Heinrich Introduces Legislation and Grid Initiative Aimed at Delivering Cheap, Reliable Power to Working Families and Businesses

WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich, Ranking Member of the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, introduced the Grid Connection and Congestion Management Act, which would require grid operators to establish a fast-track process for connecting new energy projects to the electric grid, reducing delays and easing congestion. 

"As electricity demand grows, we need to find better, faster ways to add more affordable, reliable power to the grid,”said Heinrich. “Right now, unnecessary delays are slowing projects that could help lower energy costs and deliver the low-cost energy we need. My Grid Connection and Congestion Management Act creates a fast-track to connect new energy projects so we can meet growing demand, improve reliability, and help keep electricity costs down for families and businesses.” 

Across the country, new energy projects are stuck waiting years to connect to the electric grid in what are known as “interconnection queues,” delaying the affordable, reliable power that families and businesses need. Today, more than 2,000 gigawatts (GW) of energy generation and storage — more than twice the nation's existing electric generation capacity — are waiting in interconnection queues, with projects spending more than five years on average waiting to connect and roughly five years before they begin operating. These delays are driven in part by outdated rules that make it harder and more expensive to bring new energy online. Since 2017, the average cost of connecting a project to the grid has nearly doubled, rising from $225 per kilowatt (kW) to $422 per kW. In the PJM region alone, bringing just 10 percent of the projects currently waiting in interconnection queues online would have saved customers an estimated $3.5 billion, or 22 percent. Moving projects through the interconnection process faster is one of the quickest ways to increase energy supply, strengthen grid reliability, and help lower electricity costs. 

The Grid Connection and Management Act aims to speed up that process by requiring regional transmission organizations (RTOs) to establish a fast-track pathway for qualifying energy projects to connect to the grid. In exchange for moving through an expedited review process, participating projects would agree to reduce their electricity output when requested by grid operators to maintain reliability. By shortening study times and creating a more predictable interconnection process, the bill will help bring new, cheap energy online faster. 

The introduction of the Grid Congestion and Management Act is part of Heinrich’s Grid for Growth initiative, a roadmap to modernize the nation’s electrical grid and bring new, affordable energy online. Grid for Growth is a plan to meet surging electricity demand without shifting costs onto consumers and complements Heinrich’s ongoing efforts to pass a bipartisan permitting reform bill — ensuring that new transmission lines and clean energy projects can be built to meet rising electricity demand.   

Heinrich’s Grid Congestion and Management Act is endorsed by GridLab, Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), RMI, and Electricity Customer Alliance. 

“We cannot build a modern, high-demand economy on an outdated interconnection framework. Transitioning to a 'connect and manage' model is a reliable, proven way to connect new energy resources quickly while managing congestion in real time. The energy-only provisions in the BASED Act represent a critical leap forward for U.S. grid policy,” said Ric O’Connell, Executive Director of GridLab.

“Too many of the solar and storage projects that America needs to meet growing energy demand and keep costs down for families are sitting in years-long interconnection queues. The Grid Connection and Congestion Management Act takes a significant step toward updating our interconnection policies for today’s critical energy technologies. The solar and storage industry thanks Ranking Member Heinrich for championing policies like the Grid Connection and Congestion Management Act that will keep costs down for Americans and bring solar and storage projects online faster,” said Erin Duncan, Vice President of Congressional Affairs at the Solar Energy Industries Association.

“Throughout most of the US, we are struggling to connect new electricity generators to our grid. The exception is Texas who has used their “connect and manage” approach to add more generation and load to their grid than any other region. Learning from the successful Texas approach, this bill brings a “connect & manage” option to the rest of the country without interfering with how those grids operate. BASED will increase competition and reduce power costs, benefitting rate payers and industry alike,” said Chaz Teplin, who leads Clean Competitive Grids team within RMI’s Carbon-Free Electricity program.

“With electricity demand and prices continuing to rise, customers urgently need new power supply options and a grid that powers economic growth and affordability,” said Jeff Dennis, Executive Director of the Electricity Customer Alliance. “Reforming interconnection processes to speed the connection of low-cost, ready-to-go, generation resources that can safely and reliably add needed new electrons in short order will help put downward pressure on power prices and expand the options for economically serving new demands."  

