Connecting to the Grid

Interconnection standards are the “rules of the road” for the electricity grid. They specify the processes, costs, and timelines associated with connecting renewable energy systems, energy storage, and other distributed energy resources to the grid. IREC works in states across the country and through national forums to make connecting to the grid more affordable, efficient, and cost effective.

Now more than ever, states with ambitious clean energy and climate goals will need smarter and more flexible electricity grids. Renewables, storage, electrification, and demand response all need to work work seamlessly together. Effective interconnection policy is essential to ensuring a cost-effective and energy efficient transition to a 100% clean energy future.

Interconnection: The Basics

State interconnection standards govern the process for connecting solar, battery storage, and other clean energy resources to the electric grid. Interconnection rules dictate how efficient and costly it is to install a grid-connected clean energy system. If the process is slow, expensive, and/or unpredictable, it can impede investment and prevent a more rapid shift to clean energy.

Clean energy goals set the vision for a state, but interconnection rules are a key part of whether that vision can be met, affecting both the pace and scale of what can be achieved. For more than a decade, IREC has helped over 35 states adopt or improve their interconnection rules through regulatory innovation and/or technical assistance.

The Challenge

There is more renewable energy on the electric grid than ever before. Many states are struggling to accommodate growing penetrations of renewable energy and distributed energy resources (DERs) on the grid. More and more states are launching interconnection proceedings to address these challenges, not only to handle current and anticipated growth of distributed energy, but also to facilitate more integrated interconnection and distribution system planning.

IREC fills a prominent need to assist both leading and lagging states as they work toward adopting the next generation of interconnection best practices.

Building a Technically Reliable Interconnection Evolution for Storage (BATRIES)

Energy storage is critical to the transition to a 100% clean energy future, but storage faces unique challenges in the interconnection process. IREC is leading a team of partners to simplify the interconnection process for standalone energy storage and solar-plus-storage projects.

The BATRIES project will address key barriers to storage interconnection and identify solutions to enable the rapid deployment of storage on the distribution grid.

IREC Interconnection Resources

IREC also publishes model statewide interconnection standards aligned with well-vetted best practices. These resources can provide greater consistency across utilities and help streamline the interconnection process for all involved stakeholders. Key resources include:

Model Interconnection Procedures 2019. These model procedures reflect the latest evolution in best practices to facilitate higher penetrations of distributed energy resources on the electric grid, integrating new technologies. The model procedures help inform and guide state utility regulators, energy industry professionals, utilities, policymakers, and other stakeholders as they develop and/or refine the rules for grid access.

An Overview of Distributed Energy Resource (DER) Interconnection: Current Practices and Emerging Solutions. From the Distributed Generation Interconnection Collaborative (DGIC), this report was commissioned based on the need—identified through DGIC—for a central document summarizing considerations, practices, and emerging solutions across a broad set of topics related to DER interconnection.

Priority Considerations for Interconnection Standards: A Quick Reference Guide for Policymakers. This 2017 quick reference guide serves as a supplement to IREC’s Model Interconnection Procedures, with key considerations for states working to improve/update interconnection procedures. Each section offers a description of the key components to interconnection based on established and well-vetted national best practices.

Interconnection: The Series

Drawing from our on-the-ground experience in more than 20 states, IREC attorneys from Shute, Mihaly & Weinberger discussed key emerging issues and incisive areas of focus for decision-makers in this nine-part series on interconnection reform, originally published in Greentech Media from 2016-2018. The series covers a number of key interconnection topics, including queue management, timelines, data access, cost certainty, cost allocation, distribution planning, energy storage, and dispute resolution.

1. Interconnection: Distributed Energy Policy Dream
2. Interconnection Queues for Solar
3. Enforcing Interconnection Timelines
4. Interconnection and Grid Data Access
5. Interconnection Cost Certainty and Predictability
6. Allocating DER Interconnection Costs
7. Prevent Interconnection Deadlock
8. The Interconnection of Energy Storage
9. Interconnection Dispute Resolution