The Solar and Storage Industries Institute (SI2) released a new report today called “Interconnection Reform: How One Grid Operator Is Changing the Game,” detailing how a proposal currently under consideration by FERC could finally solve some of the long-time issues with renewable energy interconnection.
The report discusses how the Southwest Power Pool’s (SPP) Consolidated Planning Proposal (CPP) is putting into practice the interconnection and planning reforms long advanced by SI2. Initial comments on the SPP proposal are due to FERC on November 24.
“Southwest Power Pool’s proposal is one of the most comprehensive attempts we’ve seen to link the transmission planning process with the interconnection process and more efficiently assign interconnection costs,” said David Gahl, executive director of SI2. “This is what game-changing interconnection reform looks like in practice and other grid operators should look closely at this proposal.”
This report builds on SI2’s 2024 report, “Game Changing Interconnection Reform,” that calls for deeper coordination between regional planning and queue management, along with a rethinking of cost-allocation with an “entry fee” model. SI2 urges grid operators to integrate long-term transmission planning with interconnection processes and adopt an “entry fee” structure to simplify costs and reduce risk for developers. SI2’s new analysis details how SPP has operationalized this approach and identifies key questions for implementation.
The need for additional interconnection reform remains urgent. Despite federal action under FERC Order 2023, 2,300 GW of projects remain stuck in interconnection backlogs, nearly twice the total electric capacity operating today in the United States. Solar and storage projects make up 80% of this backlog, slowing progress on clean energy deployment and increasing costs for developers and American households and businesses.
Synchronizing long-term transmission planning with interconnection and then developing a more reasonable fee structure that helps fund transmission build out works to guarantee project completion and providing developers with the long sought after predictability.
“Solar and storage continue to deliver competitive, reliable power and public support remains strong,” Gahl said. “Fixing interconnection is essential to meeting rising energy demand and ensuring American households and businesses have access to affordable clean energy.”
News item from SI2
