New Scorecard Mandates Grid Owners Publicly Report Costs, Delays, and Reliability Data

The Electricity Transmission Scorecard Act is essentially installing a massive, standardized dashboard for the nation’s electric grid. It requires every major player—the transmission owners, the regional grid operators (ISOs/RTOs), and planning entities—to start publishing detailed, audited performance reports, or “scorecards,” covering everything from how much they charge to how fast they plug in new power plants. The goal is simple: make the opaque world of electricity transmission transparent, accountable, and comparable across the country.

The Grid’s Report Card: What They Have to Disclose

Starting soon after the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issues its final rules (which must happen within a year), these entities will have to submit annual or biannual scorecards packed with metrics. Think of it as a financial audit mixed with a performance review. For example, they must report on Ratepayer Affordability (cost per unit of energy transmitted) and Financing Costs (including reliance on automatic rate adjustment mechanisms). If you’ve ever seen your utility bill jump without explanation, this bill aims to pull back the curtain on the underlying costs driving those increases (Sec. 3.a(1)(A)(i)-(ii)).

One of the biggest areas of focus is Investment Prudency and Effectiveness. This section forces transmission owners to assess the value delivered by their capital investments and prove they considered cost-effective alternatives, like grid-enhancing technologies (GETs) or non-wires solutions, before opting for expensive new lines (Sec. 3.a(1)(A)(iv)). This is a big deal because it challenges the traditional utility model that often favors massive capital projects over smarter, cheaper upgrades.

Cutting the Line on Interconnection Delays

If you’re a developer trying to connect a new solar farm or battery storage project to the grid, you know the interconnection queue is a nightmare. This bill tackles that directly. It requires reporting entities to track the total number of requests, how many were withdrawn, and the average time (in days) it takes to go from request to agreement (Sec. 1). Even more critically, it mandates a metric on Interconnection and Access Fairness, comparing how quickly affiliated entities (those with a financial or governance tie to the transmission owner) get their projects approved versus unaffiliated entities (Sec. 3.a(1)(A)(viii)). This aims to snuff out any potential favoritism that slows down competition.

Accountability Beyond the Wires

The scorecards aren't just about engineering and finance; they also look at non-operational spending. There is a specific metric on Non-operational Cost Recovery, which assesses the amount of money spent on lobbying, advertising, penalties, and advocacy activities that is ultimately recovered through customer rates (Sec. 3.a(1)(A)(ix)). This means that the next time you see a utility advertisement or hear about their lobbying efforts, the cost of that activity will be clearly reported—and you’ll know if you’re paying for it.

Furthermore, the bill demands independent verification. FERC must establish a process where every scorecard is verified by independent evaluators with expertise in engineering, accounting, and data analytics before it’s published (Sec. 3.c). These evaluators must be conflict-free and can only verify the same entity a limited number of times, ensuring a fresh set of eyes. National Laboratories will also conduct periodic audits to ensure the data quality is top-notch (Sec. 3.d).

The Real-World Impact: Why You Should Care

For the average person juggling bills, this bill matters because it attacks the problem of rising electricity costs and grid inefficiency through transparency. If a transmission owner can’t justify its massive capital spending, or if it's found to be dragging its feet on connecting cheaper, cleaner power sources, regulators, researchers, and ratepayer advocates will have the standardized, public data needed to hold them accountable. This could lead to smarter investment, lower costs, and a more reliable grid.

For the transmission companies themselves, this means a significant increase in administrative burden and scrutiny. They can no longer hide behind fragmented reporting; they now have to coordinate data collection across their entire region and submit to rigorous, independent checks. The bill gives FERC strong enforcement teeth, treating a failure to comply with the scorecard requirements as a violation of the Federal Power Act (Sec. 3.f), which carries stiff penalties. This bill is less about building new lines and more about making sure the people who own the existing lines are running them efficiently and fairly.