Current Status
The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia will review Order No. 2023. Parties are currently preparing briefs. Advanced Energy United, et al. v. FERC, Case No. 23-01282 (D.C. Cir.).
Quick Take
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued Order No. 2023, “Improvements to Generator Interconnection Procedures and Agreements,” on July 28, 2023. The rule revises standard procedures used by utilities and Regional Transmission Organizations (RTO) for connecting generation projects to the transmission system. FERC’s goals were to reduce delays and uncertainty regarding the cost and timing to interconnect to the transmission system. The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia will review Order No. 2023.
Why it Matters
The interconnection process is one of the primary bottlenecks to meeting electricity demand and advancing decarbonization goals. Before it can provide power, a new generator must apply to the local utility or RTO for permission to interconnect to the transmission system. The utility or RTO analyzes the potential project to ensure the transmission network has sufficient capacity to deliver the additional power. If the analysis shows the network is inadequate, the utility or RTO will require the generator to pay for upgrades before it can interconnect. Because so many power plants are applying to interconnect, power plant developers spend, on average, about two years in the study process. In addition, because the cost of network upgrades has increased, many generators are withdrawing from the interconnection process. This interconnection bottleneck threatens decarbonization goals because 95 percent of new electric capacity in these queues are for zero-carbon resources.
In Order No. 2023, FERC attempted to ameliorate some of the inefficiencies of the interconnection process. Among the reforms, FERC ordered utilities and RTOs to group interconnection requests in geographic clusters and study them together, rather than analyzing each separately in serial fashion. This reform might speed up the process for each generator and would spread the costs of network upgrades among all generators in the cluster. Other reforms aim to limit the interconnection queue to viable projects, motivate utilities and RTOs to meet study deadlines, and incorporate new transmission technologies in the study process.
Timeline
July 28, 2023 The Commission issued “Improvements to Generator Interconnection Final Rule.” 88 FR 61014.
October 25, 2023 After numerous parties requested judicial review of Order No. 2023 in various U.S. circuit courts, the District of Columbia Circuit was randomly selected to review the petitions. Advanced Energy United, et al. v. FERC, Case No. 23-01282 (D.C. Cir.).
March 21, 2024 FERC issued its Order on Rehearing and Clarification that responded to requests by numerous utilities, RTOs, clean energy developers, and others to reconsider aspects of the final rule. Order No. 2023-A, 78 FR 27006.
May 16, 2024 Transmission providers were required to make their compliance filings.