Advanced Energy Perspectives

Currently, over two million megawatts of generator and storage projects are actively seeking to connect to the U.S. transmission grid. The process to connect these proposed projects to the grid so they can start generating electricity—called “generator interconnection”—is outdated, slow, unpredictable, and sorely in need of reform. The 2024 Advanced Energy United Generator Interconnection Scorecard is the first-ever attempt to evaluate each of the seven regional transmission system operators on their generator interconnection processes. 

Across the country, over 2,000 gigawatts of resources representing 10,000 projects are waiting for the green light to connect to the grid so they can commence construction and start operating—mostly clean resources like wind, solar, battery storage, and hybrid renewable-plus- storage projects. These projects are stuck in interconnection queues, undergoing an evaluation of reliability impacts and transmission system upgrades that must be made before they can start to deliver electricity to the grid.

This is a brief summary of the ins and outs of Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Order 2023, issued on July 27, 2023. For more, we encourage you to download our recently released FERC Order 2023 Toolkit or view our webinar recording, “FERC Interconnection Ruling: The First Domino in Transmission Reform,” which discussed how FERC Order 2023 will affect interconnection queues across the country, including the impact on energy customers, developers, and other stakeholders.

Across the country, more than 2 GW of projects—mostly solar, wind, storage, and hybrid projects—sit in interconnection queues waiting to connect to the transmission grid. The process governing these queues is overseen by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), and on July 27, 2023, the Commission took an important step toward un-jamming clogged queues when it unanimously voted to finalize Order No. 2023, a landmark rule directing interconnection reforms. While much work lies ahead to successfully implement the reforms approved by FERC, and to pursue further reform needs not addressed by Order No. 2023, the rule is likely to result in important incremental improvements to the badly broken interconnection process.