On April 17th, the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Interconnection Innovation e-Xchange (i2X) released the final version of a roadmap to address interconnection challenges on the transmission grid.
i2X
The Transmission Interconnection Roadmap is intended to serve as a guide for implementing near- to long-term solutions to interconnect new energy sources to the transmission grid and to clear the existing backlog of projects seeking to be built.
The authors will be hosting a webinar to share details and answer questions on May 14th, 10 am PT/1 pm ET.
generation and storage capacity
This roadmap, which was led by the DOE in partnership with researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (Berkeley Lab) and the Energy Systems Integration Group (ESIG), follows the release of Berkeley Lab’s annual 'Queued Up' report, which identified nearly 2,600 gigawatts of generation and storage capacity actively seeking grid interconnection, an eight-fold increase since 2014.
The high volume of projects and inadequate procedures for interconnection have led to uncertainties, delays, inequities, and added costs for developers, end users, utilities, and regulators. Solving interconnection challenges is critical to clearing the current backlog and meeting growing electricity demand.
interconnection reforms
Order 2023 represents a significant step in the right direction toward addressing interconnection challenges
With a resurgence in U.S. manufacturing alongside demand from new data centers, electric vehicles, and building electrification, connecting new electric generation and storage is urgently needed.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) adopted major interconnection reforms in 2023, though they have yet to take effect in most regions. Order 2023 represents a significant step in the right direction toward addressing interconnection challenges.
four goals to improve interconnection
The roadmap contains some solutions that relate to Order 2023, but it also introduces additional ideas that support longer-term interconnection process evolution.
The roadmap provides stakeholders with a set of 35 solutions organized around four goals to improve interconnection and help reduce the backlog of projects:
- Increase data access, transparency, and security for interconnection.
- Improve the interconnection process and timeline.
- Promote economic efficiency in interconnection.
- Maintain a reliable, resilient, and secure grid.
aggressive success targets
Each solution is organized into specific actions that transmission providers, interconnection customers, state agencies, federal regulators, equipment manufacturers, consumer advocates, environmental justice communities, the research community, and other actors can take to contribute to a collaborative improvement process.
The roadmap also sets aggressive success targets for interconnection improvement by 2030.
