WASHINGTON — The Industrial Energy Consumers of America (IECA) thanked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for opening an investigation into how three grid operators exempted transmission projects from federally mandated competitive bidding processes. The letter read:

“Increased oversight is overdue. Electric transmission costs, as a percent of our electric bills, have been our single largest energy cost increase over the last decade (see figure 1). We are referring specifically to the following three dockets: PJM (Docket No. EL19-91-000), Southwest Power Pool (Docket No. EL19-92-000) and ISO-New England (Docket No. EL19-90- 000). The so-called “immediate-need transmission projects” appear to be a convenient loophole to avoid being subject to the competitive processes mandated by FERC Order 1000.”