Policy & Regulation

FERC’s final ruling on transmission interconnection published in Federal Register

FERC’s final ruling on transmission interconnection published in Federal Register
(Federal Energy Regulatory Commission )

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) final ruling, Order No. 2023, on streamlining generator interconnection and alleviating clogged queues across the U.S. has been published in the Federal Register, following the Commission’s issuing of the ruling in July.

The publishing of the ruling has established the effective date of Order No. 2023 as November 6, 2023, and the deadline for transmission providers to submit compliance filings is December 5, 2023.

At the end of 2022, more than 2,000 GW of generation and storage were waiting in interconnection queues, according to FERC. The final rule requires all public utilities to adopt revised pro forma generator interconnection procedures and agreements to ensure that interconnection customers can interconnect to the transmission system in a reliable, efficient, transparent, and timely manner, and to prevent undue discrimination. 

FERC will require a “first-ready, first-served” cluster study process in which transmission providers conduct large interconnection studies encompassing numerous proposed generating facilities, rather than separate studies for each individual generating facility. To ensure that ready projects can proceed through the queue in a timely manner, interconnection customers will be subject to specific requirements, including financial deposits and site control conditions, to enter and remain in the interconnection queue.

The final rule also imposes firm deadlines and establishes penalties if transmission providers fail to complete interconnection studies on time, but transmission providers may appeal their penalties at FERC. Additionally, the rule establishes a detailed affected systems study process, including uniform modeling standards and pro forma affected system agreements. 

The final rule requires transmission providers to allow more than one generating facility to co-locate on a shared site behind a single point of interconnection and share a single interconnection request. This reform creates a more efficient standardized procedure for these types of generating facility configurations, FERC said. Interconnection customers will be able to add a generating facility to an existing interconnection request under certain circumstances without such a request being automatically deemed a material modification.

In a victory for energy storage developers, FERC is requiring transmission providers to use operating assumptions in interconnection studies that reflect the proposed charging behavior of electric storage resources.

Finally, the final rule requires transmission providers to evaluate alternative transmission technologies in their cluster studies and establishes modeling and performance standards for inverter-based resources.

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