Democratic bill mandates FERC interconnection reforms to bring new resources online faster

• The bill would help bring new power supply online to address surging demand growth and increasing grid reliability concerns, according to Devin Hartman, director of energy and environmental policy at the R Street Institute, which supports the legislation. “This issue is really important for any type of power plant development in our future — whether that’s the distributed energy revolution or the nuclear renaissance — interconnection needs to get better because we have got to get more steel in the ground and online,” he said.

Generator interconnection is the biggest barrier to new power plant development in the country in many regions, even more than permitting hurdles, according to Hartman…

This provision would open a pathway for generators to connect to the grid as “energy-only” resources, according to Hartman. Those resources would face potential curtailment and would not be considered “capacity,” but wouldn’t have to pay for network upgrades, he said.

FERC would also have to require transmission providers to share and adopt queue management best practices, such as using advanced computing technologies, automation and standardized study criteria to speed interconnection review process.

In addition, FERC would have to order transmission providers to adopt transparency and performance-enhancing measures to ensure that needed network upgrades are built on time and as cost-effectively as possible once an interconnection agreement has been signed.

The legislation is supported by 20 organizations, including the Electricity Consumers Resource Council, Electricity Customer Alliance and Industrial Energy Consumers of America.

The bill will likely gain Republican co-sponsors, according to Hartman. “Permitting and generator interconnection are among the biggest concerns to keeping a grid reliable over the next decade, and reliability and cost considerations are the top two Republican energy priorities,” he said.

The legislation could become part of a broader permitting reform package, and at the least carry over into the next Congressional session, according to Hartman. It could also send a signal to FERC that additional interconnection reforms are needed, he said.