The Chicago Tribune reports on PJM Interconnection's low grade in the recently released Advanced Energy United Generator Interconnection Scorecard and the direct impacts of the entity's slow grid connection process.
Ninety miles west of Chicago, the corn and soybean fields stretch to the sky, and dreams of the clean energy future dangle — just out of reach. To the east of Route 52, there’s the first phase of the 9,500-acre Steward Creek solar farm, in the works since 2019. To the west, there’s South Dixon Solar, which once hoped to begin construction on 3,800 acres in 2022.
Both projects have been approved by the Lee County Board. But neither can be built, according to a county official, due to PJM Interconnection, a powerful but little-known entity that controls access to the high-voltage electric grid in northern Illinois.
“There isn’t anything we can do to help the state move forward (with its clean energy goals),” said Lee County Zoning Administrator Alice Henkel. “This is all PJM. They have the control.”
As the clean energy transition surges ahead, with prices for electricity from wind and solar dropping and market share growing, long waitlists for new power sources seeking approval to connect to the electric grid have quietly emerged as a major barrier.
Across the nation, the waitlists for large projects to connect to the grid — and deliver power to homes and businesses — have ballooned, leaving over 1,400 gigawatts of wind and solar power in limbo, enough to allow the United States to achieve 90% clean electricity.
And nowhere is the problem worse, according to a recent first-of-its-kind report, than in the PJM region, which spans Washington, D.C., and 13 states, in whole or in part, including northern Illinois.
PJM came in last out of seven regions, with a grade of D-, in the Generation Interconnection Scorecard report prepared for the business association Advanced Energy United.
PJM’s performance had “few bright spots,” according to the report, which was based on publicly available data, as well as recent interviews with energy developers and engineers working in the field.
The report found that in a nation with “agonizingly slow” grid connection processes, the PJM process of studying and green-lighting new requests to connect to the grid was the slowest, with the most unpredictable timelines.
One clean energy developer was quoted as saying he had stopped doing new projects in the PJM region.
PJM, a federally regulated private company that manages part of the high-voltage electric grid, declined a request for a phone interview, instead issuing a written statement saying the interconnection scorecard report “is an assessment of conditions and practices that no longer exist in PJM.”
“Over three years ago, PJM and its stakeholders identified improvements to the interconnection process and developed landmark reforms in record time. These new rules are enabling PJM to process New Service Requests faster and more efficiently,” the statement said.
PJM said the “more relevant challenge” is getting previously approved projects built.
“This is the challenge we need to confront as an industry rather than looking back on problems that have been largely addressed,” the statement said. “PJM is not delaying the energy transition.”
But critics of PJM’s operation say that delays continue.
While PJM points to 40 gigawatts of power that’s approved but awaiting construction, there were 290 gigawatts of power waiting to connect to the PJM grid at the end of 2023, up from 88 gigawatts in 2018, according to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, a federally funded research center.
In the PJM region, the median time a new energy project had to wait before being allowed to connect to the grid rose to more than five years in 2022, up from just 20 months in 2005.
PJM effectively slammed on the brakes in 2022, with a decision, approved by regulators, that it would not review newer grid-connection requests — submitted after September 2021 — until early 2026, according to government documents and PJM reports.
That allowed PJM to focus on clearing the backlog of older requests but left newer projects with potential waits of up to four years — just to begin the review process.
As part of a broader package of generally well-received reforms, PJM also went to a new review process in which grid-connection requests are studied in clusters, rather than one by one. Other changes included new financial requirements for applicants, aimed at discouraging speculative projects.
Among the local projects affected by PJM delays: Deriva Energy’s South Dixon solar farm in Lee County, which applied to connect to the grid in 2019. According to PJM’s timelines, the project should get an agreement to connect to the grid by mid-2025.
Phase 1 of Hexagon Energy’s Steward Creek solar farm submitted its requests to connect to the grid in 2019 and 2020. The project should get an agreement by mid-2025.
No one is saying that PJM’s job is easy.
The Pennsylvania-based company — a membership organization that includes utilities and power providers — is the largest grid operator in the country, coordinating and directing the flow of electricity to 65 million people in a time of unprecedented change.
And PJM is by no means the only region struggling.
There are more than 1,400 gigawatts of clean energy in grid connection waitlists nationwide, and 1,000 gigawatts of battery storage, or technology that collects energy for later use, according to the most recent Queued Up report.
That would be enough to take the United States to 90% clean electricity under current conditions, according to Nikit Abhyankar, a senior scientist at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley.
However, Abhyankar cautioned that only about 19% of projects that enter the grid-connection waitlists end up being built.
Before the waitlists surged, about 24% of projects got built, according to the 2020 edition of Queued Up.
PJM, historically a leader among grid operators, entered the current era in a strong position. But critics say that while some regions have taken bold steps to meet the challenge of clean energy, PJM has moved more cautiously.
California’s grid operator — or PJM equivalent — has pursued a blue-state strategy of proactively planning the expansion of the high-voltage grid. That’s helpful, experts say, because a right-sized grid allows new clean energy to connect more easily.
In the Texas grid region, a red-state, free-market approach has also drawn praise: new projects can connect to the grid fairly easily, but bear additional risk that their power production may be curtailed if the energy supply exceeds demand.
Both regions earned overall grades of B in the interconnection scorecard report, the highest grades awarded.
PJM, in contrast, stuck to a “sub-par” process for studying grid-connection requests for far too long, the report said. And when PJM did make reforms, the transition to an improved process froze opportunities for new projects to be considered.
The report also gave PJM a low grade for forward-looking grid planning, in which strategically located long-distance power lines are built and upgraded to meet the growing demand for electricity.
PJM got a D+ for proactive grid-planning in the interconnection scorecard report.
The report did note PJM is finalizing a new long-term planning process. However, the authors wrote, it’s not yet clear if the new process will lead to the kind of proactive expansion that would make it easier for new energy sources to come online.
The grid-connection slowdown has affected a wide swath of people, including landowners who plan to lease to developers and the growing number of companies — including data centers — that want to use clean energy.
States such as Illinois, which have set ambitious targets for wind and solar energy, are feeling the impact as well.
A 2023 Natural Resources Defense Council report found that the PJM grid-connection process isn’t currently getting new wind and solar farms online fast enough to put Illinois on pace to meet its clean electricity goals. And a recent planning report from the Illinois Power Agency said grid-connection delays — along with supply chain issues and the amount of time needed for construction — create a “significant challenge” for ambitious state clean-electricity targets.
Still, advocates and experts are heartened by increasing attention to grid-connection delays nationwide, including a 2023 order from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission requiring reforms to the grid-connection process.
Another federal order, addressing long-term planning of the high-voltage grid, is expected this year, and federal regulators are looking into other improvements.
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