Governing the Grid: Reforming Regional Transmission Organizations on the Heels of Order No. 841

Order No. 841—an attempt to force Regional Transmission Organizations (RTOs) to fairly accommodate electric storage providers—has been heralded as one of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) landmark green initiatives. Since its 2018 enactment, however, it has seen limited impact. Many RTOs have had trouble implementing the Order. This Note takes a deeper look at the specific kinds of problems each RTO has had. It then shifts its attention to the governance structures of each of these organizations. By comparing the two analyses, this Note finds a rough correlation: The more taxing a given RTO’s implementation of Order No. 841, the more likely that its governance structure gives undue political power to traditional fossil-fuel players at the expense of alternative resources. To remedy this, FERC should revise RTOs to better protect boards of directors from undue stakeholder influence, distribute alternative resource interests across a wide variety of sectors, and defer to states so long as they promote fair competition. Unfortunately, courts have held that
FERC has no authority to directly alter these structures. However, given evolving technologies, shifting jurisprudence, and the threat of climate change, it may be time to challenge this precedent.