SEIA issues whitepaper on interconnection reforms needed to decarbonize the grid

The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) outlined the interconnection reforms necessary to decarbonize the electricity grid in a new whitepaper.

The whitepaper, called Lessons from the Front Line: Principles and Recommendations for Large-scale and Distributed Energy Interconnection Reforms, examines the various opportunities utilities and regulators have to standardize, automate, and clarify interconnection procedures and policies.

SEIA notes that while federal, state, and local leaders are setting their own clean energy goals, distribution utilities and regional transmission organizations (RTOs) struggle to keep up with overflowing interconnection queues.

“If we don’t make major strides on interconnection reforms in the next few years, it will be impossible to achieve our more aggressive state and national clean energy goals,” Sean Gallagher, vice president of state and regulatory affairs at SEIA, said. “Improving project interconnection must become an urgent priority for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, distribution utilities, and state commissions if we want to build an equitable clean energy economy this decade.”

The key to avoiding interconnection logjams is to provide companies with more information about transmission and distribution grid operations, with policies that build accountability and consequences for utility inaction. Further, new cost-sharing models for transmission and distribution system upgrades will make it easier to connect projects to the grid and reduce overall project costs.

“Transparency is the most important part of interconnection reform,” David Gahl, executive director of the Solar and Storage Industries Institute (SI2) and SEIA’s former senior director of state policy, East, said. “Companies are left in the dark when it comes to grid planning and how much infrastructure upgrades might cost, increasing the likelihood that interconnection applications will be withdrawn. This whitepaper lays out the many ways lawmakers and regulators can eliminate this guessing game and put us on a path to reaching the president’s climate goals.”

The paper calls for creating a central database for interconnection upgrade costs. This will help project developers make more informed decisions when considering an interconnection application submission. In addition, better transparency will clarify utility overhead costs and create downward pricing pressure on monopolistic utilities that do not currently have any incentives or requirements to disclose pricing information.

The whitepaper also says utilities and RTOs should standardize queue management processes and focus on hiring more staff members with dedicated expertise. Web-based portals enabling online application submissions and rapid information exchanges will also help streamline the interconnection process. Further, utilities and RTOs should automate as much of the processes as possible to reduce delays.

Finally, the paper says regulators should consider systemic changes for RTOs and utilities like flexible interconnection agreements already in place in Europe. They can be used to connect the resource to the grid without major infrastructure costs.