Advanced Energy Perspectives

The United States electric grid is undergoing a transformation and significant changes need to occur for Americans to fully realize the benefits of these improvements. The key is the transmission system. As the federal agency charged with regulating interstate transmission of electricity, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is uniquely positioned to create new rules that better ensure Americans can achieve equitable, affordable access to energy, secure our grid’s future reliability, and accelerate the transition to clean generation and advanced grid technologies. 

On Monday, Advanced Energy United sent a letter to state energy offices in the West offering our perspective on a study commissioned by the Western Markets Exploratory Group (WMEG) that compares the benefits of several proposed Western day-ahead market scenarios. The study has been filed in multiple dockets in states across the West, but it offers an incomplete view of the benefits that can accrue to the West in a day-ahead market.

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. 

There is much discussion in the press about the high cost of rebuilding our transmission infrastructure to facilitate our clean energy future. There is much less discussion about the costs we are already paying associated with not moving quickly to rebuild our aging grid. Transmission is critical infrastructure, powering our 21st digital economy and keeping us all safe and protecting us when weather is extreme. Much of the U.S. transmission grid is long past its expected useful life.