Utility Integration

FERC issues final ruling to tackle clogged interconnection queues

FERC issues final ruling to tackle clogged interconnection queues
(Federal Energy Regulatory Commission )

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has issued a final ruling in its quest to streamline generator interconnection and alleviate clogged queues across the U.S.

At the end of 2022, more than 2,000 GW of generation and storage were waiting in interconnection queues, according to FERC. The ruling on July 27 came out of a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking issued last June.

The final rule requires all public utilities to adopt revised pro forma generator interconnection procedures and agreements to ensure that interconnection customers can interconnect to the transmission system in a reliable, efficient, transparent, and timely manner, and to prevent undue discrimination. 

“This new rule from FERC is an important first step on this crucial issue for the energy transition, and I am pleased to see some improvements from the proposed rule, including measures to advance the use of grid enhancing technologies,” Gregory Wetstone, CEO of the American Council on Renewable Energy, said in a statement. “But it is only a start. We encourage the Commission to build on today’s forward progress in addressing the grid backlog by finalizing a rulemaking requiring comprehensive long-term transmission planning, initiating a process to reform the dysfunctional funding model for new transmission lines, and establishing a minimum transfer capability requirement to help address the clear need for greater interregional transmission.”

FERC will require a “first-ready, first-served” cluster study process in which transmission providers conduct large interconnection studies encompassing numerous proposed generating facilities, rather than separate studies for each individual generating facility. To ensure that ready projects can proceed through the queue in a timely manner, interconnection customers will be subject to specific requirements, including financial deposits and site control conditions, to enter and remain in the interconnection queue.

The final rule also imposes firm deadlines and establishes penalties if transmission providers fail to complete interconnection studies on time, but transmission providers may appeal their penalties at FERC. Additionally, the rule establishes a detailed affected systems study process, including uniform modeling standards and pro forma affected system agreements. 

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The final rule requires transmission providers to allow more than one generating facility to co-locate on a shared site behind a single point of interconnection and share a single interconnection request. This reform creates a more efficient standardized procedure for these types of generating facility configurations, FERC said. Interconnection customers will be able to add a generating facility to an existing interconnection request under certain circumstances without such a request being automatically deemed a material modification.

In a victory for energy storage developers, FERC is requiring transmission providers to use operating assumptions in interconnection studies that reflect the proposed charging behavior of electric storage resources.

Finally, the final rule requires transmission providers to evaluate alternative transmission technologies in their cluster studies and establishes modeling and performance standards for inverter-based resources.