Report, UNLOCKING AMERICA’S ENERGY: How to Efficiently Connect New Generation to the Grid

The generator interconnection approval process has become a major barrier in recent years. The surge of generator interconnection requests has overwhelmed existing processes, causing major delays and producing an unprecedented backlog. In many cases, the total capacity of interconnection requests submitted in a single interconnection “queue” cycle exceeds the total regional peak load, resulting in impractical engineering studies with unrealistic results, delaying processes and creating cost and schedule uncertainty in the
development of new generation resources.

This report makes recommendations organized around four key themes for reforming the interconnection process, targeting different aspects of the interconnection process.

• REFORM 1 | Adopt an interconnection entry fee for proactively planned capacity, which will provide interconnection customers significant interconnection cost certainty and addresses cost allocation of the upgrades identified through proactive planning processes.
• REFORM 2 | Implement a fast-track process to utilize existing and already-planned interconnection capacity.
• REFORM 3 | Optimize the interconnection study process, which will target improvements to the interconnection study process to increase the system headroom considered to be “available” for interconnecting new resources through existing and new fast-track processes.
• REFORM 4 | Speed up the transmission construction backlog, which will address growing constraints to constructing network upgrades needed to bring new resources online after completing the interconnection study process.