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PV Magazine highlights major takeaways from United's May 2023 webinar on interconnection processes and potential solutions, quoting Caitlin Marquis on the need for significant reform to make the interconnection transition more efficient.

The “efficient process solution” to interconnecting large-scale renewables and storage “is a combination of the ‘connect and manage’ interconnection approach with comprehensive regional transmission planning,” said Hannah Muller, head of markets and policy at Clearway Energy Group, on a webinar hosted by Advanced Energy United.

Greg Geller, vice president and head of regulatory affairs for Enel North America, said on the webinar that he also favors both approaches, and explained their advantages.

Advanced Energy United presented the webinar as the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is completing work on a rule aiming to increase the speed and reduce the costs of interconnecting utility-scale renewable and storage projects. Muller and Geller focused their recommendations on further improvements that could be instituted after FERC issues its rule.

Explaining the “connect and manage” approach, Geller said “assume you have a 200 MW project.” Some transmission system operators, he said, study projects based on how they will be dispatched “in real time. And if in real time that project would cause a constraint” if 200 MW were dispatched, a “connect and manage” approach would instead dispatch 100 MW for the time period needed.

pv magazine covered First Solar's request that FERC consider carbon pricing and hold a technical conference or workshop, noting AEE made same request with stakeholder group. Read excerpts below and the entire pv magazine piece here. 

First Solar has asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to convene a technical conference or workshop on carbon pricing of electricity in wholesale energy markets. First Solar’s request is in support of a petition, submitted by stakeholders including the American Council on Renewable Energy and Advanced Energy Economy, asking FERC to convene a carbon pricing discussion...

PV Magazine summarized findings from TAEBA’s distributed energy resources report, quoting TAEBA's Suzanne Bertin. Read excerpts below and the entire PV Magazine piece here. 

An estimated 20% of transmission and distribution investments in Texas are designed to meet load growth, and could largely be deferred by adding distributed battery storage. That’s a key finding of a report from the Texas Advanced Energy Business Alliance (TAEBA), which pegged the annual savings possible in Texas from this “non-wires solution” at $344 million per year. 

PV Magazine reported Arizona Corporate Commission is initiating a process to establish rules for reaching 100% renewable energy by 2050, featuring AEE's 100% clean energy states tracking map. Read excerpts below and the entire PV Magazine piece here. 

The Arizona Corporation Commission has directed its staff to develop a set of rules to achieve 100% clean energy by 2050, said Commission Chair Robert Burns in a letter on Wednesday. Commissioner Sandra Kennedy wrote the same day that while she preferred a standard of 100% clean energy by 2040, because “the science is clear regarding the need for aggressive decarbonization,” she would support a 2050 deadline to achieve majority agreement.

This PV Magazine article looks at the Minnesota energy roadmap recently released by AEE and CEEM plus engagement of both organizations in the state's gubernatorial campaign. Link to the roadmap here. Link to the full article here. Excerpts below: