Facing more than 2,000 gigawatts of energy generation and storage waiting in transmission system interconnection queues, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has voted to adopt a final rule, Order No. 2023, to revise its pro forma generator interconnection procedures to speed up the nation’s interconnection processes. The final rule is aimed at increasing queue efficiency and alleviating the current five-year average wait time for projects to connect to the grid.… More
Tag Archives: interconnection
FERC issues Notice of Proposed Rulemaking concerning generator interconnection; aims to speed, simplify processes
Electric transmission planning processes have not been able to keep pace with demand for interconnection service, leaving over 1,000 gigawatts (GW) of generation and 400 GW of storage stranded in the nation’s interconnection queues. In response to the backlog, PJM Interconnection LLC—the nation’s largest RTO by load served—recently imposed a two-year pause on new interconnection requests and asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to consider reforms to its interconnection process.… More
Deadline Approaching for Comments on Proposal to Reform Distribution System Planning and Allocation of Interconnection Costs
When the Massachusetts DPU opened docket DPU 20-75, I described it as a proposal to fundamentally change system planning and cost allocation in Massachusetts. The interconnection process in Massachusetts has been a perpetual wellspring of challenges for installing distributed energy resources – challenges that have grown in scope and complexity in recent years. Opportunities to rework the basic structure of that process do not come around every day. … More
DPU Technical Conference Addresses Issues Related to DG Interconnection Tariff and National Grid “Cluster Study”
Distributed generation (DG) projects across the Commonwealth have been stalled in the midst of the “Cluster Study” impacting National Grid’s service territory in central and western Massachusetts. National Grid describes the study’s purpose as determining the impacts on the transmission system of interconnecting over 900 MW in DG projects—mostly solar—to its distribution system. National Grid says the study will be completed by March 2020.… More
Another Solar Emergency!? Will the Commonwealth’s Transition to a “Market Net Metering Credit” for Private Solar Projects be “Stable and Equitable” After All?
The Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities’ (“DPU”) recent emergency order (the “Order”) issued May 11 in its Docket 16-64 made some immediate changes to the Commonwealth’s net metering law enacted by the Act Relative to Solar Energy (the “Act), which, according to its own preamble, was itself was an “emergency law, necessary for the public convenience” adopted, in part,… More