Eastern Interconnection Planning Collaborative (EIPC)

The Eastern Interconnection Planning Collaborative (EIPC), a coalition of 24 transmission planning authorities in the Eastern U.S. and Canada, has engaged The Keystone Center to make recommendations for and implement the stakeholder process that will support a multi-year study of the EI energy resources and transmission system.  The EIPC has been awarded a $16 million Department of Energy (DOE) grant to integrate existing sub-regional plans and evaluate longer-term resource and policy scenarios that will shape the transmission system of the future. Stakeholders, including transmission and generation owners, consumer and environmental  advocates, renewable energy generators, end users, public power, state regulators, and Canadian provinces in the EI, will provide strategic guidance on future scenarios, helping to identify federal and state policy drivers to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and new technologies that may dramatically impact the grid.  They will advise the EIPC on scenario assumptions such as the amount and location of new renewable resources and other low-carbon generation, the impact of new smart grid technologies, the penetration of demand-side resources, and the impact of new electricity load such as plug-in hybrid vehicles.

Keystone will facilitate all the stakeholder activities, including the steering committee, stakeholder work groups, and public outreach efforts through mid-2012, at which point the EIPC will issue its report, including the stakeholder-specified future scenarios and related transmission analyses, to DOE.  This effort will provide not only forward-looking information about the transmission needs of a carbon-constrained future, but will also result in new EI planning processes and tools. 

In July 2011, a paper by the Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future cited the EIPC process as "innovative" public engagement.

To learn more about the EIPC and join the stakeholder listserv for future updates, click here.

Contact:  Catherine Morris

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