The Bonneville Power Administration faces monumental challenges in implementing actions to meet the Pacific Northwest’s needs once it lifts its pause on transmission planning.

The Western Transmission Expansion Coalition is on track to publish the first phase of its transmission planning study this summer despite some delays in finalizing the models that will underpin the study.

Regional initiatives aimed at increasing coordination and collaboration among power entities in the West are essential to tackle mounting technical and political challenges, panelists said during a discussion at the spring joint CREPC-WIRAB meeting.

The Western Power Pool faced “real potential weaknesses” in 2024 due to staff shortages and outdated financial and accounting systems, the organization’s leadership said during their annual member meeting.

Members of a key WRAP stakeholder group voted to prioritize three topics of concern as the group continues developing the program aimed at addressing resource adequacy and reliability in the West.

Stakeholders said they are inching closer to developing the scenarios that will inform the Western Transmission Expansion Coalition’s transmission planning study.

The Western Interconnection will need about 15,600 additional new line miles of high-voltage transmission at a cost of about $75 billion over the next 20 years to meet the anticipated increase in load growth, according to a report commissioned by Gridworks and GridLab.