of growth that we would hope for both the electric sector and the economy?"

Dr. Reed replied, "Thank you for the question, Senator, I..."

Heinrich clarified, "I'll go down [the row of panelists]... Let you all answer that. Dr. Reed, you can start, and we'll go the other way."

Dr. Reed answered, "Thank you so much, Senator. We are not building the amount of interregional transmission that we need right now, and there are particular barriers that are preventing that from happening. Utilities are not incentivized or even expected to be looking to their neighbors, and so we are losing the economies of scale, and that is costing consumer purses."

Fisher agreed, "My short answer is no. My longer answer is, we should look back at the history of, you know, FERC Order 1000, for example. I think the intent was good, but the track record is very poor. The transmission line miles of the very high voltage, lines that has..."

Heinrich interjected, "Very minimum."

Fisher continued, "That stat has plummeted. We should acknowledge that fact and try to, try to do something different."

Snitchler answered, "Senator, thanks for the question. I think it's clear that being able to move electrons from where they are being generated to where they are needed, particularly in times of stress, is critically important. That's how we ensure grid reliability. And as we have seen retirements come off the system and the slow addition of new resources, the importance of that transfer capability continues to be highlighted as an area of importance."

On Developing Transmission in Ways that Provide Value for Consumers:

Heinrich followed up with Dr. Reed, "Dr. Reed, go a little deeper. You talked about how to capture value for customers, how to save them money, as opposed to just bring additional costs onto the rate base. Go a little deeper into how we can capture that value and actually benefit customers."

Dr. Reed answered, "Thank you, Senator. I'm happy to. What is causing us to lose this value for consumers is that we are not building the transmission. We have seen a number of economic analyses that find that, on average, $100 million is lost per gigawatt of transmission line that was not built per year, in the last 10 years. These transmission lines are not being built for a handful of reasons. One is that they are very complicated. This is an interstate and interregional project, and it does not enjoy a federal siting and permitting authority, as natural gas pipelines do. These electrons are moving or intended to move in interstate commerce, and instead, they are being held up by processes at the individual states requiring approval. This is duplicative red tape that discourages developers and makes it longer for them to be able to complete these projects. There are also not expectations at utilities to be looking to the regions to build these interregional lines. We have an opportunity to enable both utilities and private merchant developers who would not show up on a customer's utility bill to build more if we can fix these regulations."

Heinrich responded, "To your point, I was deeply involved in, in facilitating and working on one interregional power line, and it took 17 years to get all of the approvals to actually make that a reality. I think there are a number of places where our incentives are not aligned. You mentioned the issue of compensation for some of the values that those, those power lines provide. Walk through that a little bit, because obviously, I think, you know, there's a mismatch between transmission and generation."

Dr. Reed replied, "Yeah, I'm happy to, Senator, thank you. High voltage direct current was the topic of my PhD thesis. I don't think I can cover that in a minute, but I will note that it is a semiconductor-based technology that has the ability to act differently than our existing grid system. So, it provides an excellent backbone, because it provides different services and different values. It can move power long distances, which captures the value for consumers, but the way that, that it controls electrons also provides stability to the grid. There's complicated reasons involving voltage and frequency that we can discuss offline, but HVDC (High Voltage Direct Current) ensures that we are keeping electric equipment online by keeping the voltage and frequency where it needs to be."

On Incentivizing Utility Companies and Private Developers to Deploy Grid-Enhancing Technologies:

Heinrich turned to grid-enhancing technologies, "One of the tools that has been used very effectively in other parts of the world and sporadically here in the U.S., are grid-enhancing technologies. But we have this model, particularly within state-regulated utilities, where the incentive is often... I mean, the responsible parties, my utility as an example, in central New Mexico, has really leaned into GETs. But, there is also an incentive for utilities to build big and then get [those costs] rate-based. How do we create a more aligned incentive with GETs so that we can get more out of the existing grid?"

Dr. Reed answered, "Thank you, Senator. There are a number of options that Congress and FERC can pursue to incentivize more of these grid-enhancing technologies, and part of it is expectation. What are we requiring of the grid? We should be using the lines that we built to a higher capacity. Grid-enhancing technologies, through dynamic line rating, power flow control, all of these can help us use those lines better and move the power around. And the way that we set expectations on how reliability is achieved and provide financial incentives to utilities or private developers to provide those services are ways that we can get more of this advanced technology incorporated."

On Powering Data Centers Efficiently:

Turning to data centers, Heinrich asked, "Dr. Reed, if each one of these large load data centers was its own generator, would that be the most efficient use of capital to, to power the, that part of the demand sector?"

Dr. Reed answered, "Thank you for the question, Senator. I think the most efficient use of capital to power data centers is the choice of the data centers themselves. And I think the best option that we can provide for American competitiveness and for growing industries here is to ensure that they have those options available to them, both a robust grid that can provide reliable and affordable power and options for building their own private grids to provide their own power."

Heinrich asked for clarification on how private grid models impact consumers, "And describe to me any risk associated with customer impact with the sort of private grid model."

Dr. Reed replied, "Thank you for the question. I think the way that we think about transmission benefits is important to consider here. Where, if we have a robust backbone to our grid that can provide affordable power that benefits consumers. The more consumers of electricity that there are on the grid, including high consumers such as data centers, there would be more rate payers who are helping pay for that valuable infrastructure."

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