Last week I attended the GridTech Connect conference in Newport, RI. The two day conference was focused on the issue of DER interconnection. Perhaps not the sexiest topic but it is a major problem when it comes to meeting our renewable energy goals.
It was good to see a wide range of audience members including representatives from the federal government, state government, state public utility commissions, utilities, renewable energy developers, and technology partners like Edgeli.
Key takeaways for me:
1. Everyone is frustrated with the interconnection problems we are experiencing. The queues are large, utility staff are over-worked, and developers are experiencing delays.
2. Though utilities are incentivized to build more infrastructure, even they realize that building a grid 4x the current size to accommodate new renewable energy sources and EV charging infrastructure (the forecasted need) is not feasible. The regulators and customers will not tolerate many more increases in utility rates.
3. States and utilities need to start taking the issue very seriously and develop policies that will facilitate quicker interconnection times and consider hybrid solutions that combine flexible operating schedules for renewable energy projects (in the interim) with grid upgrades (long term).
4. The implementation of Distributed Energy Resource Management Systems (DERMS) is going slowly and still in pilot phases - it needs to go faster.
5. Interconnection decision making requires several parties yet utility functions are admittedly siloed. Developers and utilities need better tools to collaboratively assess proposed projects.
