U.S. DOE Releases 1st-Ever Roadmap to Accelerate Connecting More Clean Energy Projects to the Nation’s Electric Grid

Join daily news updates from CleanTechnica on electronic mail. Or follow us on Google News!

Report Particulars Suggestions to Streamline Interconnection with Close to- to Lengthy-Time period Options to Add Clear Vitality Sources to the Transmission Grid and Enhance Our Clear Vitality Financial system

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Division of Vitality (DOE) launched a new roadmap outlining options to hurry up the interconnection of fresh vitality onto the nation’s transmission grid and clear the present backlog of photo voltaic, wind, and battery initiatives searching for to be constructed. The Transmission Interconnection Roadmap, developed by DOE’s Interconnection Innovation e-Xchange (i2X), serves as a information for transmission suppliers, interconnection prospects, state companies, federal regulators, transmission house owners, load serving entities (LSEs), tools producers, client advocates, fairness and vitality justice communities, advocacy teams, consultants, and the analysis neighborhood, which incorporates DOE. The roadmap units aggressive success targets for interconnection enchancment by 2030 and descriptions instruments that can enhance the method for connecting extra clear vitality initiatives to a dependable grid, whereas serving to obtain the Biden-Harris Administration’s aim of 100% clear electrical energy by 2035.

“Clearing the backlog of nearly 12,000 solar, wind, and storage projects waiting to connect to the grid is essential to deploying clean electricity to more Americans,” stated U.S. Secretary of Vitality Jennifer M. Granholm. “Through the i2X program, the Biden-Harris Administration is accelerating the interconnection process by ensuring all stakeholders have better access to data and improved standards and procedures as we seek to develop and maintain a more efficient, reliable and clean grid.”

In keeping with a report recently released by DOE’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratorypractically 2,600 gigawatts of technology and storage capability are actively searching for grid interconnection, which represents an eight-fold improve since 2014. The excessive quantity of initiatives and insufficient current procedures for interconnection has led to uncertainties, delays, inequities, and added prices for builders, customers, utilities, and their regulators.

The i2X roadmap gives a broad vary of stakeholders comparable to transmission suppliers, state companies, federal regulators, tools producers, and different actors with a set of 35 options organized round growing information entry, transparency, and safety for interconnection; bettering interconnection course of and timeline; selling financial effectivity in interconnection; and sustaining a dependable, resilient, and safe grid. The roadmap consists of 4 goal metrics for interconnection reform together with shorter interconnection occasions, decrease interconnection value variance, elevated completion charges, and 0 disturbance occasions attributed to modeling.

Over the previous two years of creating the roadmap, DOE collected concepts and potential options by way of a collection of stakeholder workshops and digital conferences, together with a request for info revealed in October 2023 to solicit public suggestions and feedback on a draft model of the doc. The options within the remaining roadmap embrace:

• Enhancing the scope, accessibility, high quality, and standardization of knowledge on initiatives already in interconnection queues
• Creating new and higher use of current fast-track choices for interconnection, comparable to surplus interconnection service, technology alternative service, and energy-only interconnection service
• Adopting and implementing a harmonized and complete set of technology interconnection necessities or requirements
• Exploring and evaluating potential choices for delinking the interconnection course of and community improve investments to extend up-front interconnection value certainty.

DOE Help to Implement Options

DOE has a number of roles in implementing the options recognized within the roadmap, comparable to facilitating answer adoption, offering funding and technical help, and supporting the analysis neighborhood. DOE’s Grid Deployment Workplace invests in accelerating interconnection of fresh vitality technology by way of the $5 billion Grid Innovation Programwhich helps deployment of initiatives that use revolutionary approaches to boost grid resilience and reliability. DOE’s Photo voltaic Vitality Applied sciences Workplace and Wind Vitality Applied sciences Workplace lately launched a $10 million funding opportunity for analytical instruments and approaches to speed up interconnection and can be main a collection of forthcoming public boards geared toward implementation of interconnection requirements to take care of a dependable, resilient, and protected grid.

By way of the Title 17 Clean Energy Financing Programthe Mortgage Packages Workplace seeks to finance vitality infrastructure initiatives, together with transmission infrastructure investments to assist transmission interconnection, reconductoring transmission strains, and upgrading voltage. DOE additionally helps electrical automobile charging deployment by way of the Joint Workplace of Vitality and Transportation (Joint Workplace). The Joint Workplace is convening stakeholders to establish gaps that presently exist between transmission and transportation planning to speed up the event of transmission inside transportation rights-of-way.

Register for a webinar on Might 8 at 1 p.m. ET to study extra in regards to the targets and options within the roadmap.

About i2X

DOE launched i2X in June 2022 with funding from the President’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Regulation to allow easier, sooner, and fairer interconnection of fresh vitality assets whereas enhancing the reliability, resilience, and safety of the electrical grid. Because the launch, DOE has convened a whole lot of stakeholders together with utilities, grid operators, state and native governments, vitality justice teams, non-profits, business, and others for conferences that coated key points, together with queue administration, grid engineering practices, information transparency, fairness and vitality justice, workforce, value allocation, and electrical automobile charging.

DOE expects to launch a draft companion roadmap that focuses on the distribution grid within the coming months. DOE and the Joint Workplace lately introduced their intention to fund a $6.5 million program for distribution utilities to pilot revolutionary options for managing renewable vitality interconnection and electrical automobile charging tools service load request and energization queue.

Study extra about DOE’s Interconnection Innovation e-Xchange, Solar Energy Technologies Office, Wind Energy Technologies Office, Grid Deployment Officeand DOE’s work with the U.S. Division of Transportation although the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation.