In April, incumbent utilities in MISO and SPP seized on grid strain from elevated electricty demand to make a remarkable ask. A coalition calling itself the Grid Acceleration Coalition — ITC, Ameren, American Transmission Company (ATC), Entergy, Evergy, Xcel and others — asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to suspend competitive bidding for transmission projects across grid operators MISO and SPP for five years, or to let utilities bypass it project by project. It claims competitive solicitations add 16 to 20 months of delay that America cannot afford.

For years, many of these same utilities have waged — and overwhelmingly lost — a policy campaign in statehouses, pushing “right of first refusal” laws that hand incumbents every new regional transmission line without a contest.

Having failed to eliminate competition from the states, they now want FERC to do it.

Read more in Utility Dive here.

The views and opinions expressed are those of the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of C3.