Right this moment, the Photo voltaic and Storage Industries Institute (SI2) launched a complete white paper on interconnection challenges within the photo voltaic and storage business and proposed new options to speed up the clear vitality transition.
The report builds on latest analyses from Lawrence Berkley Nationwide Laboratory and the U.S. Division of Vitality and recommends that grid operators and regulators create extra holistic complete regional transmission planning processes and a brand new funding paradigm for transmission improve prices. These suggestions would extra equitably distribute transmission improve prices and scale back uncertainty within the interconnection course of, leading to decrease interconnection prices, a extra strong transmission system, and sooner construct out of renewable vitality.
David Gahl, govt director of SI2, emphasised the necessity to handle the underlying points which have damaged the interconnection course of and stated, “We are able to’t maintain saddling the interconnection course of with all the prices of transmission system upgrades. This course of is akin to contracting a paving agency to switch your driveway in upstate New York and getting a invoice for the driveway and the price of constructing a brand new exit ramp off I-95 in New Jersey.”
The report argues that new regional transmission planning processes ought to combine knowledge from the interconnection queues alongside demand and useful resource combine forecasts and regional clear vitality targets. In doing so, transmission planners could be extra aware of demonstrated transmission wants, in the end decreasing transmission system prices and lowering interconnection backlogs.
As well as, the report states that FERC, Congress and grid operators should reimagine the interconnection funding paradigm to restrict grid improve prices to measures that safely join tasks to the native transmission community. By making a extra important queue entry price that helps complete transmission wants and limiting queue entrant prices to native community upgrades, policymakers would streamline the interconnection course of, thereby lowering queues and interconnection prices and permitting for extra fast construct out of renewables.
“America’s capability to achieve our local weather targets begins and ends with how effectively we will get tasks related to the grid,” stated Abigail Ross Hopper, president and CEO of the Photo voltaic Vitality Industries Affiliation (SEIA). “The interconnection course of is a black field with unknown wait instances and prices for clear vitality builders. We want the options detailed in SI2’s report back to serve rising demand for electrical energy with dependable, low-cost photo voltaic and storage.”
The Inflation Discount Act is making a surge in demand for clear vitality, additional straining an already burdened interconnection system. Based on Lawrence Berkeley Nationwide Laboratory, the interconnection queue grew 30% within the final 12 months, to achieve a report 2,600 gigawatts. Initiatives put in in 2023 took 5 years on common to navigate the interconnection course of, up from 3 years for tasks accomplished in 2015.
“This report confirms that to resolve the interconnection downside, we have to plan and construct an influence grid that may help a clear future,” stated Tom Rutigliano, Senior Advocate on the NRDC. “Course of reforms to alleviate clogged interconnection processes are a vital step to speed up tasks already awaiting approval. However to finish the multi-year delays and get forward of the issue, FERC’s forthcoming transmission planning rule should set us on a path to construct an expanded grid that may accommodate the large queue of tasks we will proceed to count on within the coming years.”
Because the nation embarks on a transformative journey in the direction of a greener, extra resilient vitality infrastructure, SI2’s evaluation serves as a roadmap for policymakers, business stakeholders, and advocates dedicated to advancing clear vitality options.
Learn the total report right here.
Information merchandise from the Photo voltaic and Storage Industries Institute
