RTO Insider: Stakeholders Push for More Interconnection Rule Changes at FERC
Order 2023 is an improvement, but its reforms were narrow, and FERC should continue to work on interconnection issues, argued the Electricity Customer Alliance, the Electricity Consumers Resource Council and R Street Institute. FERC could do another rulemaking or let regional changes bloom, they suggested.
But they also argued the commission should announce an ongoing forum on the best generator interconnection processes that is held at least annually and articulate its policy objectives by issuing a statement.
“The salience of GI reform, beyond Order 2023, continues to grow,” the consumer groups said. “Unnecessarily slow and costly GI process has been a growing economic burden on consumers for years. Grid upgrade costs for generators to interconnect have grown by multiples in many regions, and most of these costs are passed through to consumers. Interconnection wait times have increased from less than two years to a median of five years last year, with some regions now explicitly delaying or pausing the processing of new GI requests. GI delays now present a material reliability risk to consumers, especially as expectations for load growth have increased.”