Western States Transmission Initiative

The Western States Transmission Initiative (WSTI) is a collaboration of Western regulators and policy leaders working to improve approaches to transmission planning and cost allocation in the Western interconnection.

WSTI is facilitated and led by Gridworks for the benefit of CREPC members.

About WSTI: The West’s current bottoms-up approach to transmission planning and development does not effectively evaluate the relative merits of interregional and intraregional transmission opportunities, nor their relative merits compared with intrastate alternatives; this approach has never resulted in an interregionally planned transmission solution that efficiently and cost-effectively connects energy resources to energy loads. As a result, Western states have an urgent need for power and the transmission to bring that power to load. The goal of WSTI is to address this challenge by building understanding of transmission issues among Western regulators and state energy policy leaders on CREPC and identifying actionable steps for CREPC to address both opportunities for transmission development across a regional footprint and supporting regulatory and policy underpinnings.

Additional information and materials on WSTI are available on the Gridworks website.