On Thursday, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission voted to approve a new rule to expedite the interconnection process. The electric grid in the U.S. has a maximum capacity of 1,250 gigawatts, yet the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory reports that there are 2,020 gigawatts in the interconnection queue lines across the nation. Although these rules are an important step towards resolving the bottleneck issue in power grid access, experts say that further action must be taken.
On Thursday, Federal regulators voted unanimously in favor of new rules aiming to expedite the connection of fresh power sources to the energy grid. These rules could potentially offer an opportunity to reduce the negative impacts of global warming by connecting clean energy sources, although they are not a total solution. In order to get new sources of energy, such as solar or wind farms, to the electric grid, a generator must submit an interconnection application to the transmission operator, with which it is placed into a queue. Subsequently, the grid operator needs to carry out studies to identify the necessary equipment and upgrades, as well as the costs associated with the whole process.
The total installed capacity throughout the United States electric grid is 1,250 gigawatts, while 2,020 gigawatts of capacity is listed in queues around the whole nation in the report from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory published in April. This includes 1,350 gigawatts of clean power looking to be built and connected, and 670 gigawatts intended for storage. The current bottleneck is stopping the much needed power generation to meet the increasing demands, for example, PJM, a regional transmission organization that collaborates with 13 states and the District of Columbia, issued an alert in light of the recent heatwavefearing it may need to execute emergency operations. This alert, however, was later cancelled at 5pm ET on Friday.
In the wake of a period of expanded demands and a slowly aging grid, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved new rules to streamline and accelerate the interconnection process. Since beginning the process to enhance the generator interconnection procedure in July 2021, the FERCpublished a specific set of proposed reforms in June 2022, which accumulated 3,750 pages of comments by October. After a few more weeks or months, the rules will come into force and become official.
Broadly, the new rules involve the following changes: first-come, first-served cluster process; deadlines and penalties for transmission providers; and the ability for generators to co-locate and share an interconnection request. The cluster process requires transmission providers to conduct larger, regional interconnection studies for clusters of power generation requests. Additionally, power generators must meet certain requirements to keep their place in the queue, including a financial deposit. The rule also tightens the deadlines for transmission providers to respond to power generators, with penalties for not meeting those deadlines. Co-location now allows for power generators to submit one interconnection request, and if a power generator wants to add a battery storage component to a project that is in the queue, this will not require new studies or more delays. This will be especially helpful for projects that have power generation and battery storage in the same spot.
The phrase "There's no transition without transmission" is a popular saying amongst energy nerds, referring to the need to expand the system of power lines that allow electricity to be moved from generating sources to final consumers. Generating electricity from renewable sources like wind and solar is different than from non-renewables like gas and oil since they tend to be located in areas far away from cities and industrial areas. Although rising awareness of climate change has improved the ability to quickly build transmission lines, getting electricity onto the grid still takes an average of five years due to a high volume of applications. Additionally, the expense of creating new transmission lines can be too high for some power generators, resulting in cancelled plans. Therefore, the need to create efficient transmission lines is essential for allowing the United States to establish a sustainable form of energy production.
Energy experts generally viewed the FERC's vote to approve new rules as a good initial step taken. Rob Gramlich, founder and president of Grid Strategies, a transmission grid policy shop, expressed his admiration to CNBC that despite the divisions in energy policy, the new rule passed unanimously by all four Commissioners. Gramlich also said that this rule would have a "modest" impact on moving projects through interconnection queues. Joseph Rand, an energy policy researcher from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, informed CNBC that the new rules were "an incremental step in the right direction." Rand was particularly impressed by the financial penalties for transmission operators imposed for delayed studies, describing them as having "real teeth." Rand also highlighted the rule changes that will help hybrid power generation and storage become viable, calling it "a very big deal." Lastly, Gramlich was encouraged to see some of the more advanced transmission technologies being considered in the new rules.
Gregory Wetstone, CEO of the American Council on Renewable Energy, expressed satisfaction with the FERC rules approval but mentioned that it was only a beginning. Wetstone was looking forward to FERC mandating long-term transmission planning in addition to reforming the "dysfunctional" payment system for transmission upgrades. Rand of the same organization backed Wetstone's view that the FERC's separate proposed rule changes could make a bigger difference. Gramlich also commented that the major impacts can be achieved when the FERC addresses transmission planning and cost allocation that is already prescribed in the other major proposed rule.
top of page
bottom of page
Opmerkingen