Want larger transmission lines? Fix this regulatory gap, experts say.

That lack of transparency is a big problem, said Kent Chandler, a former chairman for the Kentucky Public Service Commission and resident senior fellow at free market-oriented think tank R Street Institute. Utilities are monopolies that get to charge captive customers for reliable and affordable power, he said during the December webinar. ​“It shouldn’t be on us to have to prove the negative on why we’re not getting the best value for our money.”

These concerns have spurred a new effort to get FERC to intervene. In December, R Street Institute, consumer advocates including Public Citizen, and groups representing industrial energy consumers filed a complaint asking FERC to require that lower-voltage lines typically built under the ​“local” designation be brought into the same regional planning structures that govern higher-voltage lines.

It also calls for ​“independent transmission system planners,” a new kind of regional planner watchdog that would counterbalance ​“the self-interest and undue influence of existing transmission providers.”