News

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, national business association Advanced Energy United applauded President Biden’s nomination of three new Commissioners to fill vacant and soon-to-be vacant seats at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).  

“A full complement of Commissioners is critical to ensure robust debate and efficient progress on the important issues that FERC will be asked to weigh in on in the coming months and years, from interconnection reform to transmission planning to market rule changes in light of the energy transition,” said Caitlin Marquis, Managing Director at Advanced Energy United. “We encourage the Senate to move forward quickly with the appointment process and look forward to working with a fully staffed Commission under the leadership of Chair Willie Phillips.”

 Background resources:  

• Blog: Building for the Future Through Improved Transmission Planning & Cost Allocation (December 2023) 
• Blog: Unpacking FERC Order No. 2023’s Implications for Interconnection Reform (September 2023) 

Click here to learn more about Advanced Energy United’s work expanding wholesale markets for advanced energy, and engaging with FERC.

PJM Interconnection, the nation’s largest electrical power grid operator, is struggling to connect new electricity projects to its system, threatening power reliability and clean-energy goals, according to a study.

Advanced Energy United has released a scorecard that ranks the seven domestic ISO/RTOs on their generator interconnection processes, finding room for improvement in every one. 

Brattle Group and Grid Strategies prepared the Generator Interconnection Scorecard for United, as they did for a similar project on transmission planning last year. (See Transmission Report Card Grades MISO “B,” Southeast “F”.) 

The scorecard, released Feb. 26, comes after FERC issued Order 2023 and is meant to help track how those and other reforms are implemented, Grid Strategies President and report co-author Rob Gramlich said in an interview. (See FERC Updates Interconnection Queue Process with Order 2023.) 

“We’re hopeful that those reforms happen and further reforms get done,” Gramlich said. “And we’re hopeful that in a year or two, if and when we do this again, all of the grades will improve. But the idea was just to kind of take a snapshot at this time.” 

The flawed interconnection processes have more than 2 million MW of renewable power and storage waiting to connect to the grid, said Advanced Energy United Managing Director Caitlin Marquis. 

“This scorecard confirms what we know about the interconnection process, that grid managers have moved too slowly to adapt to changing market conditions, allowing the process of connecting new electricity to the transmission grid to become dysfunctional,” Marquis said. “Without urgent improvement, the U.S. grid may struggle to keep up with growing energy demands, threatening our ability to keep the lights on and reach our climate goals. Strong implementation of FERC’s recent reforms will be an important first step toward improving the interconnection process, and it’s also clear that additional reforms will be needed.”  

None of the ISO/RTOs managed to get an A, but both CAISO and ERCOT got Bs, with Gramlich saying one reason they did better was that they’ve proactively planned their transmission systems to add new resources. 

“That has been a little bit less of a case recently in ERCOT,” Gramlich said. “And so ERCOT used to be great from a developer perspective, but they got marked down a little bit because of a lack of transmission. Because you can connect, but there’s a lot of congestion once you connect. California has always done proactive transmission planning pretty consistently … so the grid has been prepared in advance to accommodate more generation.” 

Both also scored highly on giving developers a sense of certainty, with ERCOT assigning limited costs to interconnection customers and CAISO being credited with good transparency. 

No other market scored above a C- on United's scorecard, which highlights the need for changes to meet rising demand from new large loads, electrification, and state policies and customer demand driving more renewables onto the grid. 

“Currently, most of the regions are undergoing significant efforts to reform their interconnection practices and policies in response to stakeholder concerns and FERC Order No. 2023,” the report said. “The scorecard is not an assessment of those ongoing or recently adopted reforms that have not yet impacted the generator interconnection processes.”  

The growth of wind, utility-scale solar and storage has resulted in interconnection projects popping up everywhere, Gramlich said.

The scorecard measures six categories, the first of which is interconnection process and results, which measures an interconnection’s success rate, cost reasonableness and uncertainty. It also grades prequeue information, queue design, assumptions and criteria, availability of interconnection alternatives, and whether transmission planning takes future generation needs into account. 

That final category is the only one where the graders looked at rules now in place, which have not impacted the queues yet.  

Read the full article here. 

This first-ever comparative evaluation of generator interconnection shows electricity system operators are struggling to connect generating resources to the U.S. grid, threatening power reliability and clean energy goals

WASHINGTON, DC – A new, first-of-its-kind scorecard from national business association Advanced Energy United evaluates and grades the seven U.S. regional transmission organizations on their generator interconnection processes. The scorecard, authored by Grid Strategies and The Brattle Group, shows that interconnection is not going smoothly in any region of the country, with some regions facing serious deficiencies.

Without warning, ACC staff proposed a new charge only for solar customers. 

PHOENIX, AZ—The national business association Advanced Energy United is urging the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) to vote against the new solar surcharge proposed in the Recommended Opinion and Order (ROO) in Arizona Public Service (APS)’s rate case.

The surcharge imposes a fee that exclusively and unfairly targets solar customers. This fee would increase solar ratepayers’ monthly bills 15%, adding $3-4 more per month compared to non-solar customers.

SANTA FE, NM— As New Mexico’s 2024 legislative session closed yesterday, the advanced energy industry made strides despite a busy session with competing priorities.

With bills advancing clean transportation, enabling building electrification, incentivizing clean energy solutions, and enhancing electric vehicle infrastructure, the session resulted in the passage of key legislation affirming New Mexico’s dedication to achieving a clean energy economy.

Arizona Corporation Commission voted 4-1 to begin the process of repealing the state’s energy efficiency and renewable standards.

PHOENIX, AZ. – The Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC), in a majority 4-1 vote, voted to begin dismantling the Renewable Energy Standard & Tariff (REST) and the Energy Efficiency (EE) Standards, which have been in place since 2006 and 2010. Reversing these rules would curtail job creation, negatively impact grid resilience, and create regulatory uncertainty for businesses looking to invest in the state. Additionally, reversing long-standing policy signals to businesses that Arizona doesn’t want their jobs and investments, negatively impacting the state’s economy.