Grid for Growth: A Three-Principle Plan

The first principle, Connect What’s Ready, Fast, focuses on clearing the interconnection backlog that is driving up energy costs. The second principle, Get More from the Grid, calls for optimizing the grid with new technologies, such as dynamic line ratings, power flow control, and topology optimization, which have been shown to raise the capacity of existing lines by 50%. The third principle, Build Big, Lower Costs for Everyone, ensures the largest new users, driven primarily by data centers, manufacturing, and electrification, fund the grid investments their growth requires, rather than passing it to ratepayers. Together, the principles inform policies that will connect ready projects faster, get more capacity from the grid we already have, and build big while keeping costs fair. 

Heinrich’s Leadership on Transmission and Grid Infrastructure  

Heinrich has long been one of the Senate’s leading advocates for expanding and modernizing America's electric grid. He has consistently pushed to build more high-voltage transmission, reform the permitting process for major transmission projects, strengthen interregional planning, reduce interconnection delays, and ensure the grid can reliably deliver cheap, American-made energy while supporting economic growth. For the last decade and a half, Heinrich has been a steadfast champion of SunZia, one of the largest energy infrastructure projects in the Western Hemisphere, shepherding the project through lengthy permitting processes for nearly two decades. The project, based in New Mexico, is now fully operational and is delivering up to 3,650 megawatts (MW) of energy across the Southwest.   

In March, Heinrich organized a U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing examining the state of America's electric grid and solutions to lower electricity costs. During the hearing, Heinrich highlighted the need to expand interregional transmission, reduce transmission congestion, accelerate interconnection of new generation, and modernize the grid to meet growing electricity demand driven by manufacturing, data centers, and electrification. He called for investing in a "Grid for Growth" to strengthen reliability while lowering costs for consumers.  

In July 2024, Heinrich voted to advance the Energy Permitting Reform Act of 2024 out of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. The legislation incorporated several provisions Heinrich had championed, including his Interregional Transmission Planning Improvement Act, provisions based on his FASTER Act and his bipartisan Geothermal Energy Optimization (GEO) Act, which puts geothermal projects on an equal footing with oil and gas projects on public land and will help accelerate the adoption of geothermal energy nationwide.   

In May 2024, Heinrich welcomed the Biden administration’s Federal-State Initiative to Bolster America’s Power Grid, which brought together 21 states, including New Mexico, to meet electricity demand while delivering reliable, affordable, and resilient power. The initiative supports deployment of grid-enhancing technologies and better coordination between federal and state governments on transmission planning.

In April 2024, Heinrich welcomed U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm to New Mexico to highlight how investments from recent landmark legislation like the Inflation Reduction Act created a clean energy manufacturing renaissance in communities like Albuquerque and Belén, N.M.  

In June 2023, Heinrich introduced the Facilitating America's Siting of Transmission and Electric Reliability (FASTER) Act, landmark legislation to modernize the permitting process for major interregional transmission projects. The legislation would designate the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) as the lead permitting agency for qualifying transmission projects, establish a predictable permitting timeline, strengthen coordination among federal agencies, encourage community benefit agreements, and invest in local communities hosting transmission infrastructure.  

Also in 2023, Heinrich introduced the Interregional Transmission Planning Improvement Act, legislation to improve planning and cost allocation for multi-state transmission projects. The bill would give FERC greater authority to ensure the costs of new transmission are allocated fairly among states that benefit from new infrastructure, helping remove one of the largest barriers to building interregional transmission. 

In 2023, Heinrich delivered a keynote address at the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE) Policy Forum, where he laid out his vision for expanding America's transmission network and announced his legislative priorities to improve how the nation plans, permits, and pays for transmission infrastructure. Heinrich argued that transmission must become "the central piece" of America's clean energy strategy and emphasized that future projects cannot spend more than a decade navigating permitting processes like SunZia did. 

In 2023, Heinrich also published an op-ed, "The Backbone of Our Clean Energy Future," arguing that expanding transmission is essential to improving grid reliability, lowering energy costs, strengthening resilience during extreme weather, and fully utilizing America's domestic energy resources. In the piece, Heinrich called for faster permitting, new federal financing tools, and investment incentives for nationally significant transmission projects. 

A one-page factsheet of the bill is here.

A section-by-section summary of the bill is here.

The full text of the bill is here. 

###