Policy Note · Energy · Policy & Regulation

FERC affirmed its transmission planning rule. The fight moves to implementation

Order No. 1920-B upheld the core requirements of FERC's long-term transmission planning and cost allocation rule on rehearing. The rule surviving legal challenge is less consequential now than how individual transmission providers actually implement it.

April 2025 · North America

Retrospective analysis of April 2025. Published August 2026.

An electrical substation where transmission infrastructure connects to the grid

FERC issued Order No. 1920-B on 11 April 2025, an order on rehearing that affirmed and clarified the core requirements of its long-term transmission planning and cost allocation rule, first issued as Order No. 1920 and previously clarified in Order No. 1920-A. The rule requires transmission providers to conduct long-term regional transmission planning on a defined cycle and establish cost allocation methods for new transmission facilities, rather than planning reactively project by project. Order 1920-B maintained these core requirements against rehearing requests seeking to narrow them, with further rehearing requests due by 12 May 2025, and transmission providers now working through compliance filings with individual states and regional stakeholders.

The Signal

FERC's Order No. 1920-B, issued 11 April 2025, affirmed the core long-term regional transmission planning and cost allocation requirements of Order No. 1920 against rehearing challenges, with compliance now moving to individual transmission provider filings.

Why It Matters

A federal rule surviving rehearing does not mean uniform implementation, transmission providers retain real discretion in how they structure compliance filings, and the actual planning and cost allocation methodology that emerges region by region is what will determine whether this rule meaningfully shortens the multi-year timelines that have made transmission the binding constraint on new generation in many markets.

The System Connection

Transmission planning reform sits directly upstream of the interconnection queue dynamics we have tracked as a binding constraint on new generation, proactive regional transmission planning is meant to reduce the case-by-case interconnection burden, though that effect will only show up years after compliance filings are actually approved.

Development Implication

Developers should track their specific region's Order 1920 compliance filing rather than assuming the federal rule itself changes near-term project economics, the regional implementation detail is where the actual planning and cost allocation impact will land.

What We Are Watching

  • Individual transmission provider compliance filings as they are submitted and reviewed region by region.
  • Whether further rehearing requests filed by the 12 May 2025 deadline produce any additional narrowing.
  • Whether faster proactive planning under the rule measurably shortens interconnection timelines in the regions that implement it first.
Sources reviewed
Last checked August 2026
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