The mechanism: FERC Order No. 1920 — finalized May 2024 and reinforced through Order 1920-A and 1920-B — forces every regional grid operator to plan transmission 20 years out and, critically, to lock in an ex ante cost-allocation formula before projects are even selected. That's the money part: once a long-range, high-voltage line is designated a "Long-Term Regional Transmission Facility," the rule guarantees its costs get spread across the beneficiary states through a pre-agreed formula, converting a project from "utility bets its own balance sheet" into "regulator-blessed rate base." In PJM and SPP, where interstate 765kV corridors are the answer to data-center and reindustrialization load growth, that guarantee flows straight to the utility that owns the wires — not the one that owns the power plants.

Who cashes in: