Department of Energy Issues Request for Information on Transmission System Interconnection Roadmap

The Department of Energy has released a Request for Information (RFI) on its draft Transmission System Interconnection Roadmap, a comprehensive guide aimed at improving the transmission system interconnection process to facilitate the reliable, rapid, and equitable deployment of clean energy resources. The draft Roadmap identifies four overarching goals: increasing data access and transparency, improving interconnection process and timing, promoting economic efficiency, and maintaining a reliable grid. The RFI seeks feedback from stakeholders, including customers, state agencies, federal regulators, advocacy groups, consultants, and the research community, on the Roadmap's proposed solutions and recommendations.

Key Takeaways:

• The Department of Energy's draft Transmission System Interconnection Roadmap provides a series of recommendations aimed at improving the transmission system interconnection process, including increasing data access and transparency, improving interconnection process and timing, promoting economic efficiency, and maintaining a reliable grid.
• The Roadmap recommends greater and standardized visibility into existing projects in interconnection queues to allow market participants to make more educated development decisions.
• To improve interconnection processes and timing, the Roadmap suggests promoting interconnection study timelines, enforcing penalties, and requiring commercial readiness and financial commitments to participate in the interconnection queues.
• The Roadmap also proposes transitioning to market-based queue rationing, which could represent a paradigm shift in the interconnection process and require significant changes to wholesale markets and the industry.
• The Roadmap recommends leveraging federal financial support through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law's Transmission Facilitation Program and the Inflation Reduction Act's Transmission Facility Financing Loan Program to promote economic efficiency.
• The Roadmap identifies four overarching goals and proposes a series of near-, medium-, and short-term solutions to achieve these goals.

Statistics:

• The RFI is open until November 22, 2023, at 5 PM, and responses are sought from stakeholders, including customers, state agencies, federal regulators, advocacy groups, consultants, and the research community.
• The Roadmap identifies four overarching goals: increasing data access and transparency, improving interconnection process and timing, promoting economic efficiency, and maintaining a reliable grid.
• The RFI includes eight questions seeking feedback on the Roadmap, including barriers to executing the solutions and whether the Roadmap introduces "sufficient out-of-the-box ideas" that can "inspire fundamental changes" to the interconnection processes.
• The Roadmap proposes "delinking the interconnection process and network upgrade investments" as a long-term option, which could provide greater interconnection cost certainty upfront.

Sources:

• [Department of Energy, "Transmission System Interconnection Roadmap Request for Information," October 25, 2023]
• [Mondaq, "Department of Energy Issues Request for Information on Transmission System Interconnection Roadmap," October 26, 2023]