In recent times, considerations in regards to the prolonged interconnection queue have dominated headlines. This queue has emerged as a significant impediment to including new producing services to the U.S. energy grid. It’s primarily brought on by grid congestion, allowing points, intensive infrastructure venture delays, and the normal interconnection examine approaches utilized in many states.
To deal with this concern, policymakers and regulators have launched new guidelines, mechanisms, remuneration buildings, and funding to incentivize environment friendly grid investments. Certainly one of these new guidelines is Federal Power Regulatory Fee (FERC) Order No. 2023. Order 2023 reforms the procedures and agreements electrical transmission suppliers use to include new producing services into the grid. This rule goals to streamline the interconnection course of by addressing queue backlogs, bettering certainty, and establishing clear remedy for confirmed various transmission applied sciences.
However what precisely does FERC Order 2023 entail and the way will it contribute to lowering the interconnection queue? For starters, Order 2023 mandates a number of modifications to scale back the interconnection queue. These embrace:
- A transfer towards first-ready, first-served cluster research.
- Alternatives to co-locate technology and/or storage.
- Consideration of other transmission applied sciences (ATTs) in energy system research.
- Extra transparency and standardization of the interconnection course of.
- Elevated monetary and different commitments for venture builders.
Starting in April 2024, transmission suppliers should contemplate ATTs as potential grid reinforcements throughout the cluster examine and report on their analysis. Because it’s not attainable to cowl all of those in a single article, I’ll give attention to the requirement to contemplate ATTs.
Maintain on. What are ATTs and what have they got to do with the interconnection queue? ATTs embrace static synchronous compensators, static volt-ampere reactive (VAR) compensators, superior energy movement management gadgets (which I’ll contact on later), transmission switching, synchronous condensers, voltage supply converters, superior conductors, and tower lifting. After intensive consultations, FERC decided that these applied sciences have “essentially the most potential to be helpful to scale back interconnection prices by offering decrease price community upgrades to interconnect new producing services.”
Beneath the brand new mandate, transmission suppliers should contemplate these ATTs as attainable grid reinforcements throughout the cluster examine, a vital a part of the generator interconnection course of. Based mostly on this, every transmission supplier will resolve whether or not it must be used as the entire or a part of the grid reinforcement to interconnect that cluster of technology tasks. The choice must be made in step with good utility follow and any reliability requirements or different regulatory necessities which will apply. The cluster examine report should present an evaluation of the feasibility, price, and time-savings potential of ATTs as alternate options to conventional community upgrades to extend transparency for venture builders and different stakeholders.
So, how will together with ATTs in interconnection research speed up the queue? Standard grid reinforcements for interconnection tasks, resembling new strains and reconductoring, usually take a few years to assemble, are costly, and are sized to fulfill the complete community’s wants from day one. These grid upgrades are additionally topic to the potential for additional delays as a result of allowing points and the supply of an acceptable outage window, making a excessive degree of uncertainty and danger for the venture developer. This typically results in vital delays within the interconnection of the brand new technology or, even worse, the withdrawal of tasks.
The inflexibility of those standard reinforcements can exacerbate the difficulty, notably if the community necessities change throughout the interconnection course of. As an example, if a technology venture withdraws as a result of an exterior issue, resembling provide chain points, the grid reinforcement remains to be designed to accommodate the total preliminary necessities. The opposite venture builders will then have to separate this similar price for grid reinforcement between the remaining tasks, which frequently results in additional withdrawals as some tasks’ economics could develop into non-feasible.
These points with standard grid reinforcements can typically result in the complete cluster of tasks withdrawing, with some tasks re-submitting once more at a later date. This will really improve the interconnection queue quite than scale back it. As an example this level, an instance of how this interconnection course of typically goes is:
- Research. Queue technology tasks grouped for mixed examine.
- Value Estimate. Research outcomes point out requisite grid reinforcements and price allocation. Sometimes, new strains, reconductoring, or standard energy issue correction (PFC) tools.
- Resolution by Builders. Some tasks select to withdraw as a result of price allocation or different causes.
- Revised Value Allocation. Value allocation will increase for remaining tasks.
- Extra Withdrawals. Extra tasks could select to withdraw as a result of elevated price allocation.
- Again to Sq. One. Complete group withdraws and resubmits for future examine.
And spherical and spherical it goes.
Nonetheless, versatile grid reinforcements like ATTs may be adjusted in dimension if some tasks withdraw from the method. Consequently, the grid reinforcement can simply be custom-made to match the precise community want, thereby lowering prices and uncertainties within the course of. Modular options, resembling superior energy movement management (APFC), are notably efficient on this means. The variety of gadgets and, thus, the facility movement management functionality may be readily tailored to make sure the answer is cost-effective and future-proofed.
APFC refers to modular energy electronics-based gadgets that change the reactance of transmission and distribution strains to regulate energy flows on the grid. These gadgets can simply be added to current deployments or relocated to alternate websites. Utilities worldwide have efficiently used APFC gadgets to steadiness energy flows, maximize grid utilization, and resolve grid congestion to help renewable power integration.
This side is especially vital since ATTs resembling APFC gadgets normally have considerably shorter supply timeframes than standard grid reinforcements, permitting for earlier interconnection. As a substitute of the situation above, the interconnection queue could as an alternative seem like this:
- Research. Queue technology tasks grouped for mixed examine.
- Value Estimate. Research outcomes point out requisite grid reinforcements and price allocation. ATTs should now be thought-about in research.
- Resolution by Builders. Some tasks select to withdraw as a result of price allocation or different causes.
- Revised Value Allocation. Value allocation is up to date primarily based on precise grid reinforcements (that’s, re-sized ATT deployments) wanted for remaining tasks.
- Inexperienced Mild for Tasks. The remaining tasks settle for the interconnection proposal and these tasks transfer ahead.
In conclusion, the prolonged interconnection queue for brand spanking new producing services has been a significant impediment to integrating extra renewables into the U.S. energy grid. FERC Order 2023 provides promising options to handle this concern by streamlining the interconnection course of. Contemplating ATTs in cluster research will hopefully assist speed up the interconnection queue whereas lowering prices and uncertainties, however this is only one piece of Order 2023. Implementing this and the opposite modifications underneath Order 2023, along with collaboration between builders, utilities, and trade, is predicted to carry noticeable enhancements to the interconnection queues and in the end profit our grid and communities in a comparatively quick time frame.
—Ted Bloch-Rubin is director of Enterprise Improvement, Americas at Good Wires Inc.
